Database Info

A Launcher Comparison

Have tried a few launchers over the past few weeks, and made a comparison spreadsheet, take a look-
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...4NmJ4X29sRk43dGc&authkey=CMfSjJgH&hl=en#gid=0
My thoughts
For a fast lightweight launcher, zeam (perfect apart from no notifications in the dock).EDIT - i have since found the appdrawer to be laggier in scrolling than go launcher / launcher pro, so cannot stand by my original near perfect opinion)
For a launcher with themes and lots of visual customisation - ADW EX
For an all round launcher - Go Launcher EX
For an all round launcher with its own widgets - Launcher Pro Plus

I use actualy crazy home pro and is very useful you have 3 desktop whit 5 pages each. Try and add to spreadsheet.
Sent from my X10minipro using XDA App

I use Arc Launcher. It isn't the most customised one but is indeed one of the most stable and refined. I just love the effects of one removing a widget on Arc Launcher!

thanks~~~~~~~~``

Nice, only thing I noticed was that ADW does have notifications with ADW Notifier, but very well done

You compltely missed on the most important thing, SPEED. For me launcher pro has absolutwly no lag at all on an htchero where as all other except zeam do. AdW has a clunky was to organize the homescreens in my opinion and although go launchwr was good, it was a bit laggy and the style didnt suit my taste
Sent from my EVO3D using XDA App

dre89 said:
Nice, only thing I noticed was that ADW does have notifications with ADW Notifier, but very well done
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Click to collapse
spreadsheet amended. thanks for the update

fowenati said:
You compltely missed on the most important thing, SPEED. For me launcher pro has absolutwly no lag at all on an htchero where as all other except zeam do. AdW has a clunky was to organize the homescreens in my opinion and although go launchwr was good, it was a bit laggy and the style didnt suit my taste
Sent from my EVO3D using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, i have to agree with you that speed is important. i have only ever had lags with adw, but until i have the launchers set up with identical widgets i felt it was unfair to rank them on their perceived speed.

What you put in the "home screen notes" row is the reason I didn't use LP or Zeam.
I suggest you separate the "gestures" row into two, one for home screen, and one for dock bar.

Question for those with GO Launcher and Launcher Pro installed -
For the scrollable widgets, how do you find widget scrolling using Go Launcher compared to launcher pro? i find Go launcher very sensitive to left / right movement while trying to scroll the widget making it more difficult to vertically scroll the widgets than launcher pro. I tested this using pure messenger scroll with both.

fowenati said:
You compltely missed on the most important thing, SPEED. For me launcher pro has absolutwly no lag at all on an htchero where as all other except zeam do. AdW has a clunky was to organize the homescreens in my opinion and although go launchwr was good, it was a bit laggy and the style didnt suit my taste
Sent from my EVO3D using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, i have to agree with you that speed is important. i have only ever had lags with adw, but until i have the launchers set up with identical widgets i felt it was unfair to rank them on their perceived speed.
EDIT
Had lags on LPP this weekend...half second delays or so when swiping between screens...

nxdu said:
What you put in the "home screen notes" row is the reason I didn't use LP or Zeam.
I suggest you separate the "gestures" row into two, one for home screen, and one for dock bar.
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Click to collapse
done!
cheers

nepentanova said:
done!
cheers
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Click to collapse
GO has a up swipe for dock gesture.

tanjinjack said:
I use Arc Launcher. It isn't the most customised one but is indeed one of the most stable and refined. I just love the effects of one removing a widget on Arc Launcher!
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Click to collapse
ARC Launcher added (though i don't share your love!!)

nxdu said:
GO has a up swipe for dock gesture.
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Click to collapse
i thought there were only 2 gestures in GO Launcher, swipe up / down on home page (not just dock). perhaps we have our terminology mixed up..

Maybe you should add SPB Shell 3D as well - the launcher for users with too much money

nepentanova said:
ARC Launcher added (though i don't share your love!!)
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the addition of my favourite non-Sense launcher in it. Really like some of the effects that other launchers will probably never implement (like the effect of moving a widget, deleting a widget, going into app drawers etc.)
There are actually 7 screens version out there, and I got it here also from the link below. And there are some variants as well, including landscape mode (something I think is missing in other launchers.)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11856283&postcount=43
I manage to put apps into the dock as well (Miren browser and Dialer One).
Also about GO Launcher, I believe it does support swipe gestures on dock as well - it pretty much does whatever the free Launcher Pro does, except for the all home-screen views.
Maybe you may want to take a look at the NetFront Screen as well. A launcher of different concept, which I still think more works need to be done and more performance upgrade (have lags on my AOSP-loaded Desire).
Other wise, really good jobs on the spreadsheet. Appreciate it.

