Android is the largest community and we all
know the reason behind it. It is open source, wide range of available devices
and most importantly – customisability. We all love to customise our Android
phones. Isn’t it awesome that we can change how our Home Screen looks whenever
we want! Why should we stick to the same setup and then get bored of it. Its
2018 and we, the Android lovers have so many options to customise our phones.
If you have Root access, then it opens up another world of customizations using
Xposed framework and other available tools. But we’re not going to tell you
that because most people don’t root their phones.
In today’s post, we’ve got some great and
popular Launchers lined up for you Android lovers out there. I’m guessing you
probably know that why we use launchers. If you don’t know, then you will know
it by the end of this blog for sure. I’ve been using Launchers since quite a
long time and tested each one of them listed out here. There might be other
good options which are available, but these are the ones which I’ve used and
loved it for some or the other reason.
All the Launchers listed here does NOT
require root access.
Google Now
Let’s begin with the minimalistic one –
Google Now Launcher. This is a launcher made by Google itself, available to all
the devices running on Android 4.1 or above. It is integrated with Google Cards
feature, Google Voice Search feature which works with “OK Google” voice command
as well. It is a pretty basic launcher but it is very minimal and light which
makes it very fluid. It has a dedicated App Drawer which sorts your
applications vertically.
It has some great wallpapers built in which
are updated time to time. This launcher is best suited for those who want a
clean and clutter free Home Screen with the goodness of Google cards and Voice
Search at their finger tip.
Download here
Pixel Launcher
Next up, we have the Pixel Launcher. To
begin with, it gets all the goodness of Pixel phones. It is available on Play
Store but you cannot download it for any other device other than the Pixel
devices. But we’re Android users. So, we have a version of Pixel Launcher which
can be flashed on any Android device and get those great features.
The Pixel Launcher gives your device’s OS a
look as if it is a Pixel device only. The Home Screen setup is exactly the same
as of Pixel. You get the Swipe Up gesture to Slide open the App Drawer from the
bottom of your screen, just like the pixel. Yes, there is no App Drawer icon.
It comes pre-loaded with the latest Pixel 2 wallpapers too. You get the sliding
Google Search bar along with the Temperature widget. And, how can we forget the
feature that came with Oreo – Long press an App to view info. Yes, it comes
with that feature too. You can use that feature even if you’re not running Oreo
on your device.
Download Play
Store (for Pixel Devices), XDA
(Non-Pixel Devices)
LawnChair Launcher
We have a new entrant to the list. The
Lawnchair Launcher is the latest one in the market. But don’t mistake it for a
noob. This launcher has got some great customization options yet being very
light and simplistic. The amount of customizations it offers, is insane! You
can completely revamp your device’s look and feel in terms of what you see on
your screen.
This launcher is built on the Launcher3
from AOSP. To begin with, It comes with the goodness of Pixel launcher and it’s
features built in. Google Cards is just a swipe away. You get the Android Oreo
feature of Notification Dots, Hold and Press to view info, Adaptive Icons. It
doesn’t ends here. It supports multiple Icon packs. The Icon size, Label, grid
size, everything is customisable. Just open the Launcher settings and get lost
into a world of customisations. I hope you escape it though!
LawnChair Launcher is unreleased as of now.
It is available on Google Play with a warning “It might be unstable”. But in my
usage, I didn’t experienced any bugs or issues.
Download here
Nova Launcher
Everyone knows Nova Launcher. If you don’t,
then probably you’ve been living under the rocks until today. It is one of the
oldest and most popular Launchers available for Android. Now, you may ask why
and the reason is the hard work that the developers have put in it. It offers a
plethora of customisations which you cannot even count (maybe).
For starters, It has all the Oreo features
such as Notification Dots, Adaptive Icons, Long Press to view info. And the
best part is that these features work on any and every Android device running
any Android version flawlessly. You can customise the Icon size, Label, Grid
Size, Google Search bar (Color, Shade, Shape, and Placement), Transparency of
your App Drawer and a whole lot of other things.
It gets the Notification dots feature of
Oreo which you can use and customise that too in your own way. You can choose
between the Dots, Unread count and the size of the dot, their placement too. It
can add any Icon pack you choose. You can backup your settings and restore them
later if you’re planning to reset your phone so that you don’t have to spend so
much time again customising it.
Nova Launcher comes with a Prime Version
which includes Gestures. You can add gestures on the home screen like Swipe Up,
Swipe Down, Double Tap, Pinch In, Pinch Out and others to perform various tasks
like Pulling down Status Bar, opening apps and much more. Do try it out. The
developers work really hard to bring you such awesome stuff. So please refrain
from using modded apks of Premium Version and Buy them from Play Store only.
Microsoft Launcher
Microsoft has been launching some great
apps for Android lately such as the SMS Organizer, Edge, Office Suite and of
course, this Launcher. I did not had any great expectations from Microsoft
Launcher when I installed it for the first time. But, I was loving this
Microsoft app just after a few hours I started using it. This launcher brings a
host of customisations like the LawnChair and Nova launchers and adds some
more.
It has the Oreo features like Notifications
Dots and Long press app to view info. But, since it is a Microsoft Launcher, it
gets the feed which can be access on a right swipe on the Home Screen. It has
news, events, calendar reminders and more at one place itself. Various icon
packs can be used with this launcher to get a refreshed look. There are three
themes to choose from – Light, Dark and Transparent. In transparent, you can
choose the amount of Opacity you want. Also, it has a great feature called
“Hide Apps”. What it does is, that you can hide the unwanted apps which are
used rarely or you want to keep them secret.
It doesn’t end here. There’s a quick toggle
menu which can be accessed by swiping up from bottom on the home screen. You
can add extra 5 icons in that tray which you use frequently so that you don’t
have to go the App Drawer again and again. You can toggle the Mobile data,
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi as well from that tray itself. It has got another great
feature which is, Bing wallpaper. It fetches new wallpapers from Bing. You see
a new, beautiful, high quality wallpaper every day. Also, unlike the Nova
Launcher, it brings Gestures without any Prime version. You get all the
Gestures included in the standard version.
Download here
MIUI Launcher
People who don’t want App Drawer, this
Launcher is for them. You get the icons on the home screen itself, just the way
you get in MIUI OS (and iOS). The app has MIUI icons by default but those can
be changed from the Launcher settings. It has gestures functionality which can
be used for various functionalities such as bringing Status Bar down to
launching apps. You can even add themes from the Play Store and give your
screen a revamped look whenever you get bored of the existing theme.
Although it is a great Launcher, but it
misses out on few features which the other offers such as Notification Dots and
other Oreo features. The icons are not adaptive, you can’t customise the Icon
size and isn’t as light as other AOSP based Launchers.
Download here
These were our picks of some of the most
popular and feature-rich launchers. You can choose the one which you like. Let
us know which Launcher you use and the feature which you think is the best.
Don’t wait. Get a launcher and launch in the world of customisations!
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