Minimalist android launcher suggestions
I'm looking for suggestions for a free, customizable minimalist launcher for my android smart phone. I am currently using indistractable, and while I like how it looks and the core functions, I don't like that I can't redirect certain apps, and it seems to have problems syncing my calendar. Ultimately, I'm not opposed to buying the premium version of this, but from my understanding that wouldn't provide the functionality I am looking for.
I did a little bit of researching and right now I'm looking at Lawnchair 2, Takan, and Olauncher as alluring alternatives. Does anyone have any experience with these, or any other recommendations? Primarily something that is entirely free, but if there is something that has a one time payment that really knocked your socks off I'd be open to that as well.
I've used Niagara Launcher for a few years. Highly recommend. I set my app icons to "dots", remove the alphabet from the sides and remove the music widget from the home screen. This makes things feel pretty minimal to me. It has a notification summary as well with glancable calendar, battery, and weather on the home screen.
Niagara Launcher
Edit:
Niagara Launcher has a $4 annual subscription for the Pro version, but that is ultimately up to you whether you think it's worth it.
I'll second Niagara Launcher. Easily the best minimal experience, great for one hand use and honestly makes it super hard to go back to other launchers. They continue to add more features and the free experience is pretty good if I remember correctly.
While you can subscribe, there is also a one time purchase you can do instead. It was definitely cheaper when I purchased but I believe it is $29.99 now which is definitely worth it in my opinion if you end up liking the launcher.
I'll add a third for this one, minimal, but full of unique features to massively improve your experience.
You can also replace any of those main widgets with your own, I use a task list.
Main, all those categories open the main app on click
Folders, all those categories reveal "hidden" apps when swiped
I set a custom font (IBM Plex) and added custom icons (Mainly from Whicons). Widget/Tasks is TickTick.
I use the TickTick widget as well. The set up is so good I try other things and always come back to this.
Yet another voice for Niagara. I used to be a big customiser and tweaker, via the old favourite Nova Launcher, but the simplicity and lack of too many options in Niagara are unbeatable IMO. It's highly opinionated, but I don't mind that, since its opinions and mine seem to overlap rather nicely.
I've been a happy usr of Nova Launcher since almost the beginning of Android. Equivalent of a windows 95 theme on windows vista.
Same. I've been using Nova for years across three or four phones. I bought Nova Premium because I enjoyed using the free version so much. Their export functionality makes it so easy to switch to a new phone.
Has Nova changed materially since it got acquired by that analytics company?
From what I've heard, no. Aside from the obvious concerns of giving an analytics company the level of access a phone launcher provides, there has been zero complaints about them since.
A month ago they celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the buyout with this tweet which includes the rather tongue-in-cheek sentence "That also means it has been 1 year since we promised your data would be safe and (shocker) we were telling the truth!".
To me it still feels like that statement is "It's been one year since we bought the bomb and we haven't exploded it once!", but I do have to commend them on that even if I still refuse to use their launcher anymore.
Not at all, and last I read no further data has been aggregated, anyways. So far, basically 0 changes.
I've been using Nova Launcher for I don't know how long. It feels like 10 years or more. It throws me off when I see other peoples' phones with the standard launcher.
I'm using KISS Launcher. The navigation is smooth and the launcher is really lightweight. Kiss differs from conventional launchers in that it places more focus on the search functionality for navigation, but it works well once you get used to it. Also, the launcher adapts according to your usage making it easier to access your frequently used apps.
It's available on F-droid
I feel like a lot of launchers in this thread aren't minimalist, moreso 'clean' designs packing lots of features.
KISS really does have a small footprint. I use it to remove everything from my home screen except the search box. This way every time you pick up your phone you have to be intentional: instead of browsing the apps you have available, you open your homescreen and think, 'I picked up my phone because I want the browser.' and type 'B'.
There's a great argument for it, and it's definitely minimalist. But maybe not much different then deleting all of the launcher icons from your standard launcher? Either way, using the keyboard on my phone is the single most annoying thing to do on a phone. Having that be the first action I have to make on my phone when I pick it up is annoying to me. That's probably different for many of you, though. I grew up on keyboard & mouse, then T9, so the phone keyboard's virtual keys has always been more cumbersome for me compared to those.
