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!
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.
This is probably the only expensive android app i’d recommend people buy
I bought the lifetime pro for $12.99 CAD way back in Jan 2020. Worth every penny. I’d pay double to be honest, now that I’ve had a chance to use it for years and years. The dev really works at it too.
Yeah my whole $10.99 (US) was covered by Google opinion rewards credit. It was a steal!
Hahaha yup.
Me: Yes I went to the store yesterday, yes I paid by credit card, No I don’t have a receipt.
Google: great, here’s 47 cents.
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.
Subscription 🤢
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.
$30 for lifetime is pretty reasonable. There were some things missing when I first tried a year or two ago. Maybe I’ll try again.
Checkin it out, how can i find Web Apps i installed via my Browser?
when you install a web app, it should show up in the favorite apps list. if you want to be able to search it, tap and hold it, then tap “Show in app list”.
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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That’s nice. Needing to know what version to stick with is additional information people will find handy if they choose to use Nova over a general “I use Nova” recommendation. And whether buying a premium license to stick with an older version is something they want to do for those who never bought Nova.
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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.
Well, shit. I just bought it the other day and started with it. Had nfi.
FYI, you can download a version from before the acquisition. I’m running the 7.0.25 release and restricting network access on both the base app and the premium license. Not sure if it’s foolproof, but hopefully I find a launcher that does app drawer tabs at least as well.
Can you give any more detail on this? I really like Nova and was really sad when it was purchased. I’ve tried a couple different launchers, but I don’t like any of them as much as I liked nova. How did you get the old app? Just off some APK website? And then just install the license from Playstore? Or is there someway to download old versions from the play store? How are you restricting it’s internet access? Would live to try this and get back my Nova launcher .
Yeah, I just installed the apk from an older release off apkmirror and installed Pro from the play store. I also disabled auto-update in the play store for both. You should look up if your OS can disable network connectivity on an app to app basis, the steps are different on each OS but it’s usually buried somewhere in the settings. If your OS is unable to do so, I would use Netguard to prevent applications from using the internet.
Edit: Like someone already mentioned, the apk for each release is also available in the Nova launcher discord server.
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Oh, thanks for letting me know. I’ll downgrade again, I doubt there’s much of a feature difference between those releases anyways.
Aw heck.
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.
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+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
Same. Had Nova for many years and many phones now (with the help of Nova’s backup and restore).
Plus for Nova, I’ve had it for years. I don’t use it to it’s fullest but it makes it so much cleaner and I can organize how I like
I’m still using it but since they were sold last year I have been thinking of switching.
Another +1 to Nova from me on my Pixel 6.
It has enough features to solve whatever problems you have with default. Its easy to setup and customize. Its responsive and never had any issues with it. Easy to recommend.
Yup, another Nova user on Pixel 6 here
Exact same setup for me… Been using Nova for years since the Nexus series.
Very happy with Nova here.
Exact same setup for me… I’ve been using Nova for years since the Nexus series.
Fellow Nova user here. Love it.
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.
I’m actually also using square home. No complaints.
I rather like that. Might have to try it.
I downloaded squarehome cause of your comment and I like it a lot. Are you using and icon pack? How did you get your icons so clean?
Its the whicons pack. The rest is just optimizing squarehome through trial and error. Change borders here, resize tile there, etc. Theres a ton of customization. Once its set the way you like it, you will carry it through the next phone and the next phone.
Yessssiiirr, I miss my windows phone and have been using Squarehome since I got a Galaxy
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.
Outside of what is likely a privacy nightmare at this point within Nova, they haven’t added a feature in like 8 years, just seems silly for me to keep using it, wish I liked another launcher more >_>
Niagara. Beautiful and efficient. Truly a step above other launchers.
+1 for Niagara.
Used Nova for years. But after the sale, I quickly said goodbye to it. Niagara is so strong that I don’t even miss Nova.
I use Niagara now and absolutely love it, although it took some getting used to. It’s very much minimalistic compared to Nova (I used Nova for many years before Niagara, but switched when they were bought).
Niagara users unite! I was on Nova for years until the ‘troubles’. Niagara is a solid replacement, if very different.
Is there a FOSS alternative to Niagara?
Unfortunately not. I looked thoroughly for one.
I agree with this completely.
The simplicity is lovely.
But it is not only simplicity it is beauty and usability.
If it’s not on F-Droid, it’s probably out to get you.
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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.
