Asklemmy

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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