Android users who don't use the stock launcher - what launcher do you use, and what do you like about it?

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

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/

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Nova launcher. It is the only one I manage to configure so the app drawer is opened via macrodroid (almost) only.

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.

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.

Nova.

Works well and really clean.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Niagara

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Niagara

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.

I use nova launcher. Idk if it's the best one tbh because I've never needed to try another. It's allowed me to easily replicate my favourite menu I had back on my HTC onem8 for the past several years and move it to new phones whenever I need to without any issues, so I guess I like the high customizability in that sense, and how easy it is to set up and use. You mentioned that the company that acquired it it's a turnoff for you so I guess it's not a very helpful suggestion, but the app itself has very few permissions on my phone and I don't think that any permissions are actually necessary, though don't quote me on that. But it just has files and media allowed and hasn't ever asked me for more. As far as I'm aware the same team and original creator are still the ones working on Nova, and they've said they won't let the launcher start tracking people without permission. They've said users will be able to opt out of any new features, and any data collection involved will be optional. So unless things change drastically in the future I have no reason to stop using the launcher. I know when people hear it was acquired by an analytics company they automatically turn away, but imo analytics are only an issue if they're forced. If I'm allowed to opt out then I'm fine with it. But some people aren't willing to tolerate even that, so I guess it depends on where you stand regarding that.

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.

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)

Lawn Chair

any foss launchers?

KISS. At first I didn't like the lack of multiple home screens, in a way these are replaced by swipe gestures in KISS, but after getting used to them they're much quicker to trigger actions than pressing buttons. It turns out I don't miss multiple home screens that much either.

I tried using Lawnchair, but I missed the "search-first" property of KISS that makes opening apps really quick.

KISS Launcher, it's dead simple and just what I need.

It clears all the clutter from my screen, I can search for any app I want without trying to remember where I put it on my homepage, and it has a history for quick access that's really handy.

mlauncher- a minimal text based open source fork of Olauncher

Kiss launcher for me

An old version of Nova from before the big data collection switch. Use it because it has a scrollable dock. I have all apps inside folders in the dock, the folders are sorted by category. I can scroll between app categories & get to any app within 2 or 3 touches.

I really want a launcher which has a scrollable dock with a user defined news feed such as NeoFeed.

Smart Launcher has user defined categories which negates the scrollable dock requirement, but the news feed is Microsoft which is as bad as Google in my eyes.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to know them

Lawnchair https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair

Since Nova has been bought I've replaced it with Neo Launcher. I like it 'cause it gives the option to resize widgets, customize the size of the home screen grid and add swipe up actions to home folders.

Smart Launcher

Light weight and still feature rich. It automatically sorts apps into categories. It makes it so much easier to find the apps to launch.

I cannot stand the near endless long list of unsorted apps you get with most launchers.

Nova us the best for me, always been. I also used Lawnchair for a long time and it's almost as great if you're fussy about Nova's new owner and stuff

Nova was the best till the ownership changed hands.

Lawnchair & MS launcher been pretty good.

Nova and Niagara seen to be the overwhelming favorites, but I like Smart Launcher. My brain doesn't cooperate with lists of apps in alphabetical or whatever, I lose apps or forget the name. Smart is great because it categorizes the apps into six default categories automagically, and you can edit/add/delete the categories or which category each app gets sorted into. So my Internet apps are on one space, games, media, etc. Makes the list of apps much easier to deal with. Not that it's perfect. Sometimes apps go weird places, but that's easy to fix. There's a bunch of other stuff, but that's my primary reason for using it.

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.

Nova launcher. I like the custom icons, specifically the Line Free package. I also wanted the wrap around scrolling for home screens which wasn't a feature on the first phone I put nova on. No idea if it is on my current phone because I went straight to Nova.

https://ibb.co/RcD7w2Q

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

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.

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.

Kvaesitso, it's simple, beautiful but has a lot of functionality, customizable and open-source :)

Microsoft Launcher

It's free, it's customizable.

Action launcher (paid version) is my go to, some features I love about it:

• Allow for a desktop grid of up to 12*12, which I havent seen on any other launchers I have tried, I believe Nova had something similar, but not sure to this degree.

