Thinking about buying the Sprint Hero by HTC, or already own it, but not digging the Sense UI? It's okay, it isn't for everyone. Thankfully there is a way to turn off Sense and use the standard Android Home instead. Here's a quick step-by-step guide how to do so!
- Press MENU button.
- Press Settings.
- Press Applications.
- Press Manage Applications.
- Wait for the OS to compute application usage.
- Scroll down the list until you see HTC Sense and select it to go to the Application Info page.
- Press the Clear Defaults button.
- Press the HOME button. You will be prompted to select which app to compete the action with. Select Home and chose to make this the default action.
Now that you are back at the standard Anroid Home screen, what are the ramifications? There are now four fewer home panels on which to add widgets and shortcuts. The HTC widgets are no longer available, but the HTC customized apps like People and Messages are still available. The Facebook integration into the contacts is still there, also. The only real change is the home screen and HTC widgets. Interestingly, the original Android wallpapers are now available for use on your new Home! These wallpapers are hidden when selecting a wallpaper for the Sense home.
What if you want to go back to Sense? Follow the steps outlined above until Step 6 where you will select Home and then clear it's defaults. The rest is the same.
46 Responses to “How To: Turn off HTC Sense” Leave a reply ›
Nice guide - thanks. It's important to note that this turns off Sense's home screen (and widgets), but doesn't remove all of the other Sense integration. Also, a few users have noted that this doesn't help battery or performance that much.
is there a known way to turn off htc sense with the new sprint android 2.2 update because this does not seem to work for me.
Quicker way to do it is simply press and HOLD the home button. You will then get the popup to select the default action/application.
This doesn't work for me. When I press and hold the home button, I get a popup for recently used apps.
once you follow the instructions and get Vanilla as your home, when u hit menu you can switch between the Vanilla homescreen and Sense.
I was excited to see the topic of this tutorial, since I've wondered myself how to best turn off the Sense UI. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on my unlocked HTC Hero - simple because HTC Sense (or just "Sense" is not in the list of applications. Anyone else have this problem?
It might be called Rosie- but never, ever "TouchFlo". TouchFlo is old school winmo.
I don't have the GSM Hero but I believe you should look for "TouchFlo" in the list of apps and turn off the defaults for it. Hope this helps.
Pressing and holding the HOME button or pressing the NENU button both result in the default actions...and neither one allow for discriminate changing between Home and Sense. If, after you switch to Home from Sense, you hold the HOME button you will see Sense in the recently used apps popup but that will only be in that list for a short time until you use some more apps....If you don't select either as default as outlined in Step 8, you will be prompted which home to use every time you press your HOME button.
Thanks! I really appreciate your posting this. Something I was curious about.
Does this mean that Hero users will have to use 1.5 "Cupcake"? Or would they be able to go to system updates or do the manual update online? As you know, the current version of Sense is overlayed on 1.5. Also, I wonder if you were able to update to 1.6, would it be a problem to go back to using the Sense UI?
Sense UI is still on the phone. What you are doing here is just choosing to use the standard Android Home instead of the Sense Home. There are other elements of Sense UI that are built into Android and still perform as expected even after one changes the "home" default. The HTC People app is one example of this. People integrates Facebook and Flickr updates into the address book. There is also HTC's Twitter App called Peep. Peep and People continue to work after Sense Home is turned off. There is also HTC's phone manager and customized web browser. Everything works. Going back to the Sense home is easy and painless.
It's basically like choosing to use one app over another. In this case it's the homescreen app. As far as updates are concerned. The Hero is based on HTC's Customized Android kernel. The only official way to get an update is when HTC and/or Sprint releases one. When that happens it will work on the Hero regardless of whether or not you have turned Sense home off.
Is it possible to use the standard android contacts application rather than the people application included in HTC Sense? My contacts are way too cluttered due to much more facebook friends than I care to have.
Maybe it's possible to only show the contacts which are on my phone. And not the whole facebook integration bit. I would actually prefer it if facebook etc would just be kept sepparate to my actual contacts.
It is not possible to use the standard Android contacts app without some serious hacking.
You can remove the Facebook link for your contacts though. Unfortunately this can only be done one contact at a time. Select a contact in the People app. When viewing that contact's details press the "update" icon at the bottom. Then press menu and select "Remove Facebook link".
No - you shouldn't have bought a HTC handset if you don't like the integration. You can however select to just view google contacts etc. You could also simply remove your facebook account from the handset, that way they won't show up in your contacts.
I also have a few random people on facebook. Will they all suddenly appear in my contacts. This will be downright irritating.
Is there a fix for this?
help! every time i hit the home button on my htc hero by sprint it comes up saying " complete action using home or htc sense , the i can check it and it says use default for this action but it always comes back. How do i get rid of it?
Hit use default first, which put a green check in the box and then choose the app you want to use as the default.
I'm just having fun switching between Home and Sense xD
I went and turned off the Sense UI, set as default action, all is great. Except when I try to turn it back on and click the Home button, it takes me to my home page; no questions asked. I'm unable to clear defaults again so it seems as if I'm stuck with stock Android. Help is appreciated.
I ran into the same problem, but i found a solution.
Instead of going to the HTC Sense application, to clear the default action, find the application named "Start", i hope it's called the same on an english android phone, i'm having a danish one. The icon is a white house with a red roof.
Anyway, go to that start application and "clear defaults", press the home button and you can set HTC Sense as default.
Yes I have the same problem can't clear defaults again and I'm stuck with the Android version. I don't have the 'start' application that you're referring too and I even downloaded start from the Market. I think the start from the Market is different.
This sucks, I hope I don't have to do a reset and lose everything!!!
Scratch that.
I have an HTC desire 2.1 locked on Orange (so it comes with loads of orange crapware) and when I remove defaults for HTC sense and press the home button, I have two options: HTC Sense or Orange Homescreen. I do not have the option for Home. Any ideas? Thanks
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Every time i hit the home button on my htc hero by sprint it comes up saying " complete action using home or htc sense , the i can check it and it says use default for this action but it always comes back. How do i get rid of it?
I'm unable to clear defaults again so it seems as if I'm stuck with stock Android. Help is appreciated.
You can try downloading Home Switcher from market to solve the problem.