I’ve seen quite a few launchers on F-Droid, but I really fail to see what their advantages over the stock one are. I mean, what can be meaningfully different about arranging apps in a grid? But I guess the existence of so many options goes to show I just don’t get the gist of it.
So what launchers actually provide some interesting features that make it worth switching to them?
I’ve been using the TUI Launcher for like a decade now. It’s kinda been abandoned, but it still works perfectly fine.
I used Niagra for the longest. But there’s no way to pay for pro outside GPS. Like a lot of apps I’ve paid for over a decade ago I can no longer use (shakes fist at SleepAsAndroid). That said, I’m trying a new one called Minimal SL from F Droid. I was immediately drawn to it because of the Minimal Phone 2 launcher, which I hope becomes available or ported soon. I may buy one soon as a primary phone and keep my now primary phone for bigger screen tasks/media.
So far I like the shortcut for apps. Start typing the app name and it immediately opens. A simple task list at the bottom.
I primarily switched (to Kvaesitso) because I don’t use Google search and it was impossible to remove the Google search bar from my home screen on a Pixel. I do enjoy the greater degree of customization as well.
Went from Nova via a few others and ended up with a minimalist beauty that demands nothing : Mako (f-droid) (I miss the double tap off but use the quick settings ‘lock screen’ button).
I switched to KISS launcher a while ago (years ago?)and I absolutely love it. It is search based but you can have tags for apps which allow you to have something akin to folders. If an app fits two tags then so be it, it will show up in all the tag folders, so organisation can be much cleaner. It is also blazingly fast and keeps things clean.
Yeah, KISS is great. Tag-based searching is so flexible.
I love kiss launcher too! Why bother with folders if you can find the app with typing in two letters in the search bar? A few apps as favorite is pretty useful too
Lawnchair seems to be a better experience over stock, as it has a lot more customisation options. Though my experience with it is that it has rather slow updates and icon packs don’t work saperate from the app drawer and home screen. It should, but it didn’t work for me
Kvaesito: minimal UI with many unique customizations/features.
I also use this one, with one line of fixed apps and one line that changes based on usage levels. I use the delta app icon pack as well to standardise the look a little. Search for everything else, supporting tags so that e.g. 3 different parking apps come up when I type parking
When I see other people paging left and right searching for their app from a disordered list, I’m really glad I switched
I can somewhat recommend Dragon Launcher. It’s gesture based around “app circles”. You arrange your apps in custom circles of arbitrary nesting and swipe to get there.
The main downside imo is the extreme pace of development; most releases fix this or the other issue while introducing new bugs. The config format also doesn’t appear particularly stable through upgrades, it’s probably time for a config reset for me.
I remember when that was launched and thought it looked like a novelty, but checking it now it looks incredibly mature. I’ll give it a go today. It actually looks really good. Thank you.
It’s definitely polished a lot. Still I’d be happy for development to slow a bit now.
Is it slop code or just move fast and break things?
I use kvaesitso and love it, but it’s certainly an opinionated approach. But while it is search focused, you can customize it to make it more traditional
I wish Niagara was FOSS and actually let me costumize my home screen without AI bullshit. I just like my alphabetical list.
I think there are a few now… iirc victoria launcher is one of them.
Grace launcher is also very similar to Niagara.
Will check that out, hell yeah, thank you
Minimo launcher is a fantastic foss text based launcher, like Niagara
You have AI bullshit on Niagara? I looked around on mine and dont see it. I’ll uninstall right away if I see it.
Its in their customization options. The built in wallpapers and shit are all AI.
I dont use those, once I see it in the features like AI chatbots its gonna go. Many of the “Ready Made Themes” are the same images that have been in Niagara since it was in beta. So I dont doubt there are AI themes but many in there are older than AI.
unLancher, baby. Just…look at it.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.jkuester.unlauncher/
Sleek. Simple. Sexy. Salubrious.
Niagara or Pro Launcher. I accidentally paid for the latter before realizing Niagara does the trick just fine.
It’s been a while since I tried Niagara, but I’ve been using Pro Launcher the past few years. Earlier this week I decided to try a more traditional launcher again. It was terrible. 😆
I like that Pro gives me the second set of apps on the right. Then a swipe in from the left gives me my Capy feed while a swipe in from the right brings up Pro’s built in quick notes. Swipe up for all apps going straight to search.
Quick update: my home screen went totally unresponsive after I posted. Then I realized I was tapping at the screenshot. Derp.
The minimalist ones take a different approach, and are really great at encouraging less phone use: minimo launcher, fokus launcher, olauncher and its variants, etc. There’s some theory around why grayscale and text are less addictive than colorful icon grids, widgets, and multiple pages, but I can’t find it right now.
I’m currently on murine launcher because I have a tiny phone, but I use black and white icons with arcticons.
Love olauncher. Using it for a couple years.
Yantra launcher for weirdos who like the feeling of cli. I used to love tui-launcher but it was abandoned. I tried switching back to normal launchers but even minimal search-based ones feel clunky. It’s the only kind I’ve tried that felt qualitatively different
Yantra launcher for weirdos who like the feeling of cli.
Red 5, standing by
I use μLauncher, quite minimal and text focused which is great for my clicks case
