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iOS developer makes our iOS Apple Watch home screen concept a reality

Last week, I posted a concept of what the iPhone’s home screen could look like if influenced by the Apple Watch’s design ideas. Inspired by that concept, iOS developer Lucas Menge has made the concept a reality (above), creating a functional app that simulates the Apple Watch UI adapted for the iPhone. Very neat.

Now available on Github.

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Comments

  1. James Pickering - 9 years ago

    can u make this a jailbreak tweak

  2. Joel Henson - 9 years ago

    That actually looks worse than what I imagined after the first article on this.

  3. Lee Scott - 9 years ago

    this is amazing

    • bobyey - 9 years ago

      I think the most amazing thing about this is “the last couple of days on my spare time……I created this”. Like its no freaking big deal. Dude kudos. Nice job. That is amazing work of coding.

      • ifunography - 9 years ago

        Yeah, that’s the exact same thing that shocked the hell out of me : “the last couple of days in my spare time…”. Based on that alone I think this is awesome and kudos to him.

  4. Michael Perry (@Alticus) - 9 years ago

    So yeah kudos to the developer of this, it looks cool for sure. HOWEVER I don’t think ‘modern’ is a synonym for cluttered. A modern desktop doesn’t seem as the same thing as a random smattering of icons all over the screen… we already have that now except the icons are squared instead of circles. Sure the animations are nicer on this mockup but the crux of the issue is still the same. iOS forces us to have icons all over our screen no matter what. Clutter for clutter sake. Sure there are folders but those folders still reside on your homscreen full of apps no matter how often you use them or not. I hate to say this but a modern home screen would be much like what Android has always been; a screen where you only put the most important items (be it files, folders, or applications) and can order them at however you personally would like. meanwhile the rest of your apps are in your ‘launchpad’ (just like OS X currently) and you can get them when you need to but don’t have to see them all the bloody time when you don’t need to.

    • Majid_UoG (@Majid_UoG) - 9 years ago

      You can always leave your first home screen empty or put all the icons in a folder called “Launch Pad”.

      The concept behind the iPhone is that it is an object that should be in use when it is not in standby. If you want to day dream, lock the phone and reopen it when you are back to reality.

      I respect you “minimalist” and “clean” idea. I like it too, but I rather a thing behaves in a manner befitting its intended purpose and not try too look like something else. (desktop or android).

      • jedimindtrick99 - 9 years ago

        You my friend answered it perfectly
        I don’t understand how they say the home screens too cluttered on iOS , you control how cluttered it is!! U have multiple pages and folders to put apps in so use them. Society just wants to bitch about everything under the sun.

    • Mike Knopp (@mknopp) - 9 years ago

      I agree that my first thought was, “Wow, that is so cluttered how would you ever find anything.”

      I do wonder about your comment on the home screen. I have never understood the fascination with home screens. I am hardly ever on my home screen. When I am using my phone, I am *using* my phone. Which means that I am in some app or looking at some notification. To me the “home screen” is the lock screen. And that is pretty clean and uncluttered.

      Interestingly, my phone just dinged as I was typing this. So, I reached over and hit the home button once. The phone turns on the screen and shows the the time, date, and the fact that my wife just added an appointment to our shared calender. Clean and uncluttered.

      If I unlock my phone it is pretty much to immediately open an app and do something. So, other than for ease of finding and launching an app I could care less about the home screen. It isn’t like I unlock my phone to just gaze at my home screen.

      That being said, one of the features that I love about Android’s “pages” is its ability to wrap around. In other words, if I have four screens of apps, it is a bit cumbersome to have to swipe right three times to get back to the first instead of just swiping one more time to the left and having it wrap around to the first page again. I think that this is likely a carry over from when swiping right from the first screen took you to something else.

      • anall44 - 9 years ago

        Why don’t you just press the home button and let it zap you to the beginning. And if you have lots of pages you can get good and stop it in a specific page mid zap

  5. pnhawaii - 9 years ago

    Nice!

  6. charismatron - 9 years ago

    It’s certainly a fun novelty. Nice work (and thanks for sharing)!

  7. Taste_of_Apple - 9 years ago

    Interesting concept.