Have you tried Sweeter Home?

this is great, but just to let you know LPP has "resizable home screen" of 10x10 also

nepentanova said:
i thought there were only 2 gestures in GO Launcher, swipe up / down on home page (not just dock). perhaps we have our terminology mixed up..
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Click to collapse
You can set swipe up actions for dock icons. Just long=tap a dock icon and hit "change gesture."
This means that the dock of GO Launcher can do 10 things instead of 5, or 30 if you use the scrollable dock option.
When you update the dock notes you may want to update the app drawer notes too. You can change the default 4x4 view in the app drawer to 4x5 and 5x5, just like you can for the home screens.
Another GO Launcher note: when you use it it sends data home (probably usage stats). If you don't want GO to phone home you should block it with DroidWall. (Maybe the other launchers phone home too?)

Widget list editor?

Is there a way to edit which widgets show up in the list? Some apps seem to add 10+ variations of each widget! I saw another similar post but no answer was given which makes me think it isn't possible?

rendez2k said:
Is there a way to edit which widgets show up in the list? Some apps seem to add 10+ variations of each widget! I saw another similar post but no answer was given which makes me think it isn't possible?
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Click to collapse
As far as I know there is no general option for all the launchers available to do this. Every launcher handles his widget abilities in a different way.
I use ADW Launcher. This launcher shows the list of widgets but not all the sub-widgets. F.e. in the widget selection list I see "Elixir (19 widgets)". Only if I tap on it it shows me all the 19 sub-widgets.
In some apps you can define how many widgets should be shown in the widget selection of the launcher.

Thanks - I use Go Launcher Ex but don't see any options?
Talking of launchers, are there any launchers which handle short cuts more iPhone like? So, if I drag an icon near another one, it moves it out of the way?

rendez2k said:
Thanks - I use Go Launcher Ex but don't see any options?
Talking of launchers, are there any launchers which handle short cuts more iPhone like? So, if I drag an icon near another one, it moves it out of the way?
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Click to collapse
1) It's not an option you can switch on/off, its a build-in feature of the launcher. Some has it, some not. ADW has this feature, seems in GO it is missing.
2) I know none, sorry.

Highly recommend Nova Launcher for S3

Hey folks,
I highly recommend replacing the touch Wiz launcher with nova launcher. I have found it much more intuitive, and much easier to use. (I am not affiliated with Nova in any way.)
Several advantages:
1. The bottom bar (dock) of apps is highly customizable, with as many apps as you choose. You can also create multiple pages of docked apps, so it's possible to access 10 or 15 apps on the lower dock.
2. The App drawer is automatically alphabetized, unlike touch Wiz, which I find so much easier to use. There are of course workarounds on touch Wiz, but why bother? I just dock the icon for the app drawer on the lower dock so it's always available.
3. Nova has one step back up of your screen layouts so that if you are wiping your phone regularly in order to reflash ROM's, it's trivial to reset your screen layouts by doing a restore from nova. This saves a lot of tweaking time.
4. You can customize the layout of your desktop with variable margins, a persistent search bar on all pages, gestures, and with nova launcher prime ($4), you also get unread counts for SMS, missed calls, and Gmail, which is very nice.
5. Basically everything is customizable and modifiable. I greatly prefer it over the stock touch Wiz launcher. Check out the free version of nova, as it has virtually all the features other than the unread counts.

I personally prefer apex but I can see the appeal in nova. They are pretty similar.

jsb5388 said:
I personally prefer apex but I can see the appeal in nova. They are pretty similar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried Apex but had a super annoying rendering hug that would display a box on the main home screen for a split second...
Not even considering that I spent a few hours tweaking Apex for a few hours (loved that it had so many options) but 90% of the Nova defaults were perfect for me and after going from Apex to Nova was convinced that it was right for me.
Sent from my Galaxy S3

android94301 said:
Hey folks,
I highly recommend replacing the touch Wiz launcher with nova launcher. I have found it much more intuitive, and much easier to use. (I am not affiliated with Nova in any way.)
Several advantages:
1. The bottom bar (dock) of apps is highly customizable, with as many apps as you choose. You can also create multiple pages of docked apps, so it's possible to access 10 or 15 apps on the lower dock.
2. The App drawer is automatically alphabetized, unlike touch Wiz, which I find so much easier to use. There are of course workarounds on touch Wiz, but why bother? I just dock the icon for the app drawer on the lower dock so it's always available.
3. Nova has one step back up of your screen layouts so that if you are wiping your phone regularly in order to reflash ROM's, it's trivial to reset your screen layouts by doing a restore from nova. This saves a lot of tweaking time.
4. You can customize the layout of your desktop with variable margins, a persistent search bar on all pages, gestures, and with nova launcher prime ($4), you also get unread counts for SMS, missed calls, and Gmail, which is very nice.
5. Basically everything is customizable and modifiable. I greatly prefer it over the stock touch Wiz launcher. Check out the free version of nova, as it has virtually all the features other than the unread counts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*1. Love Nova

