Im noticing that theres alot of launchers like ADW, LaunchPro, Open Home, etc...I would like to get some input of people who has some experience with each one. Which one has the most options? im looking for more transparent kinda stuff...so maybe which one has the ability to make specific windows transparent. Also ease of use, which one has more themes/icons avialable?
Thanks
I think you will find most people use either launcher pro or adw launcher.
From my experience i had MAJOR force crash issues with OpenHome. I wasnt a fan of pandaHome it was sluggish for me.
Between ADW and Launcher Pro, I think they have very similar features if you arent paying for launcher pro plus for the sense like widgets.
ADW has more themes on the market however you can download any icon you find on the web (usually .png files) i believe for both so you can customize your "theme" and layout very easily to what ever you want.
I personally have the paid version of launcher pro (only available ont he website) because it gives you a sense like people and book mark widget and i wanted to support the developer.
I dont think you can go wrong with either one.
personally, I'm a big fan of adw launcher. I like that I can modify how many rows and columns the home screens have, and also I can set the size of widgets on the screen. I don't know if launcherpro will do that as well, but even besides that, ADW is hugely customizeable, and I swear by it.
I tried Launcher Pro, but it wasn't (imo) a very good Launcher replacement. ADW.Launcher is much better, and with the Paper theme it is my favorite out of all. PHome was very slow, and I didnt really like it in general.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App
I use ADW because of how its integrated into Cyanogen.
However Launcher Pro seems to move quite a bit faster in terms of scrolling and app drawer opening/scrolling.
Just my $.02
~Jasecloud4
I think the two top ones are ADW Launcher and LauncherPro.
I find myself switching between the two.
Personally find myself favoring ADW Launcher recently because it is open-source, and you know how Android fanboys loooove open source.
Thanks for all the great replies guys, im currently using the built in adw that comes with CM6 it is highly customizable...but i did find launcher pro to have a lot more options tho...anyways im going to stick with adw for now its working out pretty good so far.
omegasun18 said:
I think you will find most people use either launcher pro or adw launcher.
From my experience i had MAJOR force crash issues with OpenHome. I wasnt a fan of pandaHome it was sluggish for me.
Between ADW and Launcher Pro, I think they have very similar features if you arent paying for launcher pro plus for the sense like widgets.
ADW has more themes on the market however you can download any icon you find on the web (usually .png files) i believe for both so you can customize your "theme" and layout very easily to what ever you want.
I personally have the paid version of launcher pro (only available ont he website) because it gives you a sense like people and book mark widget and i wanted to support the developer.
I dont think you can go wrong with either one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I get the bookmark widget? I only see "people" in my launcher pro plus.
I had to update and they changed the process. Bookmark widget seems a little flakey with images.
If I could have the dockbar from adw put onto LauncherPro I'd have my dream launcher.
Yea seems most (like with roms) will swear by one launcher or another. IE the person saying launcher pro wasnt a good launcher replacement. I have use both and cant see how someone using ADW could say launcher pro wasnt a good launcher replacement since they are so similar in features and performance over all (in there current state, it is possible the person tested it a while back and maybe it had issues or something then).
I get slightly faster speeds on launcher pro as well. You can set the number of vertical icons on launcher pro same as you can on ADW for horizontal icons you can get more icons app to let you have 8 on any.
As for making the dock bar the same on ADW and launcher pro i may play with my launcher pro and see how similar i can get it. sice you can set each action and create different dock images/icons and can clear icons i can probably get it to be very similar at least in look i will let you know and if i can i will place a tut.
I use both since I play around with CM6 as my experimental rom. I just never worry about customizing deeply my non daily drivers.
LauncherPro Plus, for the win!
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
Launcher pro for its sheer beauty and fluidity. ADW just seems to stutter around like the waterboy.
I gotta say Launcher Pro. especially now that it is coming out with some very nice looking widgets for people who liked the Sense UI stuff.
I do really like the customizations of ADW though. I wish Launcher Pro would incorporate the widget size customizations you can do. That would rock.
if ADW had the 3D drawer and was as smooth and pretty as LauncherPro I may switch.
takmsdsm said:
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
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And what makes Rosie so superior? Its complete lack of customization and features?
TheBiles said:
And what makes Rosie so superior? Its complete lack of customization and features?
