Hey hey, thanks for watching my round-up of launchery shenanigans, and please do let me know of any you think are worth including in the next update! (And please ignore any scammy Telegram nonsense in the comments...)
Been using the Niagra launcher forever now, It's simple and quick. Allows me to do just what I want to do on my phone and allows me to be focused. This is coming after I've used loads of other launchers. It takes a bit of time to get used to if you're coming from the traditional launchers.
Tbf it doesn't even take much time to get used to, I've installed it on my mum's phone and she was using it with no problems in one day. I've recently had to change phone cuz my touchscreen broke and I felt impaired without Niagara, it's just so fast compared to normal drawers it's insane
Been using Smart Launcher for about 7 years now. It has just the right amount of customisation without being overwhelming. And the ability to categorise apps is lovely.
Yup I been using smart launcher since like version 2 or 3 when I had my galaxy S3. Bought pro back then too and it did apply to all of the upcoming versions too as I update to them across different phones using the same google account and if it doesn’t just tapping restore pro or ensuring the unlocker app is downloaded from the play store does the trick for me. I love the auto categories drawers/pages and having ability to create folders on the main page to stick in my most used favorite apps.
I put the big launcher one in my grandma's phone. Is just awesome. She was getting quite stress by not being able to use her new smartphone. After the launcher, BOOM! was all gone! It helped her so much you just can't believe. I indicate for everyone that have a similar condition
Been using niagara launcher for many years now. Never felt I needed to change that's how good it is. I also use icon pack studio to make matching icons with my wallpapers. Highly recommend that combo!
This is such an awesome list! I was using default + nova on most of my phones. After this video, I installed Square Home and Smart Launcher 6 on a couple of my phones. Loved them a lot! Got the full versions of both. Can't thank you enough for this list!
What's the view on the new owner of sesame shortcuts and nova?, to be franck I un installed both preventively... Am using exclusively Niagara but miss from time to time sesame...
I've been using the Microsoft launcher for about a year now. The most thing I love about it is the daily changing wallpapers which is the only reason why I still use it.
I have tried many launchers in the past (and still do now), but my favorite for more than 2 years is Smart launcher 6, combined with Shortcut Maker to create folders that are opened by a double-tap gesture, it's a neat way to keep my apps within reach.
Unfortunately all the launcher you can install, you can't use the navigation bar with gestures, only the shitty navigation bar with three buttons you can use!
@@gabotoror yup, in MIUI for instance, the gestures are immediately disabled when you use a third-party launcher, they only work with the system launcher. But I use FNG, the triggers are much more responsive and configurable than the default ones, and although you lose some animations, I don't care much about that. This way I can use my favorite launcher
@@Jesko.2005 Ok man, I have the Xiaomi Pad 5 and the shitty Pocco M3 pro 5g and unfortunately I can't install launcher, because I can't use the navigation bar with gestures on these shitty garbage Xiaomi products! The MIUI is the worst and the most shitty garbage software, and I'm so disappointed with this trash garbage MIUI software! I think the Realme is the best company for the phones and tablets, fantastic and cheaper phones with great specs and amazing Realme UI software! Never go for shitty Xiaomi and Pocco phones or tablets, because they all sucks and are bullshit trash garbage products🤮🤮🤧🤧
Another launcher people may want to check-out is the new Tabs Launcher. Its unique feature is that it let's me organize my home-pages in tabs. This makes it quick and easy to get to what I am looking for (I have lots of apps). Its free and has no ads.
Tried loads of launchers in the past, always gone back to Nova Launcher Prime. I still have my old Samsung Galaxy S2 (in perfect condition I might add) stuffed in a drawer somewhere around here with Nova installed. When I bought the Pixel 7 Pro I installed it on that too, but then decided to just try stock, and now I don't use any 3rd party launchers. I love it as it is. weird :) - but now you've got me thinking about trying other launchers again ffs haha
It seams that the 'put the display to sleep' with double-tap on the screen doesn't work with Nova 7. Is there a way to work around this other than to use the power button for it? Thanks.
From one Brit to another, I love your humour 😆 More money for crisps is always a good thing! Thanks for all your hard work on this, and everything else you do!
Hi! Thanks for this video, I was hoping you'd mention the Niagara launcher! Boy oh boy, I absolutely love this launcher and it's my current Launcher! 😍😍
I've been running Microsoft Launcher since the Arrow Launcher Beta days. I really like the idea behind the minimalist launchers and should probably try one.