lowg said:
I tried Apex but had a super annoying rendering hug that would display a box on the main home screen for a split second...
Not even considering that I spent a few hours tweaking Apex for a few hours (loved that it had so many options) but 90% of the Nova defaults were perfect for me and after going from Apex to Nova was convinced that it was right for me.
Sent from my Galaxy S3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Go launcher?

Just fyi... the "work around" to get the app drawer alphabetized is clicking the menu button with the app drawer open and then clicking, "view type" and switching to alphabetized. Not exactly complicated. Or even a work around.
Nova is great, but I'm actually enjoying touchwiz. I do want to switch over and play with nova more... But eh, not seeing a huge need. Coming from sense (which I hated) I'm quite happy on tw.
Though I do miss being able to back everything up
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

How does ADW work on it. I have been rocking them for a while. I am picking my S3 up next weekend when I get back in town. My wife already has hers though and she is rubbing it in my face lol.

adw for ics is apex, is it not?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

doeboy711 said:
How does ADW work on it. I have been rocking them for a while. I am picking my S3 up next weekend when I get back in town. My wife already has hers though and she is rubbing it in my face lol.
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Click to collapse
i start to use ADW ex on my old EVO and is really good launcher, by personal reasons i movo to iphone and now that i back to android i found more launchers, and Nova is really good maybe even better than ADW ex, IMO

Using Apex launcher plus. I tried Nova first, but Apex has a few more features. Just my opinion. Coming from my Dinc running Holo launcher after a VERY long run with LauncherPro (rip).
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

badseed767 said:
Using Apex launcher plus. I tried Nova first, but Apex has a few more features.
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Click to collapse
Same here, I prefer Apex Plus also.

Installed Nova and noticed it was killing my batter so I uninstalled it.

Apex here... Nova didnt impressed me
Sent from Verizon Galaxy S 3 w/ XDA APP

I've been using nova launcher for about a week and I like it a lot. It's very smooth and very fast. It is easily customizable as well.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I noticed Nova was a bit smoother than Apex for me, so I've been using Nova and loving it
Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA App

Any idea what's up with the widget selector for Nova? I click on the widgets tab and instead of the expected widget drawer I get a list of widgets similar to ginger bread.
Is this a feature that's unlocked with nova prime? Or is that widget drawer option something different? Other than that Nova is pretty sweet!

tars16 said:
Any idea what's up with the widget selector for Nova? I click on the widgets tab and instead of the expected widget drawer I get a list of widgets similar to ginger bread.
Is this a feature that's unlocked with nova prime? Or is that widget drawer option something different? Other than that Nova is pretty sweet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried this? On my last rooted phone, Droid Incredible, it worked perfectly. Haven't tried it on this phone though cuz I don't feel the need to root. REQUIRES ROOT:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=780828
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

piiman said:
Have you tried Go launcher?
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Click to collapse
I'm running GL - i like it allot.. runs great on the sgs3 with/ICS theme

Apex and Nova are both based on the stock 4.0.x ICS launcher, so they're very similar, but Apex gives more features for free.
You're definitely making a mistake if you use Go Launcher or ADW or LauncherPro on this phone, since those are Gingerbread-based. The ICS launcher is just a much, much better base.

tars16 said:
Any idea what's up with the widget selector for Nova? I click on the widgets tab and instead of the expected widget drawer I get a list of widgets similar to ginger bread.
Is this a feature that's unlocked with nova prime? Or is that widget drawer option something different? Other than that Nova is pretty sweet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just need root.
If you have root you can go to Nova Settings... Drawer and enable Widgets in Drawer.
Sent from my Galaxy S3

What is mean by users won't be able to disable Magazine UX?

Hello, anybody knows what this mean? Not able to user other launchers such as the tsf and SPB?
http://www.androidauthority.com/disable-magazine-ux-342630/

I take it that it means the stock Touchwiz launcher will require at least one magazine UX home screen, while the others can be standard normal Touchwiz ones.
As an assumption, I think It should not affect installation of other launchers.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

it means that at some point Samsung will realize not everyone.likes.it and will make it optional

It means I'll slap a custom ROM in it as soon as one becomes available.

