How To Customize the Home Screen on Your Android Tablet

One of the key differences between Honeycomb and iOS is that you can customize the home screens on Android slates with widgets and shortcuts to your favorite apps. Widget choices include everything from your e-mail inbox to the most popular YouTube videos. Find out more below.

How To Change Shortcuts, Widgets, and Wallpapers

  1. Press and hold the home screen where you’d like to place the widget. Alternatively, you can press the + button. You’ll see a zoomed-out view of all five home screens.
  2. Make sure the appropriate tab is highlighted: App Shortcuts, Wallpapers, Widgets.
  3. Scroll through your choices.
  4. Tap the widget or app you’d like to use, and drag and drop it on the home screen of your choice.
  5. Select the Wallpaper tab, then tap on one of the available options: an image from your tablet’s Gallery, Live Wallpapers (which use animation) or regular Wallpapers.
  6. Remove a widget or app shortcut from a particular screen by pressing and holding the item. Then drag it to the Remove area in the top right part of the screen.

How To Resize Widgets

  1. Press and hold a given widget until you see a box and four diamonds appear around it.
  2. Drag any part of the box to enlarge or shrink the widget. This option comes in especially handy for the Mail widget.
Latest in Tablets
The Kindle Colorsoft ereader in front of an orange background beside a Laptop Mag deals icon
Upgrade your reading experience for less with this Kindle Colorsoft deal for Amazon's Spring Sale!
Apple iPad 10th Generation
iPad 10th Generation is $80 off with two years of AppleCare+ during Amazon's Big Spring Sale
Surface Pro 11 with keyboard against pink and blue gradient background with epic deals sticker.
Save $450 on the Surface Pro 2-in-1 Copilot+ PC in this unbeatable Amazon Big Spring deal
Blue Apple iPad mini 7 against an orange gradient background.
Apple's rarely discounted iPad mini just dropped $100 for Amazon's Big Spring Sale
Amazon Fire tablets
Amazon Fire tablets slashed up to 36% off ahead of Big Spring Sale — 5 scorching deals I recommend
Gray Galaxy Tab S9 FE tablet with S Pen and epic deal sticker against a blue gradient background.
Nab the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE with S Pen for just $299 while you still can
Latest in News
A close-up of a light-colored computer keyboard shows the keys T, Y, G, and H replaced by the logos of OpenAI, DeepSeek, Grok, and Gemini, the leading competitors in the artificial intelligence market. This serves as a visual metaphor for the intense rivalry and innovation in the AI industry. (Photo by Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Is generative AI inadvertently reducing the voices of many to the banality of one?
WWDC 2025 could mark the beginning of the end for certain iPhone users
Error when installing Google Chrome on the Asus Vivobook 16 Flip, on a white desk against a blue background.
"This app can't run on your PC": Google's Chrome Installer broke on Windows, but there's a fix
Nintendo Switch 2 handheld gaming console
Nintendo Switch 2 preorder date: It might be a lot closer than you think, say tipsters
Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 2024)
Windows-on-Arm woes: Amazon warns customers about Surface laptop returns
Apple Watch Series 8
Siri is the biggest obstacle to making the Apple Watch an AI hit