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I wouldnt say that it cant be customized? There are a ton of themes out there for Rosie. What features are you exactly looking for?
Sorry, but a herky jerky "3D" app launcher isnt exactly mind blowing. Its a waste of screen real estate on the top and bottom. Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Its little things like that that are more annoyances. Sense, no matter what rom, or kernel, I am using, has always been smoother and done everything I asked. Plus some of the HTC widgets are downright useful and better looking then their vanilla counterparts.
This is all my experiences of course, and YMMV, but so far I just havent been impressed by other launchers.
takmsdsm said:
Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
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Click to collapse
I'm using LauncherPro Plus v0.7.1.0 and it does allow you to change the message button to handcent. It also allows me to change it on the people widget.
Am I the only one that just likes plain old Launcher 2? I mean Android is so customizable already, I don't see why you would want so many different options.
I tried Launcher Pro and ADW and of the two I liked Launcher Pro better but the plain Google-made Launcher 2 is still the smoothest in my opinion.
takmsdsm said:
I wouldnt say that it cant be customized? There are a ton of themes out there for Rosie. What features are you exactly looking for?
Sorry, but a herky jerky "3D" app launcher isnt exactly mind blowing. Its a waste of screen real estate on the top and bottom. Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Its little things like that that are more annoyances. Sense, no matter what rom, or kernel, I am using, has always been smoother and done everything I asked. Plus some of the HTC widgets are downright useful and better looking then their vanilla counterparts.
This is all my experiences of course, and YMMV, but so far I just havent been impressed by other launchers.
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The "message button?" Do you mean the dock icon? If so, mine has been set as Handcent for quite some time.
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.
takmsdsm said:
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Total agree, Sense is just so much smoother and doesn't crashes/freezes like adw and launcher pro. Plus I've use both for a while and got really frustrated with the constant freezing and force close and alway end up switching back to sense. Until stock froyo comes out on my phone I'm sticking with sense.
im just wondering what you all think about the launchers like metro ui, zune home, spark*, slidescreen, etc... all the launcers that are just different from what is normally seen, at least from what i see. whats your opinion on them and do you know about any others?
Actually I just switched from touch-wiz for the Samsung to generic Android in Paragon 5.1 and really like it. Naked!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I like LauncherPRO, mostly because it has five icons to the bottom that can be swiped sideways to show an additional 10 icons (all customisable) and you can either tap the icon or swipe upwards to initiate a second function. (Like have a maps icon, tap it to launch maps or swipe upwards to run Navigation.) These, of course, can be edited to do whatever you want.
yeah i do too but im talking about completely different launchers the whole interface
What?
From the looks of your first post, it sounds like you're referring to launchers, but from the look of this last post, it looks like you're talking themes or ROMs or something a bit more drastic.
sorry. im probabably being too vague. so most of the popular launchers have screens that you go through and are pretty much the same (go launcher, launcher pro, adw launcher). all these are really similar other than their different ways of customization. im looking for launchers that drastically change the interface, like metro ui for example it changes the interface to the windows 7 interface, slidescreen changes it to some interface with a bunch of information, as do the others
The only Launcher I have experience with that changes fairly drastically are SlideScreen and Spark, but you're already mentioned all of them. Sorry.
Tried slidescreen for a while but it felt gimmicky. I simply stick with LP or ADW.
MIUI Style Launcher Localized And Compatible With All Devices.
If you’re anything like me, you can’t get enough of MIUI. It’s polished good looks and big bright icons are impossible to get out of your head (like that hot cashier at Walmart). Only problem is, the ROM is only available on a rooted devices. Since I have yet to take that plunge, I’ve resorted to other methods. Take this this beautifully styled MIUI homescreen replacement on XDA for instance. After finding this Chinese MIUI launcher in the Market called Tencent Desktop (from the developers of QQLauncher), XDA user Quinny899 set to localizing the app for all us westerners.
In what will no doubt be a make-or-break for most, just like the MIUI ROM, gone is the familiar Android app drawer you’ve come to know and love. But that’s exactly what gives this launcher a true MIUI experience. You’ll find all of the MIUI styled app icons, dock and folders and even a handy themeing engine. If you’re wondering how to get the transparent notification bar, well that’s for the more experienced rooted users.
