this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy

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Maybe something for the Pixel phones? I've been using ADW for a long time now, and was wondering what some frequently used launchers are. (I used Cyanogen for a long time, too.)

There are lists all over the internet, but I'm interested in what the Lemmy crowd likes. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks guys - a few of these were on my radar, some I hadn’t heard of or seen in the Play/f-droid lists. Having the reasons why you like each of them helps me figure out what I want from a launcher (for instance, the purchase of Nova by a company known for its data collection is a big turn-off even though it seems loved) - since you guys laid out some pros and cons of a bunch of launchers, it gives me a better picture!

Edit 2: You guys, this is a great resource for figuring out which launchers look like something worth trying (for me), and which ones are in the stores but not what I'm looking for. Without just trying them all, that is... And considering that I hadn't even heard of all of them...

This has been a huge help for me, and I hope some others out there got something out of the post! I should be replying to everyone, but I'm not ... Sorry. But I did read everything and have already started compiling a list in my head, and started tagging and categorizing. And those who included screen shots and links and lists and opinions and FOSS alternatives/forks - they helped! This whole thing helped!

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I use the Niagara Launcher, it serves favorite apps up in a vertical list, and other apps in an alphabetical list. It's very quick and easy to navigate and quite customizable with some widget support. It works with music apps, has a dark mode, makes changing icon packs easy. You can swipe up to search, or add a search button. I just love how minimal, clean and functional it is.

Here is my home screen. Note there is no left or right screen to swipe to .

Here is the app list, under N.

Some settings

And the app store link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bitpit.launcher

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I second Niagara. It's just a great way to keep a simple home screen, but has plenty of power features if you want to dig deeper

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Just in case people aren't aware Nova was acquired by Branch. Putting it out there so people can decide whether that matters or not.

https://www.androidpolice.com/nova-launcher-acquired-by-branch/

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Pixel 6 pro. I use Nova launcher. It works great and is very customizable, especially with icon placement. I recommend it.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Sadly Nova was purchased by a Chinese company with a history of invasive data harvesting last year.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I had premium up until a year ago, but I can't recommend it anymore after their purchase.

Choose open source, people.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

+1 for nova. Bought premium of it years ago(I think its like $5 but goes on sale for $1). It has tons of customization and works well

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Nova, Nova Nova.

The level of customization is well thought out, and the gesture controls were out of this world when it came out. I've been using Nova for about 5 or 6 years if I'm not mistaken. Don't care to go back to anything else.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I migrated from windows phone to android and loved the windowsphone interface.

I use squarehome. It is infinitely customizable and with a little work the cleanest ui imaginable.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nova Launcher. It's AOSP-like but upgraded and that works best for me.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I refuse to use Pixel Launcher until I can remove the Google search bar

I’d also like to be able to change my icons. I use Nova atm

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Nova, but the devs sold out and are VERY aggressive towards the community if they question the motives of the new owner, so if I wasnt so ingrained in it, I probably wouldnt recommend it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

It was that aggressiveness that persuaded me to finally dump Nova - I saw people (including myself) asking perfectly reasonable questions a d the responses were not at all encouraging.

I tried a few other launchers, and eventually settled on Total. It's a bit fiddly, and takes a while to set up but it's VERY customizable. I really like it.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

LawnChair, it's open source, customizable and has drawer folders

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I've been using Nova Launcher for years now, but I explored other options a few months ago because of the ownership change. Lawnchair was the best one I found, but I didn't switch to it because it looked like it was missing features I needed. Folders was an important one.

Which version / source are you using for the app? I got a bit lost trying to find a recent version. The last release on the GitHub is from 2018, and the last prerelease is from a year ago. There's also an issue for the folders which I was following, and it actually just went stale: https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/issues/2471

I also see Lawnchair2, but that looked like a fork or something

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Niagara. Beautiful and efficient. Truly a step above other launchers.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I use Kvæsitso. I like that it's more search focused and has a clean homescreen with just the clock and a search bar. You can scroll up to see widgets arranged vertically or scroll up to show the app drawer. It also looks nice because it supports the new Android design (Material v3) and dynamic colors. It also supports dynamically colored app icons like lawnicons and has an option to color all other icons as well.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I use Niagara Launcher, because it's minimal and quite comfy.

