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I use smart launcher. Have for probably 7 or 8 years. Never paid for it... Free version is perfectly functional. Pixel 6 pro.
I have six icons on my home screen, I love the double tap feature that can launch another app from those home screen apps. The app pages take no more than 3 buttons to find any app since it is sorted by letter or category.
It's easy. I haven't even really thought about using anything else.
I'm using Lawnchair, have been for a few years now. It does everything I need it to without getting in the way.
I've used ton of diffefent ones over the years but always come back to Nova
I use mLauncher, a fork of OLauncher. I like how simple and clean my screen is.
I seem to be like most and while I've tried tons, I've always stuck with Nova (at least since I switched from Apex).
My main sticking point and the reason it'll be a long time before I switch? I NEED to be able to assign up/down swipes on icons. Tap opens app/folder, up swipe opens another app/folder, down swipe opens another app/folder.
At this point my homescreen has 6 icons and within 2 touches I can get to any of my 500 apps with nearly zero scrolling. If anyone knows another launcher that can do that, I'm all ears.
Action Launcher. I like "covers" which are groups that launch the first item on tap but can be swiped up to open the group normally. I like the quick launch side tray thing, and the alpha list⦠I guess also I got sick of changing launchers and it does nothing I hate so I can just standardise on it.
Total Launcher -- I didn't see this mentioned anywhere in the comments. When Nova sold out, I tried out a handful of launchers and landed on Total for the customizability.
Currently using Lawnchair 12.1 and their icon set, and I'm quite happy with it!
Olauncher. Super minimalist. Love it. The best part imo is the app drawer. Instead of cycling through endless pages of icons that are always being changed so that I can never remember what I am actually looking for, it uses a text list of all apps. Just start typing the name and it will automatically complete and open the app. It's literally changed my life π
Maybe not life changing but it is sooooo much nicer for my flow
Stock Launcher is boring and doesn't have the features I'm looking for. It's been two or three years since I'm using Niagara Launcher and I absolutely love it. It's clean, innovative and makes my phone way more usable imo
I use KISS launcher. It is simple and I love it.
Ive used Niagara a lot, but eventually got bored and started using Smart Launcher.
I love the simplicity of Niagara and customization and organization of Smart.
On a Pixel with GrapheneOS
I use KISS, I wanted an opensource launcher
Its quick actions, history and tags are exactly what I need.
You need to customize it heavily to get it to look good: I use a very minimal amoledBlack&white config with Arcticons and I love it
Another vote for KISS. Took some getting used to, but now I have trouble using any others.
The search is so handy.
Nova was my jam for the longest time, then CPL (Customised Pixel Launcher) due to its google feed integration & good customisation. Now that I've stopped using the google feed (I get my news from ~~reddit~~ lemmy) as well as it isn't actively maintained anymore, I've switched to Neo launcher as it's FOSS as well as having a very light footprint and specific features such as categories in the app draw.
I've been using Nova for a really long time. When I get a new device, I'll check out whatever isinstalledg for a while, but I always end up going back to Nova. Easy to use, hides apps, enough customization without being overly technical.
I used Smart Launcher for a long time but have been using Niagara for the last few years. I appreciate the minimal interface but being able to find things quickly. Currently using a Pixel 6.
Pixel 6 Pro here, had been using Nova Launcher for ages and purchased a license for it. Once it changed owners I swapped to Hyperion launcher, while it is decent and has similar functionality to Nova is just not quite the same. I suppose it depends on how picky you are about privacy...
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.