I've only got a few that I find myself using. Niagara is the ONLY launcher outside of the Nova 8 beta that makes gesture navigation not look and feel like ass. The other launcher I use would be AIO launcher. It's a unique take on a home screen. Offers material you support, and you can have access to all of your things on one screen that scrolls up and down. If gestures were better supported it would be my go to for sure
This is my problem, too. Navigation gestures on launchers are buggy and glitchy. I always find myself going back to the default launcher after a few minutes, because it's just terrible.
I've tried most Android launchers, except for the newer ones. My default launcher is Nova Launcher Prime. It's rock solid, works as advertised. No bugs, no lags, butter smooth. One of its best features is that I can assign gestures to each individual home screen app Icon. For example, I've assigned an upward gesture on the Nova Launcher Icon to open my default browser (Brave). A downward gesture opens my file manager. I've assigned similar gestures on all five icons on my default home screen page. This allows for a cleaner, less cluttered home screen. Anybody who hasn't tried Nova, I can't recommend it enough. Even app critics go absolute ga-ga when they talk about Nova.
Yeah, the gestures on icons (including "hold") make it unlikely I'll go with anything else. I'm in China and can access the four main uses for Alipay (which is used for all my money transactions) just by holding the icon.
I like the swipe in icons feature, this way you can have the file manager icon, and if you swipe up it opens an alternative file manager, and the same if you swipe down. I have my chrome icon, if I swipe up it opens firefox, if I swipe down, it opens Chrome canary. I just miss the stackable widgets
The problem with Android 12 and 13 is that gestures don't work properly with any launcher other than stock. I wish Google would fix this one day, but with each iteration of Android they just remove more and more useful stuff, like accessing the Android/Data folder in Android 13.
oh i doubt. as they removed the overscan dev tool and i cannot find any alternative to that tool so 3rd party gestures are and will be broken in the near future at least. so 3rd party cannot directly control the gesture pane without root access. coz i tried literally everything i could to get rid of that gesture bar at the bottom. no use
@@francisnike7545my friend has a Google Pixel 6 Pro and both of the issues I mentioned are true for that phone too. Also tested this on Honor and Asus, same thing.
@@miaya3898 ironic that huawei OS is still android, but without google stuff google services basically. android is open source any anyone even you can just pull up the code and do whatever you want with it. google android is not something that google "gives" to anyone out there, you can very much use android without anyones permission for whatever, whats more android is and modified version of the linux kernal/operating system.
smart launcher is the best one, it has all the right customizations, not too overwhelming, very aesthetic, and smoooth. been using it for like 1 year and honestly (after trying lots of launchers like nova, lynx, niagara...etc) it's the one that stood out to me!
This is such a helpful video for someone like myself that is using android after 16 years of iPhone. Don't get me wrong, my iPhone's have never let me down and it'll stay tucked in my desk in case I need it for something, but I'm super excited to do a deep dive in to android and have been using an S23 Ultra for about a month now
Using AWD launcher from android 2.3 and while migrating from phones just transferring configuration, it simply does everything I like and need, one of the apps that I really recommend to use.
Square launcher is really neat, but needs a way to back up theme settings so it can be easily changed or reloaded if changed too much from a great setup
For some reason no one mentions Launcher 10. I've been using it since I had to switch to Android some years ago (yes, I was one of the happy Nokia Windows Phone users). It's simple yet configurable, you can change icons, add widgets and the Windows phone style app menu is, in my opinion, probably the best... but no one mentions it...
I am using Before Launcher, which is basically Minimalist, except the app time usage measuring feature. Same principle of limiting distractions, but with the advantage that the pro version is a one time payment (I think it was around 8eur)
Great video! Although I did not try all the launchers you mention, my personal favourite is Before launcher. The main reason I prefer a third party launcher over stock Android is that in most cases it gives the opportunity to lock the homescreen. I think it is strange that this cannot be done in stock. Cannot imagine that I am the only one who has the homescreen constantly messed up by unintended actions
Been using Nova since the LG g flex(which is when I found out about launchers) . I've tried others and nothing compares in my opinion. And I think I paid for the premium version for $4 way back.
My favorites are clearly Nova Prime when I'm feeling like fiddling and customization but when I'm not, like tbh is most of the time, I just use Niagara pro with a nice icon pack (my all-time fav is "ENIX" btw) and Sesame integration. Niagara is simple, fast, looks good and gets the job done, I love it!
