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How to customize your Home screen and System Navigation

If no apps are open, your Home screen is the first thing you see when you unlock your Fairphone. You can customize your Home screen with your favorite apps, widgets and folders.

ⓘ Some of these steps only work if your Fairphone has Android 13 or above. Find out How to check and update your software version.

In this article:

 

How to add apps, widgets and folders to your Home screen

Add an app to your Home screen

  1. On your Fairphone, swipe up from the Home screen to see All Apps.
  2. Touch and hold the app you want to add, then drag it to show your Home screen.
  3. Drag the app to where you want it, then lift your finger to add the app to your Home screen.

 

Add a widget to your Home screen

  1. On your Fairphone, touch and hold an empty space on your Home screen, then tap Widgets.
  2. Touch and hold the widget you want to add, then drag the widget to where you want it.
  3. Lift your finger to add the widget to your Home screen.
Pro Tip: To resize a widget, touch and hold the widget once it's been added to your Home screen.. 

 

Add a folder to your Home screen

  1. On your Fairphone, touch and hold the app you want to add to a folder.
  2. Drag the app on top of another app, then lift your finger to create a folder.
Pro Tip: To add more apps to a folder, drag the app on top of the folder. 

 

How to remove apps, widgets and folders from your Home screen

To remove apps, widgets and folder from your Home screen, follow these steps:

  1. On your Fairphone, touch and hold the app, widget or folder you want to remove.
  2. Drag the app, widget or folder up to Remove.
Pro Tip: You can still find apps you remove from the Home screen by swiping up from the Home screen to see All Apps.

 

How to rearrange your Home screen

To move apps, widgets or folders on your Home screen, follow these steps:

  1. On your Fairphone, touch and hold the app, widget or folder you want to move.
  2. Drag the app, widget or folder to where you want it, then lift your finger.
Pro Tip: You can create more than one Home screen by dragging apps, widgets and folders to the right until you see a new Home screen.

 

How to change the search widget

When you first set up your Fairphone, you'll be asked to choose a search provider from the Android Choice Screen. This will set the default search provider for the search widget at the top of your Home screen. 

If your Fairphone is already set up, you'll need to perform a factory reset to change the default search provider.

If you have a Fairphone 4 or later, you can remove the search widget from the Home screen:

  • Fairphone (Gen. 6): Touch and hold the search widget, then drag up to Remove.
  • Fairphone 4 or 5:
    1. Go to Settings → Display.
    2. Tap Search bar to toggle on or off.
    3. Restart your Fairphone.

For legacy models (Fairphone 3+ and earlier), it's not possible to remove the search widget from the Home screen.

 

How to change system navigation (Gestures vs. Buttons)

You can customize how you move through your Fairphone's menus. You can choose modern Gesture navigation for more screen space or the classic 3-button navigation for a traditional experience.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Navigate to System → Gestures.
  3. Tap on Navigation mode.
  4. Select your preferred method:
    • Gesture navigation: Swipe up to go home, swipe from the edge to go back, and swipe up and hold to see recent apps.
    • 3-button navigation: Uses the traditional Home, Back, and Recent Apps buttons at the bottom of your screen.
Pro Tip: If you find Gesture navigation difficult to trigger with a phone case, tap the Settings gear icon next to "Gesture navigation" to adjust the Back sensitivity.

 

 

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