Asklemmy

Apex Launcher. Left Nova a while back and it offers basically the same features without the aggressive bullshit. And while the pro version is somewhat subscription based the lifetime price (7€ here) is absolutely reasonable. `

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.

Currently using Lawnchair 12.1 and their icon set, and I'm quite happy with it!

I like Lawnchair, it's FOSS, runs very beautifully and supports gestures (though that requires root and Quickswitch module)

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.

Action Launcher

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.

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.

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 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.

In a post life I ran LineageOS for quite some time, then happily used the stock launcher through my OnePlus days.

When OnePlus took a turn for the worst, I hopped to LG followed by Samsung (and have been on Samsung Note/Ultra devices since). When I made that switch, I first landed on Lawnchair! A clean, quick, simple AOSP-like launcher that had everything I needed, including a Google feed to the left!

When Lawnchair left active development (it is actively being rebuild, I should check in on it) I looked to re-create the same look and feel on an old on-and-off friend. Today, like many others, I'm on Nova Prime with the Google Feed extension. I have my config saved and backed up, lest I need to restore!

It's simple, and with the muscle memory I have from the AOSP launcher days, I'm resistant to change 🤣