Really? That sucks. I’ve been using nova for like 10 years
I still use NOVA but it is the version before they merged in the buyout stuff. One day it might break but it’s the best option for me right now.
One feature I haven’t found on any other launcher is the ability to use both folders and tabs in my app drawer. In Nova I have my app drawer in 3 tabs. Apps (ones I use daily), games, and everything else. On top of that I like to use a few folders in the main app page to collect things like all my home automation apps, food apps, work apps, etc.
Lawnchair came closest a couple years ago but could only do tabs or folders but not both.
Oh man, I had no idea about that.
I’ve been using Nova for something close to a decade now I think. I just toss it on my new devices and move on, it’s done what I wanted for ages (mostly for the adjustable grid, but I’m sure there’s some features it has that I’ve stuck with that I just feel are default at this point, stock launcher just feels weird).
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
Looks really good! Do you know, how i can hide the Marker from my Browser on Web Apps like Voyager aka wefwef?
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.
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
For me it’s the stupid left home screen that you can’t use.
I was going to post this exact comment. My Pixel default launcher had a huge amount of wasted space at the top. I also use Nova.
Check out Lawnchair2
I could probably even settle for just being able to take the logo out of it. Last thing I want in my personal data device is to have a corporate logo of an ad company staring me in the face all the time.
I just personally love Sesame instead, don’t care about the logo really
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.
+1
Also it is pretty simmilar to KISS and also Open Source
Took me a few tries to find it because I searched for your spelling lol: https://kvaesitso.mm20.de/
The link to the github repository: https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso Kvaesitso has been my launcher for the last 6 months and I’ve been very happy with it. Quite a lot of customization options, but with really well thought-out limitations and restrictions. It is available via F-droid.
Kvaesitso is really good, but I keep coming back to Kiss. Even if you put your most used apps on the bottom of the apps drawer (instead of the default, on top), they’re not as easily accessible compared to Kiss.
On Kiss, the history/most used apps are easily accessible with one hand, without needing to move it.
Just tried it out and have to say, looks slick!
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.
+1, Niagara is really good, it’s clean and fast.
Another +1 for Nigara. Been using it for 1.5 years now. Never going back to regular home screens again.
I mean if you really like it why don’t just give the devs some support?
10€ per year or 30€ for a one time payment seems a bit steep for a launcher, especially when it is more on the slim side feature wise
Nova Launcher. It’s AOSP-like but upgraded and that works best for me.
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.
As someone thinking of switching to KISS, what is the “tag” feature?
You can add multiple tag to apps (all my games are tagged “game”, all my Lemmy apps are tagged “lemmy”). You can then search by tags, just like regular searches.
Very cool!
Only issue I have with KISS is I can’t for some reason clear whatever it is that is setting an icon for my PWA for voyager. It shows the updated icon in recents, pixel launcher doesn’t have it updated though either which makes it harder to tell if it’s the launcher or fennec (Firefox) at fault.
Edit looks like it was kiss. Regenerating icons doesn’t work. Clearing data does. I exported settings, cleared data, added pwa, icon changed, imported settings. Only downside is I lost my history.
This launcher is what I loved about the search bar on windows 7. I would just type in the app I wanted and it would open…
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.
Nova was bought by an Ad company a while ago and is now out for your data btw.
Do you have a source about the data collection?
https://novalauncher.com/privacy/
Relevant collection:
- Personal data
- Tracker, Usage Data
- Any personal data tracked in 3rd party integration Bugsnag’s privacy policy, which includes at least breadcrumbs, crashlogs, diagnostics, other app performance data, user ID and device ID, but can be configured to capture a lot more
Basically, they collect a lot more data than they need to for “just providing a launcher”. They’re identifying you as a user, tracking what you do, and they’re absolutely selling it to data brokers/etc.
Source: My company sells data too
Thank you! That is indeed concerningly more info than they need. I will see if I can find an open source alternative that fits my needs.
- Personal data
It’s sad that they were bought by an ad company and it’s something I didn’t know about. However, my data has been everywhere for years. I generally accept privacy policies knowing full well companies sell my data. It’s something I think people should definitely be aware of, but when it comes to me personally I’m generally okay being a product to ad companies especially since I’d rather see ads that are interesting to me than random crap. It really is just my personal opinion though and I genuinely think people should be educated about their online privacy.
agree also bought nova, what i like is configuration import/export im on my third phone with the same homescreen layout and settings and I only had to recreate widgets