• The brilliant folder icon being the shortcut to the app which was the first app to have been put in it feature. You can later shuffle the app around to change it, of course. You swipe down on the folder icon to reveal the items inside like usual, but if you just tap on it, the app which is first in the list opens up, a very good time saver in my opinion.

• Widget stack is a cool feature also, where you can add similarly sized widgets to a single block of space on which you can scroll through to see the information as it suits you.

• Customization level is very high, you can have a dock, a drawer, and also a quick drawer which is a vertical list of apps, and all of these simultaneously too.

• A high level of gesture support. My phone just got an update where I have to swipe down from different sides to see notifications and quick settings, which are not changeable by default. With the action launcher settings I have sort of found a work around.

It allows me to have a minimal looking desktop with a lot of functionality and a high degree of customisation, very much worth the price.

Olauncher is open source minimalist launcher. VERY minimalist. You can get up to 8 apps on the home page and swipe down to search for all other apps.

nova launcher because its what i've always used. plenty fast and pretty customizable

KISS , I have used if for ages , so much more effective. Always Use FOSS , especially for the launcher that always have a lot of permissions.

Indistract launcher Haven't found a better minimalistic/clean launcher even though it has some bugs. My home screen:

Lawnchair, it does everything from nova that I liked

KISS Launcher. Perfect companion for a hardware keyboard (https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry).

In general, you use it like the Windows start menu. Type the first few characters of an app name, hit enter and there you are.

Lawnchair alpha

Nova

I've never used anything but Nova for years and years now.

OLauncher here. I'm sick of all of the color and intensity and business on my home screen. I switched to a text-based launcher (which also has an excellent search function and intuitive home screen interface) and I've really enjoyed it.

Prior to that I used Nova for many years.

Lawnchair

Olauncher - very minimal, no distractions. Shows the app's full name instead of icons, handfull of links on the main page, the rest can be found in the app drawer in a long list of app names.

Edit: just saw the mention here of mlauncher, an open source fork. Making the switch now 🙂

Launcher 10

I use it because I got a smartphone too late for the Windows Phone era and I would've loved metro in a handheld form factor. I use it on my Pixel 4a.

I seem to be like most and while I've tried tons, I've always stuck with Nova (at least since I switched from Apex).

My main sticking point and the reason it'll be a long time before I switch? I NEED to be able to assign up/down swipes on icons. Tap opens app/folder, up swipe opens another app/folder, down swipe opens another app/folder.

At this point my homescreen has 6 icons and within 2 touches I can get to any of my 500 apps with nearly zero scrolling. If anyone knows another launcher that can do that, I'm all ears.

Total Launcher -- I didn't see this mentioned anywhere in the comments. When Nova sold out, I tried out a handful of launchers and landed on Total for the customizability.

Permanently Deleted

I've used ton of diffefent ones over the years but always come back to Nova

I use mLauncher, a fork of OLauncher. I like how simple and clean my screen is.

I use smart launcher. Have for probably 7 or 8 years. Never paid for it... Free version is perfectly functional. Pixel 6 pro.

I have six icons on my home screen, I love the double tap feature that can launch another app from those home screen apps. The app pages take no more than 3 buttons to find any app since it is sorted by letter or category.

It's easy. I haven't even really thought about using anything else.

I'm using Lawnchair, have been for a few years now. It does everything I need it to without getting in the way.

Neo Launcher https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Launcher

Action Launcher. I like "covers" which are groups that launch the first item on tap but can be swiped up to open the group normally. I like the quick launch side tray thing, and the alpha list… I guess also I got sick of changing launchers and it does nothing I hate so I can just standardise on it.

For non FOSS i use Niagara, for FOSS i use Kvaesitso

Well, as my main stock launcher is the cringe Poco Launcher, I'd say Pixel Launcher Extended.

Olauncher .It is very minimal and less distracting.

Pixel 6 Pro here, had been using Nova Launcher for ages and purchased a license for it. Once it changed owners I swapped to Hyperion launcher, while it is decent and has similar functionality to Nova is just not quite the same. I suppose it depends on how picky you are about privacy...

Another vote for KISS. Took some getting used to, but now I have trouble using any others.

The search is so handy.

I use KISS launcher. It is simple and I love it.