Markuzy said:
I take it that it means the stock Touchwiz launcher will require at least one magazine UX home screen, while the others can be standard normal Touchwiz ones.
As an assumption, I think It should not affect installation of other launchers.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm this is correct. You must have at least one Magazine home screen.....
I have not found a way to remove it.

Any disadvantage of having it? I am running tsf on my Galaxy Note 2. It is very nice.

Magazine UI was something that I wanted to have but the lack of customization of the other components of the stock launcher were too much for me to bear. I ended up installing nova launcher within 20 minutes of trying to customize stock and haven't looked back. I just can't stand the large margins and gaps on the home screen (not talking the tiled pages but rather the standard ones) and the inability to resize widgets freely or overlap them.

I agree - also installed Nova launcher to get rid of magazine UI. It didn't bring much to the table for me. You can definitely replace the launcher.

Nova Launcher vs One Plus Launcher

Do you like the One Plus Launcher ?
I always use Nova Launcher I like the Google integration which I think you can not do with the native launcher ?

Lean launcher or Lawnchair are both better than either.

Nova is better but if the op launcher had the search in the doc like the ones in pixel then i would gladly use op launcher till then Nova ftw.

So, what about the 1+6 launcher? The title of this post brought me here, hoping to get some info on it. Never tried op1 launcher, anything exciting? I see their icon groups in my phone apps, very colorful.

I like the side drawer for widgets on the 1+ launcher, but the search and icon packs in Nova

I use Apex because I prefer a minimalist shell. It is one of the first things I load on to a new phone. I was so glad to come back to that after spending a (horrible) year on an iPhone 8+. That was a Truly Awful Experience. I couldn't even tell you how malleable the OnePlus shell is- I just never tried. Can it be made rather simplistic- removing the search bar, full monochrome icon branding, etc.? Apex is skinnable like Nova is- same skins work for either I'm told.

I prefer to use Nova due to its customized gesture features. I only have 8 folders and no dock on my home screen, so Nova is the only 1 that allows me to dbl tap the home screen to open up dialer, or anything else that i set it to. Something i do often when driving.

Definitely Nova Launcher. By far the most customizable launcher out there and very theme or icon pack works with Nova. Smooth, snappy and if you sing up for the beta program, you get fairly frequent updates with newest stuff all the time.

Nova...
still not replaceable for me
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6000 using Tapatalk

i buy this phone for its laucher...

Evie launcher over Holo, Nova and basic oneplus launcher
Try the Evie launcher, if you are like me and want to have most important items on the main home page.
in comparison to the oneplus launcher, you can remove the bottom row icons, which take too much space.
I'd rather have a newsfeed in the bottom to stay up to date, above that a smaller app drawer with more apps to reach quicker with my thumb, and above an agenda and todo widget, with on top time and weather.
And in the upper left a moon phase widget, to know when there will be full moon with all the water in our body getting all over the place making most of us feeling funny
here is a screenshot:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hhmmibrxb0gde77/Screenshot_20181003-112143.jpg?dl=0
what would you prefer on your home screen, and left and right screen(s)?

Nova Prime...ftw

Lawnchair v2 CI on PIE (rooted). A lot better than OP.

OP launcher is awesome: fast and clean but with some useful features added. I just get nervous about the fact that I can't hide the app names

I am a big fan of Nova Launcher Prime and have always installed this launcher as my first app on my new phone. Since I updated to Pie, no matter what scrolling/App animation I select in Nova, it's not smooth. What I mean is switching/closing the apps are "jittery" and/or bouncy. I have tried switching to different animation speeds in Developer option. The only setting that gives me acceptable animation is at 1.5X which I have never have to use to tame the animation. I tried even switching the animations off but no go. Anybody else feeling that switching from one app to another is not smooth. For example, if I open chrome browser and switch to Gmail-the first screen (with chrome) sort of bounce before Gmail opens. I have tried switching to stock animation in Nova as well but no effect on smoothness. I do use gestures only for navigation. and not navigation buttons.

AstroDigital said:
Do you like the One Plus Launcher ?
I always use Nova Launcher I like the Google integration which I think you can not do with the native launcher ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've always used Nova in the past on every phone I had, but since I've changed to OnePlus in May, I have to say I haven't missed Nova for a second. OnePlus Launcher is very smooth and everything I need.

Nova Launcher Prime. Can replicate same config between different phones.

NOva since ever....
Must be the first thing i do after buy or flash a phone...

Mord0rr said:
NOva since ever....
Must be the first thing i do after buy or flash a phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Best Launcher!
Gesendet von meinem ONEPLUS A6003 mit Tapatalk

quimbexa said:
OP launcher is awesome: fast and clean but with some useful features added. I just get nervous about the fact that I can't hide the app names
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can... Very easily