Sony UI - Change to Samsung UI ?

offal spokesman on 18/05/2015 - 13:28

Hey,

I have just bought a Sony xperia for someone who isnt completely comfortable with smartphones. They have had a Samsung for a couple of years (as have i) and were relatively comfortable with using it.

The Sony has a different UI (amazing that i didnt know that, but what the hell ive always had Samsung and assumed it was a standard android UI)

The question is, is there any way to make the Xperia (its only the E1 variant) look and operate like the Samsung? that way i can remotely guide through issues by working through them on my phone and directing.

Cheers

Mobile

Comments

  • battler on 18/05/2015 - 13:51
    +1

    You can get Touchwiz themes for Apex: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photox.tou…

    but will probably also depend on what version of android they were using (once you get into settings, etc).

    • offal spokesman on 18/05/2015 - 14:18

      Great thanks, so does this also change the all the menus etc?

      • scrimshaw on 18/05/2015 - 14:33
        +3

        No, that's an icon pack, with touchwhiz icons and backgrounds. It will not change the appearance of menus.

        You typically can't change the appearance of the Settings menu, the groupings of the available options, or other under the hood things like the color, style or appearance of the status / notifications bar, the appearances of dialog boxes and so on — that is determined by the ROM that is being used. Unless you reflash a different ROM (root required) or use some kind of Xposed module (also requires root), there is no 'easy method' of completely copying the appearance of a Samsung Touchwhiz ROM.

        You can however imitate the likeness of the Touchwhiz UI by using customised widgets, icon packs, backgrounds and a 3rd party launcher that allows theme packs to be installed (for example Apex, GO Launcher or Nova Launcher).
        ROM Toolbox may allow you to change boot animations and even the status icons such as battery bar and signal bar. Root also required.

        I also recommend 'Power Toggles', it is a skinnable widget that puts power options onto the notifications drawer and also the home screen. With a bit of tweaking you can make it look pretty similar to Touchwhiz. Root not required.

        I should also say: the Xperia E1 is a device with limited RAM and CPU. It only has 512MB of RAM!
        Don't go overboard with UI customisations or widgets, otherwise it'll lag a bit.

    • dazweeja on 18/05/2015 - 14:38

      I don't think it would be the launcher theme that's the issue. It's the menu items - especially the Settings menu - where Samsung groups items together in unique ways. There's no way to change this as far as I know. On the other hand, I believe the Sony UI is much closer to stock Android, so the support for Nexus devices should translate across in many cases:

      https://support.google.com/nexus/#topic=3415468

  • MATTS on 18/05/2015 - 13:53

    How to make your non-Sony smartphone look like an Xperia

    http://www.phonearena.com/news/How-to-make-your-non-Sony-sma…

  • [Deactivated] on 18/05/2015 - 16:30

    Short answer, you can't… due to the limited ROMs that E1 has, you can only make it "similar" by using different launchers, but that won't change the menus etc. To be honest though Android is Android and it really isn't that different despite the different UIs out there, as long as the user can read I don't see it being much of a problem to use.

    • offal spokesman on 18/05/2015 - 16:56

      Thanks.

      True, i guess its just about ease for me to help remotely so i can know what screen they can see as im doing it.

  • Gwen Watson on 19/05/2015 - 09:58

    Free TeamViewer QS is avail for Samsung which allows remote control. Not sure if avail for Sony.

    It's a 2 stage process. Install TV QS which which is avail for "all" Android devs which allows you to see stats and screen dumps genned by remote user.

    If remote control module is avail for that device it will be offered by TV QS as free add-on.

    You can then operate dev remotely.

  • Gwen Watson on 19/05/2015 - 10:04

    Note TV QS is for remote control of Android devices from Android devs.

    TV can be installed on Android and iOS devs plus Windows and Linux that allows remote control of last 2 OSs from all 4 OSs.

  • Charity on 20/05/2015 - 05:56

    It's probably Lollipop (the new update) making it look different.

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