Which non-standard / unpopular launcher do you use?
Hey c/Android,
We always keep hearing about Nova Launcher, Smart Launcher, Niagara etc, and I wondered how many of us here are using unpopular or underrated launchers.
In my case, I've been using AIO Launcher ever since I got my Fold 4, as it's one of the few launchers that have proper foldable support.
AIO bucks the minimalist trend and instead focuses on an all-in-one approach. It's USP is it's plethora of built-in widgets, including music controls, integrated notifications, emails, RSS feeds, timers, dialer, and more. For advanced users, it allows you to control the launcher via Tasker, and you even create your own widgets using LUA scripts!
So, do you use a non-standard/unpopular launcher, if so, which one and what's your setup like?
I've tried a couple of others and apart from incredibly slow scrolling in the app drawer it really is decent. I like the tasks and calendar integration a lot.
I've been using Lawnchair for a while, but development is so slow, and they are so consistently behind Android updates, that I think I've given up on custom launchers and will just use the stock AOSP launcher.
It is disappointing, but Google has made it so you don't get the fancy recents carousel unless you use the stock launcher. Lawnchair does support that by pretending to be the stock launcher, but Lawnchair only supports up to Android 12, and Android 14 is about to come out. There hasn't been a hint of Lawnchair even starting development of Android 13 compatibility, so I'm not confident they'll be able to keep up with 14 and beyond.
SquareHome launcher. Emulates the experience of a Windows phone user interface. I've never had a Windows phone, but the functionality was quite appealing, and I've made it my own.
This is somewhat unpopular in this crowd, but ever since Nova got bought by an ad company, I use pixel launcher. I don't actually need customization like more apps per row. The default is good enough.
It's a very simple launcher which makes accessing your favorite applications easy and quick, no matter whether your finger is in the top right or bottom left of your screen.
Srsly.. Anything else takes too many gestures to get anything done. I don't want to swipe up from the bottom of my screen to get recently used. I want to swipe in the middle where it's easy to reach.
I use a couple of launchers and there are so many that are unpopular in the lot... Hell even Nova became unpopular in some "circles". So I'm just going to name 3 launchers that I enjoy and that were not mentioned in the comments until now: , and
Hyperion just got updated. I started using it because it seemed more customizable than Nova... But then dev got stucked behind and Nova beta at some time was almost adding a new thing every month...