I use Microsoft Launcher because it has no ads and lets me customize everything I want to customize, the way I want it to be; which is like how Pixel Launcher was when it first came out but better. Thought I would be fine with Pixel Launcher on the Pixel 8 I have now, but I couldn’t change how many icons displayed in a row or column so Microsoft Launcher is still my main launcher.
I switched to Lawnchair after One UI 6 rolled out on my phone with ridiculously ugly app icons. Way too large with an annoying font. I also found out that I prefer searching for apps over the app drawer method the default launcher forces.
All that’s missing is also having the recents screen be from Lawnchair, but that’s apparently still in the works for Android 14. If it’s rolled out, I might consider rooting my phone, maybe even try out custom ROMs.
I’ve settled on Niagara for a while now, largely because of the search and gesture to get there. Frequent apps are on the home screen, messaging etc, then anything else is swipe and type
I use an ancient version of lawnchair 2 on Android 14 because it’s similar to stock while allowing to remove the useless “search with Google” button that’s a complete waste of space, it takes half of the precious home screen
Plus it has enough extra settings for me
Then I actually launch apps using “app swap”, which unfortunately has been discontinued at the time of Android 8, but it still works on Android 14. Anyone knows a gesture based launcher that works anywhere you want? (A swipe from the corner opens a shortcut panel from any app you are, not just the launcher)
Definitely Nova, the beta version. The beta version has way smoother animations if you’re on Android 12 and above, compared to 7.
Of course it has more features including a great search function.
On top of that my main reason is to change the icons, be able to control the transparency and colour of the icons in the top bar and set up my app drawer and dock how I like. Plus being able to set the density of the hinge screen and have widgets overlap etc
I use the default Samsung launcher because none of the other launchers bring anything that I need. In the past I used custom launchers to overcome the limitations of the built-in one, but today I don’t see the need anymore.
I’m using AIO because it had the best native search next to Nova + Sesame without that beng the only feature of note. Currently waiting until LightningLauncher gets reworked enough to use.
Add comment