How to customize your Home screen and system navigation on your Fairphone

  • Updated 

You can easily customize your Fairphone Home screen by organizing your favorite apps, widgets, and folders, or change how you move through phone menus by updating your system navigation.

ⓘ These steps require Android 13 or later. If you are not sure which version your Fairphone is running, see How to check and update your software version.

Some Home screen features, such as search widget options, vary depending on whether you live in Europe or the United States.

How to add apps, widgets, and folders

Add an app

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

Add a widget

  1. 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 it to your preferred position.
  3. Lift your finger to add the widget.

To resize a widget after adding it to your Home screen, touch and hold the widget until the resizing handles appear.

Add a folder

  1. Touch and hold an app you want to organize.
  2. Drag the app directly on top of another app, then lift your finger to create a folder.
  3. To add more apps to an existing folder, drag any app directly on top of the folder.

How to remove apps, widgets, and folders

  1. Touch and hold the app, widget, or folder you want to remove.
  2. Drag the item up to Remove at the top of the screen and release it.

Removing an app icon from your Home screen does not uninstall it from your phone. You can always access your installed apps by swiping up from the Home screen to view All Apps.

How to rearrange items on your Home screen

  1. Touch and hold the app, widget, or folder you want to move.
  2. Drag the item to your preferred spot, then lift your finger.

Tip: You can create additional Home screen panels by dragging items to the far right edge of your screen until a new panel appears.

How to manage the search widget

The options available for the Home screen search widget depend on your region and model generation.

European models

When you first set up your Fairphone, you choose a search provider from the Android Choice Screen. This sets the default provider for the search widget. If you want to change this provider later, you must perform a factory reset.

If you want to remove the search widget entirely:

  • The Fairphone (Gen. 6): Touch and hold the search widget, then drag it up to Remove.
  • Fairphone 4 or Fairphone 5: Go to Settings → Display, tap Search bar to toggle it off, then restart your Fairphone.
  • Fairphone 3+ and earlier models: The search widget is fixed and cannot be removed.

United States models

On US models, the search bar is located at the bottom of the Home screen and defaults to Google search. Options to remove, move, or change the search provider for this search bar are not available.

How to change system navigation (Gestures vs. Buttons)

You can choose between modern Gesture navigation for maximum screen space or traditional 3-button navigation for classic controls.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Navigate to System → Gestures.
  3. Tap Navigation mode.
  4. Select your preferred method:
    • Gesture navigation: Swipe up from the bottom edge to go home, swipe inward from either side edge to go back, and swipe up and hold to view recent apps.
    • 3-button navigation: Displays classic Home, Back, and Recent Apps buttons at the bottom of your screen.

If gesture navigation is difficult to trigger while using a protective case, tap the Settings gear icon next to Gesture navigation to adjust Back sensitivity.

Still need help?

If you still require assistance, reach out to our customer support team. You can also open a support request directly through the My Fairphone app pre-installed on your device.