It seams that the 'put the display to sleep' with double-tap on the screen doesn't work with Nova 7. Is there a way to work around this other than to use the power button for it? Thanks.
from my point - Microsoft Launcher was 1st one that was just... stable. Rest of them (and I checked most from this list) always had strange freezing so I couldn't use it for more than couple of days.
I like Olauncher. I'm a nova launcher supporter since forever but I need a minimalist one for my pixel 7 and though Niagra was neat I just couldn't go without swiping to see my Google now or paying that steep lifetime price
I recommend Hyperion Launcher, it works perfectly on Android 12 and 13. It is very light and has all the features you may need in a good launcher. Although it has some extra paid features, the free version is more than enough and has NO ADVERTISING.
I have the Nova launcher but I prefer the stock pixel laucher because of the animations which are much smoother than a third-party laucher whose open-close app animations are inconsistent
I have a Pixel 6 Pro Android 13 Dec 22 Update + Early Jan 23 update (small) and I HAVE TO!!! use Nova cause 1 - its the best of these and 2 - Google are absolutely unable to give a fuck about not having 10 icons taking up the entire screen! Damn, just give us the option to make icons smaller and more grid to position them. I wouldn't use nova otherwise. I just install it and make icons smaller.
@@iPhonenaire Oh yeah. Tnx. Still, it's not small enough and less grid then the nova. Even turned all the way to smallest, it's still bigger then what I use with nova.
Awesome video, but all these launchers cause more inconveniences than advantages for the simple reason that they can't truly replace the stock launcher. It sucks that Google has blocked such an important feature.
@@Natsukashii1111 Lot of issues in replacing the stock launcher in many phones... for example nova launcher gesture doesnt work on many xiaomi devices, and on my iqoo neo 6 phone the nova launcher keeps changing back to default launcher even after setting the default launcher to nova.
not sure what phone you have, but I have a Pixel phone for work running Android 12 and a Galaxy as my daily driver with Android 13/ One UI 5 and have been using 3rd party launchers for years with no problems.
Samsung nailed it with one UI, I don't think it's possible to make a launcher that gives you that good of a user experience. It's one of the main reasons why I am considering switching to Samsung if I stay in the android ecosystem.
Nova has always been my go-to but I recently decided to give launchers another go & reinstalled it on my S23+ but it seems to negatively impact my battery.
Hi Chris, firstly, thanks for the great reviews you post - breath of fresh air, as someone else below said. But I also wanted to say thanks for not using ridiculous thumbnails! I'm so sick of the elastic-faced idiots that put up a thumbnail with a title of 'The fascinating world of Jacob Rees-Mogg' alongside a picture of them looking as if the cat just crapped on their lunch. Whilst some might say that is exactly the look generated by anything to do with Rees-Mogg, it pisses me off to the extent that I simply go through and select 'Don't recommend channel' for each of those gurning dickheads. Thank you for not being one of them!
Have always been a big fan of Nova Launcher, but on my backup phone that runs on android go, my favorite is Niagara Launcher, I also go for pro which only have a subscription yearly, and it's so inexpensive. What I love about Niagara is the minimalism yet the customization is amazing, you can use your favorite icon pack and also change the fonts. And I've been using it for more than 3 years😊
The Big Launcher is something I have been looking for, as I have older relatives who still use flip phones and refuse to upgrade to a modern smart phone because the flip phones are simple and easy to use for them as some have eye sight issues and some are sad to say tech illiterate.
My previous phone developed a nasty problem where every launcher (including the stock one) crashed repeatedly and immediately on startup. The only exception I found was the Microsoft launcher, which worked flawlessly and extended the life of my phone by at least a year (before carrier shenanigans forced me into another phone).
@@TheArchmage100 Definitely use what works best with your phone. I don't actually like some parts of Microsoft launcher, but it will always have a place in my heart for saving my phone (at least for a few months)
@@benjaminmiddaugh2729 I agree. Btw I just installed the Microsoft launcher again after our conversation 😄 Can't stop myself from installing it, It's that amazing. And it's not lagging like before in the same smartphone that I'm using. Guess the devs made some tweaks finally.
I've been using Nova Launcher forever but my new Poco x5 pro with MIUI 14 keeps crashing the app. Apparently it's a known bug. I'm so sad I have to find a new launcher.
