Still No Jelly Bean For Your Android? Get Its Best Features with These Apps

It has not been all to long ago, Google released Android 4.1.1 named Jelly Bean. If you want to check out all the main improvements in detail check out this article. It's been the fastest and the most feature-rich Android OS till date. Though it's great to see these new technology already released, the update schedule to actually implement it on the broader level is rather unacceptable. Though it is now roughly around 3 months from the initial announcement of Jelly Bean at Google I/O, there are hardly any devices other than Nexus devices (Which receive updates directly from Google, of course!), that are running on Jelly Bean 4.1.1. Even there is a large number of Mid-range Android devices that are still waiting to receive Ice-Creme Sandwich 4.0., and even those who do get the update might not see it until a year after Google released it, if not longer.

So, if you're tired of waiting for the updates, and want to have a feel of Jelly Bean, you certainly can tweak your Gingerbread or ICS running Android's UI to get the visual feel of Jelly Bean. Though, to get the performance boost like Jelly Bean, you will have to wait longer, of course. So instead of waiting for either the update or a new phone, you can take advantage of some of the features it provides right on your current version by way of apps.

Locker & Launcher

The Launcher is not updated much in Jelly Bean from Ice Creme Sandwich. So, any Ice Creme Sandwich launcher will perfectly serve our purpose. In such case, you can opt for having Holo Launcher which is same as stock ICS/Jelly Bean Launcher.

Whereas, the same story gets repeated in the locker department as well. The locker is also kept unchanged. There is just a slight change in animation from ICS, nothing else. So, to have the locker same as Jelly Bean, you can opt for Holo Locker. It's 99% same as Stock Jelly Bean Locker.

Wallpapers

As said earlier, the Jelly Bean is more focused towards system performance rather than UI changes. So, it naively doesn't offer much of new Wallpapers from ICS, but still there are some worth considering. 

You can install Live wallpapers via this app and Static Wallpapers via this app. 

Status Bar

To have a complete feel of Jelly Bean, you might want to change the status bar to that of Jelly Bean. There’s also an app which takes care of that for you, and includes a couple other customizations which make the app quite worthwhile.

Keyboard

The major improvement for Android in Jelly Bean is it's keyboard. It's highly responsive ans well spaced out to grab your keystrokes smoothly and also it's prediction technique is awesome and saves lots of time typing long words. It's a must have app for any android device.

You can download Jelly Bean Keyboard from this link. The only downside is that only ICS users can install it, so any Android 2.x user won't be able to use it. :(

Options For Rooted Devices

Image Courtesy : xda-Developers

If you own a rooted device, then in my opinion, go for any custom ROM like Cyanogenmod (CM) to get the feel of the new OS rather than waiting for the official updates, which never come as promised if you own a device other than Nexus. Only Nexus devices gets updates faster than ever. So, waiting for the official update for a rooted device is not worth it. If you're rooted, you must have to be on ICS or Jelly Bean until now in my opinion. And if you're still stuck on Gingerbread, you might consider installing any Custom ROM that has support for your device. If you don't know whether your device is supported or not, just leave a comment for me, I'll surely help you out.