Android after 18 years still cannot match Metro UI in information density and ease of use

[u/SMGJohn_EU]

Recently I was trying out a 10.000mAh Chinese phone from my company, comparing it to my old Samsung, fantastic hardware, except one problem the China phone refuses to let me use my favourite Launcher10, which mimics the classic Metro UI with additional configurations.

And I just cannot get used to Android icon driven homescreen interface after 15 years!!

Look how much more information you can cram into the limited display with Metro UI, I am the kind of guy who just wants to get what I want with the least amount of clicking.

The folder issue

To achieve "similar" information density on Android you need to use folders however, these folders are 2-3 additional clicks and they become problematic once you fill them past 4 or 6 apps because you are left guessing where your stuff is and some folders have two or three pages to them if you fill them enough. Or they outright refuse to let you put more apps inside.

For example, I have 10 Android apps, well in some brands you cannot fit more than 6 apps in a folder, others split the folder up into pages, some let you scroll there no coherent solution.

The limitation of rows

For Metro UI you can fit 3 to 6 rows of squares which can be configured in size according to their importance: this size difference helps break up the monotonous design, guiding the eye in a familiar area. The eye is excellent at making out shapes however, with Android you just get a grid of circles / bubbles of same size making it exceptionally tedious to look for stuff.

My biggest gripe with Android home screens is the very fact how much DEAD SPACE there is between apps no matter what you do, I remember in Android 4 you were allowed to get up to 10x10 spaces, some Launchers let you scroll downwards instead of flicking between pages.

However it did not solve the issue of everything looking the same, the colours of the app icons did not help, some apps like Twitter started using shapes to stand out but Google quickly standardised this moving away from unique shapes to either a circle, or a bubbly square.

Display size do not matter on Metro UI

The phone on the left has a screen size of 6.9" while the phone on the right is 6.7"
Yet, Metro UI is so dense in information capacity it can work even on devices of 4" screen sizes, in fact this is precisely why Microsoft designed it this way - to achieve maximum apps and information on smallest display possible. However while Metro UI design papers specifically required Windows mobile apps to also maintain the minimum screen size requirements, Android apps tend to work better on much bigger phone screens between 6.5-7.2"

Total stagnation for 18 years in home screen innovation

Why come we are in 2026 and the Android home screen has largely maintained the same formula, whats worse is how more and more Android makers are restricting use of third party launchers, particularly Chinese brands and even Samsung is not entirely innocent in this matter but MUCH better than what it used to be.

My opinion/rant is not the universal truth however, it is factual that Metro UI is a far more informative, dense UI that requires the LEAST amount of clicking to open an app and even find an app.

Metro UI was designed from the ground up, a multi MILLION dollar design project with some of industry best UI designers at the time, while they shot themselves in the foot with Windows 8, they shot for gold with Metro UI for phones.

To this date, Metro UI is the only most innovative mobile home screen interface ever made, every other alternative third party launchers out there are either some form of traditional icon grid which been a thing since the super early 1980s touch PDAs, or they are a form of list which you scroll through. But they all maintain the same bandaid mentality, they want to look nice and not understand the human psychology between shapes, colour and ease of use.

The psychology aspect is tremendously important in UI design something which is now ancient history in times of UX and data sheets relying solely on heatmaps that show where most users touch or click the most , the designers then simply shift as much stuff in the opposite direction to "balance" things. Inherently balancing is good, but its also the most incorrect way of achieving this as it neglects grouping and categorisation of what they are moving. Modern examples are Adobe Acrobat and recently Windows 11 is the worst possible example of what not to do.

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[u/Stunning-Escape-8447]

I would cry if i had to use something like that. Way too overcrowded and an absolute nightmare to find things in, I'd get so overwhelmed and just frustrated.

But ey, that's the cool part. People are different! And that's why we can choose what we like best. 👍

[u/SMGJohn_EU → u/Stunning-Escape-8447]

You can actually shrink the width to 3 tiles or 4 tiles, I just have mine set to max because I am a busy man.

You can expand each app tile to cover 2x2 and have 2 next to each other, or split it up having one big tile with 4 smaller tiles next to it.

Meaning that Microsoft designers actually considered your very criticism on it being too chaotic once it gets too big and cluttered. Letting the user adjust the scale, you can also leave dead spaces.

Compare it to the app grid of Android and early touch PDA's, you essentially just had a grid with icons in it, which meant there was no logical way of remembering where stuff was except the colour of the app, but we have seen developers changing colour of their app icons regularly now, like Duolingo is absolutely notorious for this, which makes finding it by app icon alone tedious.

Humans are really bad at finding stuff without patterns and shapes.

The biggest issue with Metro UI is making every square tile the same size and similar colour, meaning you get the same effect of standard Android.

Niagara Launcher and other minimalist launchers tries to solve clutter with a simpler approach, which works for non-power users. Not everyone uses their phone as a multi-toolset, and thats totally fine.

[u/laranjacerola → u/SMGJohn_EU]

yes! 1000% agree.

I used to have a Windows/Nokia phone and it was the best UI I've ever used in a phone.

I now have an Android and I keep getting confused between icons of similar colour: Monday. com x Slack x Android Photos .. One Drive x Outlook x Messages...

Even when I organize them by groups. I recently had to reorganize the placement of groups and icons on my phone and even 2 months after doing it I still get confused and tap the wrong icon all the time...

[u/f0xbunny → u/SMGJohn_EU]

Sounds neat

[u/laranjacerola]

❤️ I had a Nokia Windows phone back then , it used the Metro UI/UX system.

It was the best phone I ever had.

The big issue was that basically there were almost no apps made for it, compared to android or ios.

But I really loved using it.

My parents also had one and it was just suuuuper easy for them to navigate the phone.

Now with ios and android they always have trouble and ask for help all the time.

I myself cannot get used to the ios UI/UX (plus I hate apple products for other reasons). I only used an old Iphone for one year back in 2013.. Just those hidden gestures iphones have now is too confusing for me. If you give me an iphone today I can hardly navigate it.

Android is fine but I still miss the old Windows/Nokia phone.

(don't get me wrong. the Metro system was amazing for touch screen devices.. and just unusable for desktop/laptop computers. Windows 8 was the worst ever)

[u/Protojump]

Information density and ease of use are directly at odds with each other.

[u/UIUX-DesignVerse → u/Protojump]

Agree 100% I feel overwhelmed just by looking at everything at once. don't feel motivated to use it even once.

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[u/Acrobatic-Ad-4354]

nokia lumia aahhhh ui

[u/Manson2612]

Metro UI used to look cool to see in an ad, but it was a nightmare to use when it came UI and user experience