Sight for Sore Eyes

I remember waking up one morning when I was in my mid-40's and discovering that I could no longer read the newspaper without using reading glasses.  The change seemed to come overnight.  That was the pre-smart phone era. 

Now, with my fancy smart phone, I find that it isn't as useful as it could be simply because I can't easily read the small text on its comparatively large 4.6 inch screen.  I have already adjusted my Android OS settings to maximum the text size where it is adjustable.  But not every text setting is adjustable and sometimes the largest available size is still not large enough.  What I wanted was something akin to the iPhone's home screen (aka Springboard) with a limited number of large icons, but even bigger. 

Then I found Big Launcher, an add-in home screen app launcher that is perfect for old eyes like mine.  For $4.99 from the Google Play app store, you get this entirely new take on an Android launcher.  There is also a feature-restricted free trial version.

Installation and setup are easy, but it can take a while to add all of the additional home screens you want or need.  The only flaw I can see is that you cannot swipe from one home screen to another.  Instead, when you set up each new home screen and app icons to it for launching, you can link that screen to the next screen so that you can navigate sequentially from one screen to the other.  This is a minor annoyance rather than a major flaw.

I set up a half dozen home screens (there is no limit) containing my icons to launch my most-used apps divided into themes (utilities, music, communication, news, productivity, etc.).  I showed Big Launcher to my wife, an iPhone 4S user.  She said "Wow, can you put that on my phone?"  Sadly, no.  It is only for Android.

If you are "of a certain age" and find that reading small text or recognizing small icons at close range is a struggle,  Big Launcher is a great way to save your tired old eyes.