Stock Launcher is boring and doesn't have the features I'm looking for. It's been two or three years since I'm using Niagara Launcher and I absolutely love it. It's clean, innovative and makes my phone way more usable imo

Olauncher, Foss and actually minimal

Nova was my jam for the longest time, then CPL (Customised Pixel Launcher) due to its google feed integration & good customisation. Now that I've stopped using the google feed (I get my news from reddit lemmy) as well as it isn't actively maintained anymore, I've switched to Neo launcher as it's FOSS as well as having a very light footprint and specific features such as categories in the app draw.

Ive used Niagara a lot, but eventually got bored and started using Smart Launcher.

I love the simplicity of Niagara and customization and organization of Smart.

Pixel 4a 5G, Nova launcher.

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.

I used Smart Launcher for a long time but have been using Niagara for the last few years. I appreciate the minimal interface but being able to find things quickly. Currently using a Pixel 6.

I've been using Nova for a really long time. When I get a new device, I'll check out whatever isinstalledg for a while, but I always end up going back to Nova. Easy to use, hides apps, enough customization without being overly technical.

Apex Launcher. Left Nova a while back and it offers basically the same features without the aggressive bullshit. And while the pro version is somewhat subscription based the lifetime price (7€ here) is absolutely reasonable. `

On a Pixel with GrapheneOS

I use KISS, I wanted an opensource launcher

Its quick actions, history and tags are exactly what I need.

You need to customize it heavily to get it to look good: I use a very minimal amoledBlack&white config with Arcticons and I love it

Olauncher. Super minimalist. Love it. The best part imo is the app drawer. Instead of cycling through endless pages of icons that are always being changed so that I can never remember what I am actually looking for, it uses a text list of all apps. Just start typing the name and it will automatically complete and open the app. It's literally changed my life 😂

Maybe not life changing but it is sooooo much nicer for my flow

Currently using Lawnchair 12.1 and their icon set, and I'm quite happy with it!

I used nova for years, until I discovered Niagara. It's so effortless to find and launch the app I'm looking for

Pixel 7, Niagara launcher. I find it much easier to find apps by starting letter then any other method, it looks very clean and has everything I need

Lawnchair. It mimicks the Pixel launcher quite well, which is my favorite stock Android launcher, and is much better than default OneUI. To be honest, I dont care for phone customization as much as I used to, but Lawnchair just works. Not to mention its FOSS and has a great themed icon pack that covers every app I use daily except for the Lemmy app Liftoff.

I technically use the stock launcher... from my first ever Android, the OnePlus One. It used to ship with CyanogenMod preinstalled, which had the Trebuchet launcher. I got used to that, so when CM died I found Evie on the Play Store which is a port of Trebuchet. I still use it to this day!

I'm pretty much forced to use the Samsung launcher as I can't live without the gestures. I've tried multiple launchers and the gestures are always broken in some form or fashion.

But...using Goodlock has made it bearable.

I like Lawnchair, it's FOSS, runs very beautifully and supports gestures (though that requires root and Quickswitch module)

I'm on Pixel 5 and my vote is Niagra! It's utterly unique among launchers, most of which are more or less the same but with different customizations. It's difficult to say what makes Niagra better for me, but now that I've gotten used to it (not easy but worth it) all the samey launchers just feel so much worse.

I have used many over the years. Lots of great ones, but it came down to taste for me. A few faves were Niagara, Nova, Lawnchair and the stock Pixel launcher. But for the last few months, I have gone back to Square Home. I was a huge Windows Phone enthusiast, so I just really wanted to go back to that vibe. It took a decent amount of time to get it set up and exactly how I wanted. Worth a try if you want something different.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ss.squarehome2

Action Launcher

Neo launcher, it is foss and can use Neo Feed (which is also foss) it is stable, has cool features and a backup function. Also it is under active development.

Nova honestly. Though it looks rather vanilla but its what i live with.

Ruthless launcher! Came from a Pixel to Samsung and can't deal with their UI. Ruthless allows mostly replicating the Pixel look I'm used to.

Probably not very helpful for you on a Pixel, but maybe it helps someone else :)

Discreet Launcher user here. I wanted something that would remove everything from the main screen and Discreet Launcher was it. I looks nice with Arcticons too.

Since it's not mentioned, I use Before Launcher to help reduce phone usage. It still has some customization, folders, and a notification filter to block out noise.

