Transform your Android Smartphone into a Windows Phone 8 Look-a-like
Every since the released of Windows Phone 8, I’ve wanted to find something that would closely mimic it on Android. After trying numerous launchers, themes, widgets and icon packs I’ve finally found one that is close enough!
The Launcher is called Launcher 8, respectively. Link here, Developer Website here.
Link to Higher res images here
Features of Launcher 8:
- Add different size tiles;
- Change each tiles Color.
- Save and restore the theme.
- Edit the start screen layout;
- Set the current background style;
- Switch the application list style
- Even add Android widgets in the tiles;
- You can also set the Windows Phone 8 style lock screen and status bar;
- Hundreds of Colors to choose from.
- You can add special features tiles,like time ,pictures and contact photo.
On top of Launcher 8, to make it really feel like a Windows 8 phone I’ve added on
- WP7 Dialer
- WP7contact
- Messaging Metro Beta
- UberMusic
Lets break this down, Screenshot by Screenshot. In Hindsight, I should have tried to match every android screen closely to the windows 8 mobile screens I referenced.
Lockscreen:
- The lockscreen offers identical customizations even down to the way alerts pop up on the lockscreen. As well as gives you 4 different formats on how you want it to look like. For this I ended up choosing a more familiar message icon, and android based fonts.
- Notice that the Status bar uses familiar icons.
Settings Screen:
- Launcher 8 Mimicked very closely to the way the settings screen works, even down to horizontal scrolling.
- As you can tell Launcher 8 made each word capitalized however. This wouldn’t be to difficult to adjust in the .apk (I believe)
Home Screen: (Unfortunately I couldn’t find a windows 8 phone homescreen as long as my android one via google image search)
Android:
Windows 8 Phone.
- (Disclaimer: Blocked out my contact names/faces for security reasons)
- Launcher 8 lets you adjust tile padding to make it more closely to Windows 8 Phone. For this demonstration I made mine have only 10px on each side. I believe Windows 8 Phone is using a slightly higher padding.
- Launcher 8 also includes icon packs that Windows 8 Phone uses for similar icons.
- Not seen, but I will also mention that when you click on a Tile, it will do the same opening animation that is seen in Windows 8 Phone.
Search/Apps Directory: (Unfortunately I could not find accompanying screens for Windows 8 Phone)
- Launcher 8 lets you view all your Apps with lettering, or without.
- As well as providing a similar search system seen in Windows 8 Phone.
Folders: (Unfortunately I could not find accompanying screens for Windows 8 Phone)
- Launcher 8 Mimics fairly well the folder system/list used in Windows 8 Phone.
- Also would like to mention that each App(tile) Is editable with color,size, as well as icon.
Contacts:
Music:
Messaging:
Things not shown:
- Just like Windows 8 Phone, Launcher 8 has identical Status Bars. After a short period(designated by you) The Status Bar will minimize a bit, hiding all icons but battery. With a simple swipe down it will show all your other icons
- On the Homescreen you can rearange, unpin, resize each tile to your liking.
- Expand all tile icons to fit the tile, and or swap them out with different icons.
- Opening an App animation is identical to the one you will find on Windows 8 phone.
Overall, I find Launcher 8 to be a great example of what can be done with Android and I’m looking forward to see what else this launcher will have in the future.
FYI this is my daily driver now. Make sure to disable your other launchers or you will have a massive battery drain.
