It’s time for another trip down memory lane! Share your oldest Android screenshots and tell us about the model, year, and a notable memory from that era.
Whether you rocked the early days of Android with Cupcake 🧁 or navigated the world with Jelly Bean 🍬, we want to see how far we’ve come!
- Hunt down your ancient Android screenshot - the older, the better!
- Drop it in the comments along with the model and year of your device.
- Share a fun or memorable story from that time - we’re all ears!
Let’s rewind the clock!
From 2014, Nexus 5 with my favorite launcher of all time, Aviate. I miss the rom scene, spent so much time tinkering with it.
Not my oldest Android phone (that would be the Galaxy Spica back in 2010), but this is my oldest existing screenshot taken from a Note III just a couple of years after that.
If you’re wondering how come I have a full day of battery left despite it being down to 40%, I’m using a Zerolemon battery case. I believe this is the last Note iteration that allows removable batteries.
The long battery life allowed me to last in the mountains for a day or two without charging. There weren’t any power banks back then, or at least not anything reliable.
- 2011, HTC Desire
Running ADW Launcher on probably Android Froyo, and the Tron Legacy theme. Tron Legacy was released only a month prior to this screenshot, and I was a huge fan, so I themed everything I had with Tron themes. It was a tough decision whether to go for the Nexus One or the Desire, in the end, I picked the Desire because it had slightly more RAM and physical navigation buttons. Plus, the optical joystick on it was awesome. Also most likely running a custom ROM, not sure which one but possibly Oxygen.
- 2013, Nexus 4
I guess I was testing out TeamViewer for Android here. Not sure about the launcher, but still stuck on the Tron theme lol. Running Android Jellybean, Paranoid Android, with pie controls in the second screenshot (man I miss the pie controls. And old PA, with the per-app DPI, Halo and other cool stuff).
- 2013, Nexus 4
Still on the Tron theme (don’t judge), but this time I’ve switched to Smart Launcher. This is probably the launcher I liked the most and stuck with the longest, thanks to it’s automatic app categorization, which meant I no longer had to create folders and manually organize my apps. I stuck with Smart Launcher until it’s inevitable enshittification started. Running CyanogenMod 11 (KitKat).
It’s November 2013 and I finally got over Tron lol, and started getting more into minimal home screens.
Running XuiMod (Xposed module), which brought back the Gingerbread-style recents. (on KitKat).
Bonus video showing off my entire setup running Smart Launcher, crDroid and a few of my apps at the time: https://youtu.be/2JMBPtKzx2o
I’ve got tons more screenshots and videos, but don’t want to spam this thread. If anyone’s interested though I’ll be happy to share. :)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/2JMBPtKzx2o
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
- 2012, Samsung Galaxy Exhibit II 4G
This is probably Go Launcher/Locker with the stock Samsung TouchWiz nightmare. 2.3 Gingerbread 🍪 ⛄
- 2013, Nexus 4
I got really attached to the Deus Ex: Human Revolution aesthetic, so I tried to reflect it on whatever devices I owned.
4.2 Jellybean with Nova Launcher.
I miss having a nice minimal screen like this because my S22U homescreen is a (very functional) disaster now.
From 2011, I thnk this was on the original Samsung Galaxy (Can’t find it only to confirm), the one with the “sticky out chin”. This was my first true smartphone after having used a Blackberry Bold I think, before which I had a Blackberry Pearl, and before that Dell Axim alongside maybe a Nokia 6820? How far we’ve come!
Edit: I think this might actually have been from my HTC Hero… probably shortly before I move on to an HTC Desire or maybe even the Desire itself.
Edit 2: It must have been the Desire, resolution of 480x800 on the screenshot.