[edit]
I wanted to illustrate another big reason why search is such a cumbersome way to interact with devices. I use an app named gStrings to tune my guitar once every month or so when I bother to pick it up. I rarely use this app so it's never in my predictive icons. It's been supplanted by an "updated" paid version named gTuner. I almost always have forgotten the name when I want to use it. I search for "guitar" and get zero results. I search for "tuner" and get zero results. If I tap through looking for more results I'll almost always get linked to the Play Store which brings up the paid version that I don't have.
KISS learns over time the apps your selecting for each search, which I feel puts it a few steps above just a standard search. For instance it would learn when you type C you almost always want 'Chrome', whereas a standard search would always put 'Camera' first.
You can also set tags for each item. I have 'Tusky' tagged 'Mastodon', because that's typically want I start searching for. You could tag your guitar app with 'guitar' so that it comes up on search.
But I think you have your mind set - using the keyboard is almost always going to take longer. It's a very different user experience, there's no changing that. For me, at least, that's the point. It's rarely a life or death situation to get an app open (maybe you'd fumble if you wanted to take a quick photo?), and my muscle memory makes it *almost as quick, and just as second-thought.
I use Lawnchair, and I love it. The reason I switched is because the default OnePlus launcher has the slowest and most inaccurate searching functionality, it was driving me up a wall. It was also super slow. Lawnchair has way better search, and it's faster. It reminds me of my old Pixel phones. I would super recommend it!
I haven't seen the launcher I use mentioned yet: Unlauncher. My screen time easily dropped an hour easily between using that and eliminating all non-critical notifications.
My six pinned apps are:
I use Lawnchair, and like it, but have been pretty confused at its development status.
What I have installed is Lawnchair 2, which was last updated 4 years ago.
But I've been aware of a rewrite that was known as "Lawnchair 11" that I believe is now called "Lawnchair 12". I don't think it has ever left alpha, and the last release they did was a year ago (Version 12.1.0 Alpha 4): https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases . Most of the activity on the repository for the last year has just been bumping up dependencies.
I think there was an issue last year where the lead dev quit after learning a contributor was adding proprietary code into Lawnchair, but I didn't pay enough as it was happening to give an informed response. Here's an article. That may (or may not) also impact the development status.
So if Lawnchair doesn't currently meet your needs, I'm unsure that it will moving forward.
That being said Lawnchair 2 does everything I want it to, which isn't a ton. My home screen is barren, no icons or widgets. I just go to the app drawer for everything, and the search bar integrates with Sesame Shortcuts.
I’m using Lawnchair 12 on my Android tablet, which I selected simply because it was the closest thing I could find to a “normal” launcher (design isn’t quirky or overly minimal, etc) without cruft. Seems fine so far, but it’s only been a week.
YMMV though, I don’t really need more from a launcher than what the Pixel launcher or iOS Home Screen provides.
I've been using Kvaesitso (got it from F-Droid but it's also there on Github) for months now. I switched after Nova got sold, tried several apps, and stuck with this one. It's not entirely minimal, but I found it hard to navigate an app drawer with just text so I was looking for an app that would have icons and also support icon packs. It has a couple of neat features I like:
I haven't used any of those you mentioned, no. But I did try a few different ones a few years back, until I landed on Final Interface. It's not really minimalist the way Indistractable and its ilk are, but it's tidy and stylish, and I like the widgets. I think the only difference between the free and paid versions is you can't use custom wallpapers on the free version.
Tried Niagara but funnily found it more complicated to use than Nova so I went back to Nova like I always do. Nova combined with Sesame is awesome if you miss iOS’s Spotlight feature.
If you want minimalist, you want Aero Launcher. Can't get more minimal without actually getting in your way.
I'm using Discreet Launcher. It's available on F-Droid, but I believe you can get it on Google Play too.
I've set it up so my home screen only displays the time, and I can immediately access my most-used apps with a left or right swipe or a double tap. That functionality is particularly handy if you only use a few apps regularly I think.
I use OLauncher and can't see myself going back. I even managed to convince a friend to use it, and as far as I know, he still is.
It's simple, fast, free and open source.
It doesn't show icons and allows you to hide and rename apps.
I do have two qualms:
I would use something like Olauncher but I rely a lot for my calendar and such being always visible due to my ADHD.. So I can't really use it.
I use KISS launcher now since it lets me add widgets to the main screen, so I have all I need.