Hey all, newbie to the Lemmy, signed up recently.

Also a relative android newbie, I’ve had a pixel 6 for about a year and a half.

I’ve played around with tasker, KWGT, KLWP, and all kinds of other power-user techie apps, so I’m reasonably confident in my ability to tinker with my phone.

I’ve been experimenting with my launcher, having gone with stock pixel launcher for my first half, and then using Lawnchair 12 for the second half, I wanted to try something new.

So, I open the floor up to you guys! What launcher are you using, what do you enjoy, and most importantly, why do you enjoy it? What sets your launcher apart?

  • SatyrSack@lemmy.oneEnglish
    101·
    1 year ago

    KISS operates on a totally different paradigm than most launchers. Instead of having a grid of rearrangeable app icons, your home screen is simply a list of your most recently used applications (icon, name, and keywords). You also have a search bar where you can type to search for your application. This keyboard-focused launcher is very similar to how I open programs on desktop, so it is very welcome on mobile as well.

    • Socket462English
      4·
      1 year ago

      I can’t live without KISS launcher anymore. It has just the right number of options and allows me to find and launch the app I want very quickly. Also, it resemble the way I am used to launch program on my desktop.

      • acrobaticpenguin23@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Same. Do you use the tag feature? I have put it to good use after some tweaking. I won’t be able to live without KISS either going forward.

        • Socket462English
          3·
          1 year ago

          Yes I do use tags to group some less used apps which maybe I don’t remember the exact name. For example I have some utilities apps (water, electricity, heating) which I use sometime to check my bills and they share the same tag, so I don’t need to remember the exact name of the app.

          • acrobaticpenguin23@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            even though you set tags you basically access everything through typing?

            I have thee tags come up in a windows screen in the lower right corner. I guess since Windows 3.11 for Workgroups was my first OS I can’t turn my back on the windows environment completely. 🙂

    • Kevin11@lemdro.idOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the tip! I think I’ll give KISS launcher a second try, because the first time I set it up, I found it annoying. Probably because I only used it for 5 minutes and then dropped it. :)

      • acrobaticpenguin23@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I was a Nova evangelist until their being sold to a data analytics company.

        But I absolutely love KISS launcher especially when pairing it with the Panels App

        Nova Launcher may have more overall customization but KISS has enough. I toggle minimalistic on, change search engine to Brave/DuckDuckGo, set six favorites to show as icons at home screen bottom, assign tags to shortcuts such as favorite websites or tools such as compass, barometer, speed meter, distance calculator, etc.

        You can have a tag category show up as a window from the bottom right settings menu.

        Kiss also has a very impressive search component. Literally the only scrolling needed will be doom scrolling on ones favorite social media app.

        Widget functionality not the greatest but the Panels App allows me to tuck them away under a sidebar.It takes a good amount of customization but the KISS/Panels combo delivers a sublime experience for my use case.

    • ijeff@lemdro.idMEnglish
      41·
      1 year ago

      Niagara Launcher is also similar. I really like it so far, including the notification rollups. But I’m not sure it’s worth $30 to me. Maybe…

      • WorseDoughnut 🍩@lemdro.idEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I can’t imagine using my phone without Niagara’s pop-up menus anymore, it’s become my favorite launcher for sure.