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How to use the HTC One without BlinkFeed

By Phil Nickinson  | Mar 11 2013 | 6:24 pm  | 25 Comments

Android Central

Some folks want BlinkFeed -- HTC's home screen news reader -- to die in a fire. They don't like the idea of BlinkFeed. They think it's a bad idea (never mind not having actually used it), and they don't ever want to see it.

We can grant that wish.

It's perfectly possible to use the HTC One without BlinkFeed being in the way.

The secret? Just don't use it.

You don't actually have to set up BlinkFeed. You can ignore it to your heart's content. It won't use data. It won't use your battery. And it won't be in the way. 

The trick is to set up your home screens like normal and just never thumb all the way to the left to the BlinkFeed screen. OK, that's not much of a trick. Out of sight, out of mind.

Or, of course, you could just use a custom launcher, which a good many folks likely will do anyway.

Chances are someone will hack BlinkFeed out of Sense 5 while leaving the rest of the ROM intact. And that's cool. But that's also more work than not actually using BlinkFeed in the first place.

The bottom line is if you don't want to use BlinkFeed, you don't have to. And it's not at all in the way.

Phil Nickinson

Phil Nickinson Editor in Chief

"Phil is a recovering print journalist, editor of Android Central, subtitles and street signs."

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There are 25 comments

Lukas Ekstazijus says:

"Nooooo, blinkfeed y u exiist?? I cannot swipe to leeft!"

Damn, that is one fast phone

alila2 says:

exactly , i only use three home pages , and the one in the middle is my home page , my brain is set to go left and right for the other two pages , and i like the way my fu**ing brain is set , so no for blinkfeed . its not a big deal , true , but its annoying and irritating to have something there that cannot be moved or removed its android for God sake if i want something to be forced on me i'll buy WP or an iphone .it's more annoying than Nascar you can only go in one direction.Don't understand me wrong i like the idea and every thing but i want to control it and i want to be able to remove if i got sick of it . therefore it would have bean great if it was just a widget .

jyoungjr says:

just the fact that HTC won't let you remove the app from a home screen was enough to return the phone for me. I want to be able to customize a device the way I WANT and not forced into the mold they have.

TomsAndroid says:

Really? Just use a launcher!

wicketr says:

But, But, But BLINK FEEEEED!!! WAAAAA!

Linebarrel86 says:

Out of sight until I swipe to it...

Admit it does ruin the experience slightly. Not a dealbreaker, but its definetely an itch that has to be scratched.

Lukas Ekstazijus says:

But you swipe to it and there's no actual feed, no news, it is clean and empty. Think of it as a widget. I don't think it becomes that itchy.. :)
I'm thinking there will be a use of it, like having just a sports feed. You wanna check the score of a game, a swipe to left and there you have it. Still, I will know best when I'll get to hold it

mggomez8 says:

Does BlinkFeed still appear when you're using Nova, Apex or ADW Launcher?

If no, what's the fuss?

darkjuan says:

Nova, Apex, and ADW are Launchers. Just like Sense 5 is a Launcher. Blinkfeed is only on Sense 5. If you use another Launcher it won't be on there. :)

AlphaLolz says:

If it were possible to remove it, the author would have shown how.

darkjuan says:

Nova, Apex, and ADW are Launchers. Just like Sense 5 is a Launcher. Blinkfeed is only on Sense 5. If you use another Launcher it won't be on there.

The only problem with that is you won't be able to use any of the Sense 5 features until someone cracks the ROM and customizes it.

Synycalwon says:

So if you don't like something, say a panel that takes up a whole screen you can't get rid of, just ignore it? C'Mon man!!! That's lame.

bumpandrun says:

Don't buy the phone if that one small detail bothers you that much. I'm buying it whether I use it or not. The phone has too many other great features to pass it over because of one flaw. Name a phone that doesn't have a flaw (except maybe a Nexus which I've never used or seen anyone use).

AlphaLolz says:

One flaw... Seriously?

How about no replaceable batteries. How about no expansion.

Here's what HTC is doing. HTC is trying to become Apple. Looks matter more than everything else.

Sadly they'll probably sell a pile of these to ex Apple fanboys who are used to being told what they like.

crxssi says:

Thanks for the informative video, Phil! Answers some of my questions. I do wish you had shown how to make a screen the home-home screen (still unclear how that works).

Doesn't look quite as horrible as I had originally envisioned. So how many home screens can you have? Are you limited to five? Does the permanent blinkfeed one steal one of those five?

dtreo says:

I was waiting for Phil to shut off the screen once he had made the new home screen, then turn it back on to see what it looked like then going from lock screen to the new home screen. Can you please add that step at the end?

Thanks!

AlphaLolz says:

He can add that, because he CAN'T do it.

jasongeiger says:

I use every screen available in android. This would drive me nuts not being able to actually get rid of it. Granted if I got this phone I would probably put a desensed rom on it anyway.

suku_patel_22 says:

It's Jellybean, Can't we just disable the system app? will it then dissappear from the home screen?

AlphaLolz says:

If it's possible the author lamely sure didn't show it.

Marcus Lee says:

Wauugghh... Lame.

Jon_Doh says:

Blinkfeed doesn't bother me. I've used Flipboard before. The thing is, it gets boring after a while so it's good you can push it out of the way.

Phil Lau says:

Wow oh boy this is retarded. He tiptoes around in the video and opens a bunch of apps. OF COURSE no Blinkfeed. Hey man, try swiping to the left for fucks sake. It's right there and it's nonfuckingremovable. As said above, the brain has been trained to move right AND left. As said above, if we wanna get stuff-fed a feature we would buy an iphone.

Holy mother some people makes stupid videos.

worknman says:

Yeah, these are probably the same people who used to say "You can remove Internet Explorer from Windows by deleting the blue 'E' icon from the desktop." Bahaha!!!!

I wish AC and other Android blogs would start taking these vendors to task for crippling these phones with crappy, non-removable bloatware, instead of being their unabashed cheerleaders. Don't get me wrong... I have nothing against Blinkfeed, except for the fact that you can't REMOVE it.

AlphaLolz says:

Excuse me for pointing this out, but YOU ARE USING BlinkFeed.

You're just shoving it off to the side and choosing not to use it as your home screen, but it's still there taking up one of the very limited # of screens you can use.

The author can say that he's NOT using BlinkFeed once he removes it from any of the screens. Then (and only then) will it be installed, but not in use.

Otherwise, looks like the only way to really not use it is to root the phone.

Also, the author didn't show how to do what he did either.