I bought and paid for Nova Launcher like 15 years ago and it’s been my go-to for that time; however, over the last year or so it’s been abandoned and is a buggy mess.
What ship should I jump onto? (stock google launcher is giving me the ick)
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Been using the Fossify suite for a while. The Fossify Launcher works well enough.
A search-focused, free and open source launcher for Android
What ever comes pre-installed on the device. I stopped caring around the time when they stopped making cool new smarphones. It has became just a tool since.
What is an android launcher?
Smart Launcher gang checking in. I am also a Nova Launcher refugee, and I found that Smart Launcher had similar features and ease of use.
AIO Launcher It’s something different
Lawnchair. An improved Launcher3 that I use in place of Lineage’s built-in launcher.
I don’t really like text-only “simple” launchers as the icons help with quickly figuring out what app does what. Some of the features the AOSP Launcher3 lacks are present in Lawnchair/(mainly more customization over existing features).
I tried Lawnchair the other day and found it severely lacking.
What does a launcher do, what can a non-default one do (or not do) that warrents the effort to not just use whatever the default is?
Niagara. It’s simple and clean. All I need is an app drawer and a few favorites, and that’s basically what it provides.
Same here. It’s very smooth. I wish there were a few other customization points, I’d rather use my own weather app than the built in one, and I do, but then end up with different forecasts as they use different sources.
Minor complaints, but still a little friction that could be solved.
They actually fixed my minor complaint which was allowing folders on the home screen so big props to Niagara for that one.
Agreed. They have steadily added new features that don’t bloat the experience. It’s just a little too constrained for my tastes, but the rest of the Polish makes up for it.
Action launcher
Lawnchair
Will check it out, thank you!
I switched to Olauncher a few years ago, and I cannot use anything else now. Works well for me.
+1. Olauncher is fantastic
Stock GrapheneOS
I used to spend a lot of time configuring different launchers (including Nova Launcher) but since I’ve switched to GrapheneOS, I’m actually quite happy with the stock launcher. It has everything I need — multiple home screens, widgets, folders. And I use App Search as dedicated search and secondary launch app that I’ve set up as digital assistant for gesture invocation.
I love KISS.
I change the settings to set swipes for common apps like browser and camera, set others as favorites like email and messaging apps, and then set it to show nothing else except the search bar. Tapping the search bar shows commonly used apps, or you can a search.
Works great for my “workflow”, and leaves the “desktop” almost completely clear. Then I have the wallpaper set to the NASA astronomy picture of the day. Works great!
I love KISS for the minimalism. I even hide the favorite bar, hide icons and make the search bar transparent too, just tap bottom to bring up recent apps + fuzzy search.
Awesome! will check it out, thank you for the suggestion!
A warning, it’s different from a normal launcher. That’s why I love it!
I used to use KISS but now I love Pie Launcher, I just wish it bugged less often (sometimes I have to kill it and restart it) and I wish we could have folders to open too.
