Pretty much all of the HTC 10 leaks that we’ve seen up to this point have been focused on the Android flagship’s hardware, but today we’re switching things up with a software leak.
HTC leaker LlabTooFer has posted several screenshots of HTC Sense 8.0, the company’s next bit custom UI update. The images show that Sense 8.0 includes a feature called “Freestyle Layouts” that let you place apps, widgets, and stickers wherever you want on your home screen, meaning that you won't have to stick to the grid that apps are usually placed in on a home screen. Stickers, by the way, function like app icons, opening an app of your choosing when you tap on them.
New feature of Sense 8.0 called Freestyle layouts. pic.twitter.com/VJ5Ueu3Acu
— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) April 8, 2016
— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) April 8, 2016
Freestyle Layout appears to be a way to let you create fun home screens with app icons that blend into your wallpaper. In the screens shown in today’s leak, there shortcuts for Chrome, Phone, and Messages are stickers of a hot air balloon, a martini glass, and a tree that all appear as part of the wallpaper, as does the weather widget.
Android does offer ways to customize your home screen and app icons with things like launchers and icon packs, but HTC’s Freestyle Layouts appears to be meant to help non-power users customize their home screens and make them a bit more fun. Power users that immediately load up a custom launcher and icon pack when they get a new phone may not find Freestyle Layouts terribly interested, but folks that don’t know what a custom launcher is might might HTC’s new feature fun.
Do you customize your Android home screens with a custom launcher and app icons?
