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!
Pixel 6 pro. I use Nova launcher. It works great and is very customizable, especially with icon placement. I recommend it.
Sadly Nova was purchased by a Chinese company with a history of invasive data harvesting last year.
I had premium up until a year ago, but I can’t recommend it anymore after their purchase.
Choose open source, people.
I tried a whole bunch of launchers after they were bought, but none were nearly as good as Nova in my opinion. Either buggy or lacking features I have grown accustomed to. I ended up just installing TrackerControl and turning off Nova’s internet access entirely. It doesn’t require any networking for any of my needs, so just disabling its internet entirely was fine.
Microsoft Launcher
It’s free, it’s customizable.
According to Exodus, it has 4 trackers and requires 68 permissions.
It can also be configured to report the location of the phone it’s installed on to another Microsoft account holder, as well as what apps the person is using and how long they’re using them.
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
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
I third it. The fact that you can customize something as fundamental as your home screen is what makes android superior to ios, at least for me. Niagara makes my interaction with the home screen so much more efficient.
Oh boy. I love Niagara. I’ve used it one every phone for quite a few years now.
Two of my favorite features are the ability to tuck widgets into folders. I use the system ui communications widget in my messaging folder to take me straight to my most used chats.
When you connect to bluetooth, it automatically pulls up a now playing widget (it’s hidden when bluetooth is disconnected) and pulls up links to my music/podcast apps. It’s so dynamic and highly customizable.
You can read about their pricing structure (both sub and one time purchase) and decisions regarding that here : https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/104-price-of-niagara-pro
I locked in the lifetime price years ago, I have been with them through the beta. I know the lifetime price is higher now but I think they still offer it. I think it’s worth the price, subscription or lifetime.
LawnChair, it’s open source, customizable and has drawer folders
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
Lawnchair 2 is the next update to Lawnchair, but it is in alpha release stage. Here is what you want
To be honest, I can’t remember where I got the apk and since its only a launcher without internet access I didn’t really care about updates.
The first search result (https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair) seems to be very active with the last change 9 hours ago.