Download here: http://phandroid.com/2011/08/18/miu...zed-and-compatible-with-all-devices-download/
Nice. Been wanting to try the ROM but my uptime has been rock solid so don't want to reboot.
This seems to be the updated version.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1220695
This launcher looks awesome! But the lack of an app drawer doesn't do it for me. Can't have pages and pages of apps, just doesn't feel right.
If they combine the look of this with the functionality of Go Launcher EX then we'll defo be onto the best launcher ever.
It is nice.
I just stumbled up a newly released launcher called Arikui Launcher on the Play Store, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arikui.launcher
This simple but extremely smooth running launcher shows how launchers should be done. The swiping and animations are very well implemented and are extremely smooth and responsive. I have set my page transitions to the in and out animation and love the performance. Even tapping on an icon there is an extemely smooth and well done fall away animation. Coming back to the Arikui Launcher there is also another very well done and smooth run in animation.
The Arikui Launcher can be made to look similar to a Windows Phone home screen or a Nokia Meego rounded icons home screen. I went with the Meego style by setting the corner radius of the icons to maximum. It looks modern and stylish in a minimalist way.
I am running it on my Galaxy Note 2 and compared to Touchwiz or any of the other Windows Phone style launchers, nothing holds a candle to Arikui in terms of performance. The only thing this launcher needs is to make the icons/tiles resizable.
I hope other launchers can run as fast and smooth as Arikui and perhaps some devs could decompile it to see how it runs so smooth.
CircularLogic said:
I just stumbled up a newly released launcher called Arikui Launcher on the Play Store, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arikui.launcher
This simple but extremely smooth running launcher shows how launchers should be done. The swiping and animations are very well implemented and are extremely smooth and responsive. I have set my page transitions to the in and out animation and love the performance. Even tapping on an icon there is an extemely smooth and well done fall away animation. Coming back to the Arikui Launcher there is also another very well done and smooth run in animation.
The Arikui Launcher can be made to look similar to a Windows Phone home screen or a Nokia Meego rounded icons home screen. I went with the Meego style by setting the corner radius of the icons to maximum. It looks modern and stylish in a minimalist way.
I am running it on my Galaxy Note 2 and compared to Touchwiz or any of the other Windows Phone style launchers, nothing holds a candle to Arikui in terms of performance. The only thing this launcher needs is to make the icons/tiles resizable.
I hope other launchers can run as fast and smooth as Arikui and perhaps some devs could decompile it to see how it runs so smooth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
id like to try it does anyone have the apk for this launcher?
tcc1 said:
id like to try it does anyone have the apk for this launcher?
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Click to collapse
It's free on Google Play. The link is in the first post of this thread.
i just ordered an f1
has anyone used a different launcher on it? ive heard it mentioned in reviews but nothing definite
I use smart launcher pro and works well. Only issue is sometimes after a reboot the colour OS launcher kicks in as default.
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paul_cad44 said:
I use smart launcher pro and works well. Only issue is sometimes after a reboot the colour OS launcher kicks in as default.
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coolio
I use google now launcher, Only issue is sometimes after a reboot the colour OS launcher kicks in as default.
Make sure you go into app management and default apps and select your preffered launcher as default. IMO, it's actually a better way to do it than other phones where you just start the launcher and wait for the OS to ask which one is to be default.
I also use Smart Launcher Pro on both my phones, and my wife's. I regularly try different launchers but always come back to SL Pro. It's elegantly simple but hiding some pretty good customisation tweaks and that app drawer is the best I've ever seen.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=8663477108975404679
I installed Ubuntu theme as that is how to get the nicer icons in the app drawer tabs.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ginlemon.sltheme.ubuntu
In my Find 7 I also have the MIUI Icon pack applied to homescreen and app grid.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ginlemon.sltheme.miui.transparent
For a nice clock I have Digital Clock Widget Xperia.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonyericsson.digitalclockwidget2
Set a nice wallpaper (I have a bright Lollipop one).
The phone looks stylish and well integrated with theming, like it came that way from Oppo.
If you must use the ColorOS launcher, you can install an app drawer app from Google Play instead of having to sort through pages of homescreens with a bunch of icons and folders.
I have this one in my oppo Find 7 for the rare times when I use the ColorOS launcher.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=JakedUp.AppDrawer
Simple, small and has barebones permission needs.