Home Screen
The home screen is the starting page of a smartphone or tablet: the area with the app icons you see after unlocking the device. Because almost every use begins there, this space is fiercely contested economically among tech companies.
When you unlock your smartphone, you see an area with lots of small icons. Each icon represents a program you can tap. This starting page is called the home screen. It’s the starting point for almost everything you do with the device. Alongside the icons there’s often a search bar, a clock, or a weather display. At the bottom edge there’s usually a fixed bar with the most important programs, which stays visible on every page.
The most expensive real estate on the phone
The home screen determines which programs actually get used. Whatever sits in the first row gets tapped every day. Whatever only appears after swiping twice fades into obscurity. Attention is the most important currency for tech companies, which is why this space is so contested.
Google has been paying Apple a great deal of money for years to be the default search engine on iPhones. In US court proceedings, figures of around 20 billion dollars per year were mentioned. This is precisely about defaults like these on the home screen. Whoever holds that spot wins users without advertising.
Phone manufacturers also use this leverage. Many devices come with preinstalled programs that nobody asked for. In return, the manufacturers collect money from the providers. The European Union has therefore issued rules that make it easier for users to change defaults.
Icons, tiles, and the operating system underneath
The home screen isn’t a program in its own right, but part of the operating system. The operating system is the base software that manages all other programs. Apple calls it iOS, most other devices call it Android. This base software draws the icons, remembers their order, and launches the corresponding program when tapped.
Besides simple icons, there are larger tiles known as widgets. A widget displays content directly without opening the program: upcoming appointments, the battery level of your headphones, a stock price. It updates in the background at fixed intervals. This costs power, which is why systems strictly limit these updates.
Android and iOS take different approaches. Android allows what’s called a launcher, i.e. a replaceable program that takes over the entire home screen. You can freely rearrange grids, gestures, and icon shapes. Apple only permits limited customization and keeps design control in its own hands.
When AI assistants want to replace the icons
In everyday life you encounter the home screen a hundred times a day without thinking about it. You usually only become aware of it with a new device. Then you rearrange icons, delete unused programs, and create folders. This arrangement reveals fairly precisely what someone actually uses their phone for.
In tech news, the term currently comes up mainly in connection with AI. Several companies are working on assistants that handle tasks across multiple programs on their own. Instead of tapping three icons, you say a sentence. Some observers therefore speak of the end of the classic home screen.
A common mistake is confusing the home screen with the lock screen. The lock screen comes before it and shows the time and notifications while the device is locked. The home screen only appears after unlocking. Also distinct is the app overview on Android, which simply lists all installed programs alphabetically.