I used to use nova launcher and go launcher a lot 10+ years ago. Especially the themes with go launcher. I also did a lot of research and trying out to use a the smallest launcher I could find for a couple really low ram phones I had. I tried going back through my entire app list on the play store but I either missed it or its no longer available. Been years. But on top of that. Oh the hacking, mods, tweaks, roms, and system customization back in those days. It's quite sad actually. It seemed like things were going to be amazing for many years to come, but it was short lived. Lock downs, restrictions, and greed took over it all. What was once on the rise is just over priced slabs. Where now we lose things or they barely advance. Just useless greed machines hiding under the guise that we've peaked, things can't be done, or every little feature costs an arm and a leg to include. And then every thing they take away or skimp out on there is someone there to defend them for it. The demand is to high and they've become to complacent and money hungry. Yay we get brighter screens, processors that score higher benchmarks, and the same camera as before but it works 500% better with our new software spell.
I'm right there with you buddy. Miss the old days when Android was largely for enthusiasts and we could really go to town molding our phones into something amazing. I also totally agree that we have essentially peaked. And Google has become ever more restrictive with what apps can do (Tasker hasn't been able to toggle wifi for years now. WTH??) I suspect things won't change significantly now until we have widespread wearable AR displays (I'm being serious) at which point it becomes a completely different animal.
@@al201103 Its very disheartening. And speaks for many aspects of today's society well beyond just phones. However I don't think we peaked. Far far from it in fact. That's just an easy excuse. So many things could have advanced further for the last 6 ish years. Where as many things since then have slowed to a crawl, been removed, or gone backwards. From features, implementations, charger ports, storage, speakers, call volume, reception, durability, cameras, connectivity, authentication, uniqueness, ports, size, battery, on and on. The screens are brighter, soc stronger, and more "magic" camera tweaks. Zoom lenses however improved because they had more headway for improvement. The only thing ever actually advancing for years are prices going up and up. Apple "borrows" more tech from others and others "borrow" greedy controlling tactics. Becoming a vicious cycle between all of them.
Whenever I see a review of the MS Launcher, the images in the video always look like a typical Android phone. I've been using the MS Launcher for a few years and have the Dock (the bottom set of icons that appear in all Home Pages) set to ten icons from left to right and can open up to two more additional sets of ten, for, in my case, a total of 30 apps. (The maximum number is 12 per row or a total of 36 icons in the Dock.) Also the App Tray can be highly configured as well. Most videos don't do this launcher justice.
Same. I have tried lots of launchers and was using Smart Launcher for a couple of years, but that has performance/ battery problems now. Plus, they add features and make you buy the feature packs after you already bought a license earlier. The MS Launcher is just great. The feed, searching, configurability and most of all the dock. It just ticks all boxes for me and I have been using it for a couple of years now.
Lucid Launcher and Lightning Launcher are the only ones I use because they work well with Kustom (KLWP) vertical wallpaper scrolling. A lot of these launchers don't offer vertical homepages. People tell me to use gestures but that's not an instant smooth transition. Still waiting for someone to build a full Kustom (KLWP) Launcher.
Hi Chris another good video, I payed a few squij for nova prime. Love it, I change my icons weekly. I used to use apex launcher it's nova for me as I said before you're my first go to for tech, have a good one 👌👍👍
Nova launcher prime gets a huge sale every year Christmas and I mean huge. 2021 Christmas it was 10 INR ($0.12) and this one it was just 5 INR lol. The discount will vary country to country but nonetheless it will get a huge discount so if you're planning to get it now just wait a year and use a mod of the launcher with premium unlocked till then
i use Smart Launcher since many years and i love it. 👍 And i always have big phones and the ability to sort the favorite apps in a curve on the side and access two apps with one icon, makes it a dream for one hand operation.
Been using Total Launcher since 2015, and never changed back. While people are saying how customizable Nova launcher with third party addon like KWGT or KWLP, they still feels like using a full set of non-editable Rainmeter skins to me, and editing them would require you to edit the whole skins... Total Launcher however can be very complex, yet very simple at the same time, the key is imagination and how creative one can be to relive that imagination. Best part of it is, whenever you feels like wanna change only one aspect of the skins, you can change them one by one, without having to enable editing for all of them. It feels like rainmeter skins that are editable/edit-friendly. Also, if you are using Total Launcher, I recommended you to back up your already done skins using Titanium Backup. I've changed tons of phone during all these years, and using titanium backup, i pretty much cloned my launcher settings, skins and everything included, into my new phone, without any problem.