  8. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    Cool that he did it, but if it became a reality i’d switch to Android or Windows or Blackberry.

    • jedimindtrick99 - 9 years ago

      I see it be more of an option, Apple knows a lot of people can’t accept change. Ever since iOS 6 a lot of new features get an on off switch.

  9. Oflife - 9 years ago

    This is totally awesome! Love the effect when the icons are dragged and appear to move in 3D.

  10. superscubasteve - 9 years ago

    I agree its very cute, but both the current implementation, and this “Apple Watch” style is very disorganized. I wish a better way for the user to organize and arrange the icons in an easier to read way. I so miss the old drag and drop for grouping items, and the current folders scheme has not matured to satisfy a UI ~ 100 icons.

  11. Mike Manzano - 9 years ago

    Not sure why this is better than pages of icons. Seems like it’d be harder to find things.

  12. matthewr1990 - 9 years ago

    The main complaint I see is that it is disorganised right? Well so are pages and pages of apps on the standard home screen until you order them yourself. Just saying. Common sense would dictate you organise the apps you use the most in the centre spanning out to the apps you barely use on the outer edges.

    • jedimindtrick99 - 9 years ago

      Finally someone with some sense
      Personally I have 5 app spaces used on my iPhone 6 main home screen and apps on categorized pages then on each page may have a categorized folder for that page

      Most people don’t have patience and common sense

  13. Avenged110 - 9 years ago

    Lol that would be so much more cumbersome than just swiping a page of apps that don’t look all disjoint. Neat project though, fun for the demo.

  14. Majid_UoG (@Majid_UoG) - 9 years ago

    Excellent work, You have managed to keep the possible future of iOS very interesting. I could imagine if we had three options for the home screen, the conventional Squarish grid, this Planetary concept and a simple list view (just like in home screen search)

  15. jedimindtrick99 - 9 years ago

    ::applause:: love it

  16. spiralynth - 9 years ago

    Looks good. Kudos to the dev and Michael for the concept. I was slightly surprised at its harsh reception last week, but hey, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion.

    I think this should be all about options. If someone can make this concept functional—seemingly overnight—then certainly Apple could not only make it more robust (perhaps in ways that address concerns about disorganization/clutter, etc.), but also simply have it available as a selectable option, wherein a user could choose to use this concept, the current layout, or some other configuration, not unlike selectable skins. I can’t imagine that would be impossible to do.

  17. PMZanetti - 9 years ago

    I gotta say….I REALLY like it. I think after a week I’d probably want to go back to the regular iOS home screen…but damn it would be a cool optional home screen.

  18. anall44 - 9 years ago

    Add folders and arrange them around your 6-10 most used apps. You would be two clicks away from every app you could possibly have. I love it. This demo isn’t quite as smooth as apple but that’s obvious. Delete all those doubles and it will look way more manageable. There are like 300 apps there

  19. rob nienburg (@robogobo) - 9 years ago

    The most interesting part of this concept is the less grid-like layout may make it easier for some people to find the icon they’re searching for. For me a grid makes things harder to find due to a mild reading disability I have (while reading my eye doesn’t go from the end of one line to the beginning of the other so I get lost and sort of absorb a whole paragraph with a smattering of words). I wonder how many people would benefit from this.

  20. kjl3000 - 9 years ago

    Very good Job, Lucas! But I think you’d need a map for this concept with too many apps installed … : )

  21. gauravdx - 9 years ago

    How can I get it on my iphone ? Please help.:)

  22. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    If you really want to have fun, look up Torus Games in the App store, use that as a basis for icon movement. Try Klein Bottle topology to really mess with people’s heads. :-)

  23. anon - 9 years ago

    As of now this tweak is just a demo with zero functionality but it’s amazing how smooth it is and how great it would be if this demo could become a fully functioning UI replacement.

  24. Justinn Rey - 9 years ago

    Can i get this on Android or ANYONE can SHARE a APK

Author

Avatar for Michael Steeber Michael Steeber

Michael is a Creative Editor who covered Apple Retail and design on 9to5Mac. His stories highlighted the work of talented artists, designers, and customers through a unique lens of architecture, creativity, and community.

Contact Michael on Twitter to share Apple Retail, design, and history stories: @MichaelSteeber