Ask Dave Taylor
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Most Popular
  • Top Categories
  • Books
  • About Dave
  • Ask Me
  • > Donate <
  • Home
  • Android Help
  • How Can I Rotate My Android Phone Home Screen to be Horizontal?

How Can I Rotate My Android Phone Home Screen to be Horizontal?

January 9, 2021 / Dave Taylor / Android Help / No Comments

My buddy was showing me something on his LG phone and I was startled to see him rotate his phone and his home screen shift to be horizontally (“landscape”) oriented. Whaaa? How did he do that and how can I do that on my Pixel phone?

Smartphone designers have long since assumed that you’re going to use it in vertical or portrait mode. Indeed, lots of mobile apps only work that way, including Instagram and TikTok: Rotate your phone and those will still keep their vertical orientation. If you’re an iOS user, you also know that your iPhone can rotate the screen for specific games and videos, but the system itself is locked into that same vertical orientation. But why? Why not let things gracefully rotate on any screen if the user prefers?

That’s just what Android can do and from what I can tell this feature’s been around for a few years! There’s a setting you need to change to allow this special rotation feature, then you also need to ensure that you have enabled auto-rotate on your phone too. Logical, right? Let’s have a look…

ENABLE HORIZONTAL HOME SCREEN IN ANDROID

Grab your Android phone, make sure you’re up to date, then go to your home screen. On my Pixel 5a, it looks like this:

android 11 home screen pixel 5a

As a first step, ensure that you have auto-rotate enabled and try rotating your phone to see if the home screen will flip sideways. You can most easily do that by just swiping down from the top of the screen to get to the mini-shortcuts toolbar:

android 10 - shortcuts - auto-rotate highlighted

I’ve highlighted the auto-rotate feature and in this color scheme blue means it’s enabled and grey means it’s disabled. So I’m ready to go with the auto-rotate, but my home screen still isn’t rotating.

To fix that, tap and hold on an empty area on your home screen. After a moment or two a menu will pop up:

android 10 - home screen context menu - home settings

You’ve probably spent time fiddling with Styles & wallpapers and added a few Widgets to your home screen, but it’s the third option you want to tap on in this instance. Tap on “Home settings” and there’s a small set of options and features you can enable or disable:

android 10 home screen settings

Mine is a bit different to most as I have not only enabled “Allow Home screen rotation” (near the bottom) but I have also disabled “Swipe to access Google app” midway down the list too. If you’ve swiped right from the home screen and gotten to a news screen, that’s Google app. I prefer having a news app that I launch or not, so disabling Google app from the Home settings works better for me.

While you’re looking at these settings, do consider – or experiment – with the other settings too. Some people prefer to disable “Notification dots” for a cleaner user experience, for example.

Done? Close this window, get to your home screen and… rotate your phone!

android 10 home screen rotated horizontal landscape

Pretty cool looking, actually, and a great trick to use when you need to taunt your iPhone owning friends. Just be really casual about it and then innocently say “What? iPhones can’t do that? Huh. Maybe in iOS15…” 🙂

Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Android since the launch of the popular operating system. Please do check out my extensive Android help library for lots of helpful tutorials and how-to articles while you’re visiting the site. Thanks!

Let’s Stay In Touch!

Never miss a single article, review or tutorial here on AskDaveTaylor, sign up for my fun weekly newsletter!
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries
No spam, ever. Promise. Powered by FeedBlitz
Please choose a color:
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
home screen auto-rotate, horizontal android, horizontal home screen, landscape android, landscape home screen, rotate home screen

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Recent Posts

  • Securing Shared Files: What You Need To Know
  • How to Record My PowerPoint Presentation (and save it as MP4)?
  • How Do I Switch Camera, Microphone or Camera in Zoom?
  • How to Fix Outlook Error 8004010F – Broken Outlook File
  • How Do I Correct Weather Widget Location on my Mac System?

On Our YouTube Channel

PuroPro Volume Limiting ANC Headphones -- REVIEW

Nuroum Conference HD Webcam [model C20] -- DEMO & REVIEW

Categories

  • AdSense, AdWords, and PPC Help (106)
  • Amazon Echo & Kindle Help (79)
  • Amazon, eBay, and Online Shopping Help, (157)
  • Android Help (160)
  • Apple Watch Help (49)
  • Articles, Tutorials, and Reviews (329)
  • Business Advice (192)
  • Computer & Internet Basics (721)
  • d) None of the Above (160)
  • Facebook Help (365)
  • Google, Chrome & Gmail Help (157)
  • HTML & Web Page Design (243)
  • Instagram Help (44)
  • iPad Help (137)
  • iPhone & iOS Help (571)
  • iPod & MP3 Player Help (173)
  • LinkedIn Help (79)
  • Linux Help (149)
  • Linux Shell Script Programming (86)
  • Mac & MacOS Help (834)
  • Most Popular (10)
  • Outlook & Office 365 Help (11)
  • PayPal Help (68)
  • Pinterest Help (53)
  • Reddit Help (12)
  • SEO & Marketing (80)
  • Spam, Scams & Security (84)
  • Trade Show News & Updates (23)
  • Twitter Help (212)
  • Video Game Tips (66)
  • Web Site Traffic Tips (62)
  • Windows 10 Help (828)
  • Wordpress Help (201)
  • Writing and Publishing (72)
  • YouTube Help (43)
  • YouTube Video Reviews (159)
  • Zoom, Skype & Video Chat Help (43)

Archives

Social Connections:

Ask Dave Taylor


Follow Me on Pinterest
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on LinkedIn
Follow me on Instagram


AskDaveTaylor on Facebook



microsoft insider mvp


This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to our terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. Our lawyer says "Thanks for your cooperation."
© 2020 by Dave Taylor. "Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.
Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions - Accessibility Policy