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!
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.
Same here, I’ve tried plenty of them and landed on Nova Launcher. Even put it on my dad’s phone because I couldn’t get things to be simple for him with the default launcher.
Same.
I know the controversy about the company that acquired them, and I did try alternatives to see what would stick. Nothing really worked for me, so I just turned Nova back on, with updates disabled since the day the news broke about the change in management.
Do you use the Android buttons?
I do keep those at the bottom. Mainly to back out and close out apps.but with Nova, you can customize the look of them.
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 >_>
Nova honestly. Though it looks rather vanilla but its what i live with.
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Before this phone (Pixel 6) I used either Nova or Action for a long long time.
Niagara. Beautiful and efficient. Truly a step above other launchers.
I agree with this completely.
Is there a FOSS alternative to Niagara?
Unfortunately not. I looked thoroughly for one.
Kiss launcher is kinda like it
I’ve tried it before, I think I just went back to Niagara after a few minutes, I’ll try it again.
Kiss takes a while to get used to, but once the apps in your history start getting sorted correctly (mine is by “accessed frequently”), you barely need to search for apps anymore. All your most used apps accessible in 2 clicks.
Also try Kvaesitso
+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).
The simplicity is lovely.
But it is not only simplicity it is beauty and usability.
Niagara users unite! I was on Nova for years until the ‘troubles’. Niagara is a solid replacement, if very different.
I use Nova. I recently bought a Samsung phone and was tempted to give One UI’s launcher a try, but there was one feature that I instantly missed. Forget about all the personnalisation, there was one deal breaker.
The search bar.
The search bar in Nova, especially in the beta builds of Nova 8, is just so good. I can search for any app, yes, but I can also search on the web, on Wikipedia, on YouTube, on Maps, on a ton of things very very easily. It also offers shortcut search, contact search, quick unit conversions and it’s connected to DuckDuckGo, my search engine of choice.
I can also place a search widget on the home screen/dock. I couldn’t do this on One UI’s launcher and I just don’t get why. As someone that primarily opens apps by searching for them (whether that’s on my phone or on a PC), having a quick and easy to access search bar is just essential.
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.
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.
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!
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…
olauncher light ; its all i need…
Yaaaass olauncher is my jam. Just spent a paragraph describing how amazing the app drawer is and I definitely did not do it justice
For non FOSS i use Niagara, for FOSS i use Kvaesitso
I’ve used ton of diffefent ones over the years but always come back to Nova
Been trying a few. Niagara on my phone and Microsoft Launcher for my tablet.
Don’t overly love Microsoft on my tablet honestly. Probably going to choose another listed in this thread to try.
Niagara has been great on my phone though. Just so minimal. Huge fan.
Well, as my main stock launcher is the cringe Poco Launcher, I’d say Pixel Launcher Extended.
Dang that looks sick. Been trying a few since I gave up on Nova.
You need root and I think it only works in AOSP/CAF based ROMs.
Bliss launcher for the win