I've used Action Launcher for something like a decade now. I love it, because it allows you to use folders with a "default" up. If you click on the folder, it launches the default app for the folder, but if you slide up on it, then you can see all of the apps in the folder to access them.

However, it doesn't work well on my zfold, so I've had to retire it. I'm still looking for a good alternative

In a post life I ran LineageOS for quite some time, then happily used the stock launcher through my OnePlus days.

When OnePlus took a turn for the worst, I hopped to LG followed by Samsung (and have been on Samsung Note/Ultra devices since). When I made that switch, I first landed on Lawnchair! A clean, quick, simple AOSP-like launcher that had everything I needed, including a Google feed to the left!

When Lawnchair left active development (it is actively being rebuild, I should check in on it) I looked to re-create the same look and feel on an old on-and-off friend. Today, like many others, I'm on Nova Prime with the Google Feed extension. I have my config saved and backed up, lest I need to restore!

It's simple, and with the muscle memory I have from the AOSP launcher days, I'm resistant to change 🤣

i use evie but evie doesnt exist anymore the playstore thing is a scam

I like Nova Launcher. Compact. Flexible. Consistent interface regardless of what craziness Samsung tries to impose. Good gesture customization. Don't need to learn anything new.

Smart Launcher. The app drawer is set up like my Palm Pilot (tabbed categories). Over the years it has added more features but the only gesture I really use is double tap to turn off the screen.

Nova was my first third party launcher but SL has an easier set up for the same effect (for my case).

Permanently Deleted

Permanently Deleted

Evie launcher. It's dead now, but I love it

Marshmallow Launcher.

I got annoyed with how HTC and especially Samsung did their UI, and switched to something that looked familiar and the second feature I looked for was the option to lock the icons.

It's the best using your own launcher when you switch phone your desktop just looks the same.

Pie launcher from f-droid, before I used KISS, but it's too slow for me. Pie is more minimalistic, APK size is literally 150KiB and minimum android version is 2.3

Before this phone (Pixel 6) I used either Nova or Action for a long long time.

I am currently using LineageOS and I just prefer the design and feel of the "Olauncher clutter free". It just werks and does not offer any distractions.

Firefox on android. Ublock+ghostery+all the other plugins I love on desktop. I made a shortcut on my homescreen to beehaw

lawnchair, stopped using it after buying a Samsung tho, i really like the oneui home.
love the ability to rearrange and organize the app list as well as the homescreen.
lacks customization options tho...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.execbit.aiolauncher

I would have loved to keep using ADW2, but it got extremely outdated and started having compatibility issues. I used it since the first major version, now legacy ADW.

Now I use and love Nova (stable branch).

I've been using Apex launcher for years

SmartLauncher, here! I love the way it categorizes my apps for me. I like to have a few frequently used apps on my homepage with everything else tucked neatly away in my app drawer... Unfortunately most other launchers I've used alphabetize your apps all together, which I hate. If I feel like playing a game but I'm not sure which one I swipe to my Games page and just peruse them, for example.

https://kerala.party/post/67594

Bliss launcher for the win

indistractable

Lawnchair launcher, its simpler than pocp launcher, and I can change icon pack of individual app.

Bit of an odd one, but after the Nova Launcher fiasco I tried several launchers also listen in this thread but landed on Hyperion Launcher in the end. Simple, clean and supports icon themes. Did the trick for me.

Minimalist

Do the OEM launchers count?

In that case, One UI Home

I've been using the Arc Launcher for years now, purely for the reason that it looks rad as FUK. Probably better functioning launchers out there, but Arc Launcher looks cool lol

Before launcher is my favorite minimalist launcher. It's very simple and easy to use

I used Nova for years, but it felt increasingly outdated so I switched to Action Launcher. Then it too started to feel outdated after a few years so I switched to Smart Launcher, which I've been loving. I miss AL's side drawer but SL has a lot to offer if you want something slick and simple, with custom widgets and layouts. I recommend you check it out!

Pie launcher from f-droid, before I used KISS, but it's too slow for me. Pie is more minimalistic, APK size is literally 150KiB and minimum android version is 2.3

Pie launcher from f-droid, before I used KISS, but it's too slow for me. Pie is more minimalistic, APK size is literally 150KiB and minimum android version is 2.3

Still stuck on Nova Prime 6.2.18, before it went crap v7 onwards, with internet disabled. Nova Gestures have no replacement.