Yahoo Aviate launcher for Google Android homescreen is good alternative launcher to the default launcher which came with your smartphone or tablet. Aviate runs pretty fast for a full visual based launcher when I use it on my 2012 Asus Nexus 7 tablet with a 1.3 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage. I don’t experience much slow down, or freezing problems.
The main home launcher in Aviate lets you put apps in the Dock to quickly access them from the Dock at the bottom of the home launcher. There is also a search engine widget to use to search Yahoo search from Aviate home screen. On the right of the home launcher, it shows you a collection of Apps in different categories like Games, Utilities, Social, etc which you picked to show up after you installed Aviate, and you can add later on when you use the Collections homescreen in Aviate.
It is possible to make your own custom Collections folders by Tapping on the “+Add Collections” button, and tapping on the Create Your Own button to give your collection a name. After you are done naming your custom Collection Folders, you can drag and drop any app shortcut from the All Apps section on the very right, you want to your new Collections folders.
You can add more apps to your app collection folders by dragging and dropping apps from the All Apps section at the very right of the launcher to your collections. The All Apps section is sorted in Alphabetical order, and you can search for Apps in All Apps from the search engine at the top of the All Apps section. When you click on the question mark in the collections folders in Aviate, and other places in Aviate, Yahoo recommends you new apps related to the category name for the collections.
It is very easy to change the wallpaper for Aviate. All I have to do is hold down my finger on an empty space on the Aviate homescreen, and click on Wallpaper when the Wallpaper icon appears. Aviate lets me use my own Wallpapers, Wallpaper Apps, Live Wallpaper, and it also suggest high-resolution and high quality wallpaper from different categories like Games, Automotive, Abstract, Landscapes, etc which Aviate downloads from the internet.
If you have Google Android Icon packs installed on Google Android, you can change your shortcut icons to a different Icon pack to change the look of Shortcut icons being displayed in Aviate. All you have to do is go to the Aviate settings, and click on the Icon Pack button, and pick the icon pack you want to use. You can download more icon packs from Google Play App store for free, and buy premium paid icon packs as well.
It is possible to re-arrange the App shortcut locations in your App Dock on the homescreen, and App Collection folders. In the homescreen, and other screens in Aviate, it is also possible to add homescreen widgets to add more features to Aviate.
Aviate also lets you uninstall Apps from Google Android by dragging, and dropping the App Shortcut to the Uninstall heading which Appears when I long press on an App in the All Apps section of Aviate.
Aviate has a lot of useful features like an information-based homescreen on the left of the launcher which shows you the weather, your agenda, top news stories, directions to get to work, or home, Public Transit information, nearby restaurants, and places, and other information.
If you want to read news articles from Aviate, you need to download the Yahoo News Digest App from Google Play. Yahoo News Digest is a News App which sends you popular news articles to read on its App which displays articles like a News magazine.
The Yahoo Weather App from Google Play is also needed to view the full weekly weather report for your town
You can change the left homescreen by sliding your finger from left to right on Aviate launcher until you reach the Spaces homescreen which has different modes like settings, Today, Moving, Listening for controlling your music player like Rocket Player, Work/Home, and Nearby which shows you what restaurants, and attractions are Nearby. The Spaces homescreen also has a Share button to share your Homescreen screenshot on the web on social networks, and with other mobile users via Android Beam, and Bluetooth.
In the Settings for Aviate, you can turn on Power Save mode which turns off Wi-Fi and other battery draining features on Google Android. Settings shows you how much battery power is left on your device.
You can also access installed Utilities like the Google Android settings, Clean Master, etc on the Settings Launcher.
There is a Light, Dark, and Transparent launcher theme which you can access in the settings page for Aviate.
In the settings, you can also change your home, and work location with Google Maps.
Show Previous Homescreen is also in the Settings for Aviate which let you switch back to the default launcher, or another launcher which is installed on your Google Android device.
Yahoo Aviate homescreen launcher is a smart, convenient, and useful launcher for Google Android smartphones, and tablets. It is also lightweight, and runs fast even on slower and older smartphones and tablets.
Download Yahoo Aviate at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tul.aviate
It is only 5.6MB in size to download, and Aviate works with Google Android 2.3.3, and up.