EDIT: The latest update (that I just applied) has put a lot of the features I use (custom font, battery percentage) behind a paywall. I will be looking for alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

+1, Niagara is really good, it's clean and fast.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Another +1 for Nigara. Been using it for 1.5 years now. Never going back to regular home screens again.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it's not on F-Droid, it's probably out to get you.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Nova Launcher. I tried other launchers recently but they either have some unacceptable jank or are currently awaiting a major update. Nova Launcher remains the most stable with great customization.

[–] arthur 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Niagara for my phone, just a simple short list of most used apps, the time and climate as front. I like the minimalism on the small screen.

For my tablet, I use Action Launcher. It have some nice features like a easily accessable (by gesture) alphabetically ordered list of apps.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

What I really like about Niagra is that the whole app drawer is on your finger tips. One just intuitively starts holding a certain point on screen which will roughly open the alphabet with which the app you are looking for starts.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Nova.

Works well and really clean.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use KISS. it's super minimalistic, allows fro hiding all the unremovable crap all phones come with today, and is basically a search bar with 5 icons on top. I have my Proton Calendar as the sole widget and that's it. Single screen, no fuss.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I'm loving my paid version of Nova. there's a great free version if you wanna try it out too and there's a crazy amount of customization. I'm on a Pixel 5a right now and with the Pix Material You Light/Dark icons it's quite nice. I do think the default Pixel Launcher is more polished, but Nova just has so many options that I've gotten used to enjoying.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Nova. Clean customizable UI that stays out of the way while looking good.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Another +1 for KISS, it's such an amazing launcher. I'm actually surprised to see it mentionned so much in this thread.

I have my 5 most used app on top of the search bar and my most used apps (that get automatically sorted by usage) readily accessible. The search feature + tags is so powerful, there's no need to scroll through the apps anymore when looking for something.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

I can no longer even imagine my phone without Niagara.

IMO the developer managed to capture exactly how a phone should work while mostly staying out of the way.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Niagara. With Whicons and a black background. All monochrome black and white. To keep me from distractions πŸ˜…

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Another vote for KISS (https://kisslauncher.com/) and Kvaesitso (https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso/).

Both FOSS, both search based. Depending on your taste you might find KISS perfectly simple and Kvaesitso a bit bloated; or KISS too basic and Kvaesitso more feature packed and complete.

I'd recommend trying both and deciding for yourself.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use KISS launcher

its named on a philosophy

keep it short and simple

it is a small launcher under 1MB launcher while others are about 20-50 MB so it keeps the code simple

another thing it has is that it is focused around using keyboard to search for apps and using history to launch activities, if you call someone or open and application, you get that activity first at the bottom (one hand reachability) and then other activities with chronological order going above (away from your thumbs) you can change the mode from this to frequently used apps, recently frequently and others

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I use Niagara with a live wallpaper called Wallow. It just creates a beautiful and simplified experience for me that has all the features I need and gets out of my way when I don't.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I use KISS nowadays, simple, if I need to open an app, I search it; no need to look for it on the home screen. More than enough for what I do on my phone.

That said, I need to give a shout-out to TUI Launcher. I love the amount of customization it gives you plus the terminal-esque functionality. I'd have probably stuck with it if only it had the search menu that KISS has since I want to see my icons again.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Niagara

A couple people here mentioned Kvaesitso so U had a quick look at that, it seems really neat and customizable too.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

KISS launcher, it's simple and quick. It is a search based launcher. It is also open source and on fdroid

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

mlauncher- a minimal text based open source fork of Olauncher

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I've been using Nova forever. Any new phone doesn't feel right until I install it. I like the customization options and the scroll for all apps.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (9 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Nova. I keep trying new launchers but I don't like the text-only minimalist or the others that look more like Samsung's default. I've been a user for a long time and I still love it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Sure, lawnchair and KISS are two popular options. Both are in f-droid.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm a pixel user. I switched to Niagara. I didn't like it at first, but now I love it. It's just very different from what you think a launcher should be. It's not my forever launcher but I enjoy it for now. It's been a year or so

(I used to love Cyanogen. RIP)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Used to use Niagara launcher, but moved to kvaesitso since it's FOSS. Both are very very good.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I used Nova Launcher on my S20 Ultra, and on my S7 before that, massive improvement over Samsung's default. Haven't installed it on my p7pro cause I really like Google's launcher, and I don't believe I had it on my p2xl either.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I use Hyperion Launcher. I bought Nova launcher back in the day, but I left immediately when it was acquired by a data collection and analytics company.

Hyperion launcher basically provides all the same features as Nova launcher. It's a less intuitive to set up, but once you have it set up, it's just as good.

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