As you know, changing the launcher and lock screen of your phone can give you a completely revamped experience and make your phone feel brand new. Go Locker (developed and offered by the same great dev team behind Go Launcher and Go SMS, and which we reviewed here) is the most popular lock screen replacement app in the Play Store.
Although it currently doesn’t offer the customizability present in WidgetLocker Lockscreen, Go Locker can be modded with a variety of free and paid themes available for download in the Play Store as well. In this roundup, I’ll show you a few of my favourite such mods. There is only one caveat when it comes to using Go Locker: Go Launcher has to be installed on your phone to use it. While Go Launcher is a very good launcher replacement, the fact that you have to install it makes it feel a bit like installing bloatware. However, a vast number of themes for Go Locker (including a few in this roundup) have been matched to work with corresponding or similar Go Launcher themes. ZT.art is especially known for doing so, releasing lockscreens and launcher themes that complement each other perfectly, and is a good place to start looking for more lock screens and lock screen-launcher combinations. Now, lets get on to some of the good free themes available for Go Locker.
Default
Default Theme
This is the only theme that is available when Go Locker is first installed. It gives you the options to unlock to your home screen, stock messaging app or stock phone app by dragging down the appropriate icon. This theme looks very similar to, and seems to be inspired by, the stock MIUI lockscreen, which also allows users to drag down icons to go to their preferred apps directly.
Ice Cream Sandwich
Ice Cream Sandwich
This theme replicates the stock ICS lock screen. It offers the same functionality as well; swiping right will unlock to the home screen while swiping left will unlock to the camera. Although this lock screen is one of the more popular ones available, I did not enjoy using it too much – it was fine as a novelty, but it’s not as exciting when it comes to functionality. You cannot open any apps from the lock screen itself, unlike some other themes or the Sense lockscreen, which I had been using prior to this one. However if you are currently running an ICS theme on your launcher of choice, this will definitely blend into your whole setup.
Dark
Dark
This theme offers a neat and classy interface to users, with options to unlock to the home screen or go directly to the default messaging and phone apps. The design is clean and unobtrusive, giving the users a quick view of missed calls and unread messages, but nothing more than that. The user does not have the ability to change the target apps for the phone and messaging shortcuts; they will only open the default phone and messaging apps. However, there is something about the design that makes it extremely attractive and classy. Out of all the themes I showed my friends and colleagues, this was the one most requested.
Fourkey
Fourkey
This theme is probably the most functional and productive one that I have seen. The user can either unlock to the home screen or the default phone, messaging or camera apps. While not special in terms of looks, I constantly kept going back to this lock screen as my daily driver. This is probably the most functional lockscreen in this roundup since it gives you the ability to change the app shortcuts that are available on the lock screen, unlike almost all the other themes mentioned here. You can therefore change three out of the four app shortcuts available on the lockscreen (the fourth one is the permanent unlock icon).
Lighter
Lighter
This is a take on the Dark Theme mentioned earlier, as you can guess by the name. It features the same three unlock options (unlock, phone and messaging), but the layout has been changed; instead of sliding sideways you now have to slide upwards to unlock. It will vary on personal preference, but I found the sliding sideways eminently easier to use. As an aside, as you slide the desired slider upwards, the corresponding app icon will start to glow steadily. This makes it stand out a little more, so I’m not complaining.
Halo
Halo
Not to be confused with the ICS Holo theme (the stock ICS look), this theme is a cross between the ICS and Fourkey lock screens. It maintains the standard icon-with-a-circle-around-it ICS look while giving you the four unlock options. The app shortcuts can be changed in this theme as well, but unfortunately the orange color cannot, which will drive some people away.
Sketch
Sketch
The striking feature about this theme is the art. The ‘sketched’ icons and sliders indicate a a different sensibility of the designers of this theme. I guarantee lots of questions and exclamations from your peers when you start using this theme. Made to feature a purely hand-drawn effect, this theme features a prominent sideways unlock slider with two upward sliders to unlock to the phone and messaging apps.
Papercut
Papercut
This was one of the first themes that was available for Go Locker when it first launched, and it remains one of the more popular options out there. It offers nothing special in terms of the features – in fact there are no options to unlock directly to apps unlike most of the other options shown here. However, the ‘cut to unlock’ design has remained popular, possibly due to how well it works with similar paper-inspired Go Launcher themes.
Ray
Ray
This theme offers one of the more striking lockscreen designs I have seen, partly inspired by the Nexus live wallpaper. It has the same Nexus style ‘rays’ flying all over the screen and gives the same sliding unlock options, albeit with a different flavor, as can be seen in the screenshot.
ZWhite
ZWhite
This theme exemplifies the very essence of what a minimal theme should be. There are no options to unlock to applications. Instead, all that is displayed is the time, date and a small and simple red unlock slider. This theme will go perfectly with the multitude of minimalist themes available in the Play Store. Missed calls and unread messages are also displayed as required.
iLock HD
iLock HD
Here is another take on an aesthetically simple lock screen with an understated slider. There is nothing that would make me recommend this theme over another one; it will come down to personal taste on the layout of the design.
lockFX White
lockFX White
This is the theme that ended up replacing the Fourkey theme as my daily driver. In fact, this takes the best of the ZWhite and Fourkey themes and blends them into one extremely desirable package. The black and white contrast looks amazing, it remains true to its minimalist roots, and it gives users four unlock options. The lock style is derived from the Quad ICS lockscreen which is seen in ROMs like AOKP, and is the best lock style I have used to date.
Other Options
As you can imagine, there is no shortage of themes out there. Here are a couple more places you can look for further designs:
I’m always interested in finding more. Got any suggestions?
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