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I don't know about you guys, but I'm still forced to use good old Launcher Pro on my SGS II. Reason being that it's the smoothest launcher I've tried - in a sense that it's the most responsive to swiping screens. Also, its calendar widget is very nice, same as in Go Launcher.
I admit I'm a bit over-sensitive to even slightest lag. Even a several millisecond delay when swiping screens or opening the app drawer pisses me off.
My personal experience:
Go Launcher Pro - best customization, worst response. Heavy and sluggish. After deep sleep, there's a huge delay when swiping screens, until screens are cached. Until they are, it feels slllllloooowwww. Same on my Nook Tablet - horrific delays after deep sleep.
TouchWiz launcher - pretty damn fast and responsive, but even TW 4.5 has very limited customization. Also, when using multiple widgets, I start noticing an FPS drop in swiping from widget-heavy screens. For example MIUI Clock (from market) - swiping to and from the screen with it will always have noticable frame-skip.
Zeam Launcher - very smooth, but same frame skip problem as TW launcher. Unfortunatelly, very little customization.
Launcher Pro - fastest, lag-free swiping. Sadly, an abandoned project and missing lots of customization that'd be nice for modern ROMs.
Nova Launcher for ICS - fast and smooth, but still FCs every once in a while, lack customization. It's in beta, obviously.
ADW Launcher - haven't tested it for a while, but I remember not-so-great swiping response and lacking customization that I wanted.
What's your experience like? What do you recommend?
DarkDvr said:
I don't know about you guys, but I'm still forced to use good old Launcher Pro on my SGS II. Reason being that it's the smoothest launcher I've tried - in a sense that it's the most responsive to swiping screens. Also, its calendar widget is very nice, same as in Go Launcher.
I admit I'm a bit over-sensitive to even slightest lag. Even a several millisecond delay when swiping screens or opening the app drawer pisses me off.
My personal experience:
Go Launcher Pro - best customization, worst response. Heavy and sluggish. After deep sleep, there's a huge delay when swiping screens, until screens are cached. Until they are, it feels slllllloooowwww. Same on my Nook Tablet - horrific delays after deep sleep.
TouchWiz launcher - pretty damn fast and responsive, but even TW 4.5 has very limited customization. Also, when using multiple widgets, I start noticing an FPS drop in swiping from widget-heavy screens. For example MIUI Clock (from market) - swiping to and from the screen with it will always have noticable frame-skip.
Zeam Launcher - very smooth, but same frame skip problem as TW launcher. Unfortunatelly, very little customization.
Launcher Pro - fastest, lag-free swiping. Sadly, an abandoned project and missing lots of customization that'd be nice for modern ROMs.
Nova Launcher for ICS - fast and smooth, but still FCs every once in a while, lack customization. It's in beta, obviously.
ADW Launcher - haven't tested it for a while, but I remember not-so-great swiping response and lacking customization that I wanted.
What's your experience like? What do you recommend?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you get that LauncherPro is an abandoned project? Yeah, it hasn't been updated in quite some time (May 2011, I think), but the forums on their website looks active, and it's still available in the market? I'm just curious, as I use LP, and I'd hate to see development on it stop.
ctomgee said:
Where do you get that LauncherPro is an abandoned project? Yeah, it hasn't been updated in quite some time (May 2011, I think), but the forums on their website looks active, and it's still available in the market? I'm just curious, as I use LP, and I'd hate to see development on it stop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Development on it has stopped a long time ago. Last update was simply to add transition effects.
Francisco has moved on to music app and other things. His "representatives" (whatever that means) kept telling everyone on the forums that development is not dead, he simply hasn't touched the code for past, oh, year or so. So yeah. It's as dead as it gets.
Forums are active mostly because people are asking when development will continue, begging for updates.
I find ADW Launcher EX to be smooth, and its far better than normal ADW.
DarkDvr said:
Development on it has stopped a long time ago. Last update was simply to add transition effects.
Francisco has moved on to music app and other things. His "representatives" (whatever that means) kept telling everyone on the forums that development is not dead, he simply hasn't touched the code for past, oh, year or so. So yeah. It's as dead as it gets.
Forums are active mostly because people are asking when development will continue, begging for updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that sucks. LauncherPro is definitely my favorite launcher at the moment.
DarkDvr said:
TouchWiz launcher - pretty damn fast and responsive, but even TW 4.5 has very limited customization. Also, when using multiple widgets, I start noticing an FPS drop in swiping from widget-heavy screens. For example MIUI Clock (from market) - swiping to and from the screen with it will always have noticable frame-skip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This, for some reason the Program monitor seems to do this whenever I use it, I can have the digital clock and accuweather widget running along with the google search bar and droidstats and its smooth. Use the program monitor widget and it starts to stutter
Go launcher EX is the one that i have fallen for. Fast and stable with alot of customization.
And check out Nemus launcher too.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
mariosraptor said:
Go launcher EX is the one that i have fallen for. Fast and stable with alot of customization.
And check out Nemus launcher too.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^
This. Been using GoEx for a couple of months now. Have tried other launchers (incl Touchwiz), but keep coming back to GoEx for the reasons Mariosraptor mentioned.
I flipflop between LPP and adw Ex. Given up GO, I found it sluggish and I hate the home icon on the dock.
adw>LPP for customisation, LPP>adw for speed. If LPP had more gesture actions and we could resize dock icons it'd be perfect for me, but development is deader than a dodo.
Haven't installed/used TW for 6 months.
B3311 said:
I flipflop between LPP and adw Ex. Given up GO, I found it sluggish and I hate the home icon on the dock.
adw>LPP for customisation, LPP>adw for speed. If LPP had more gesture actions and we could resize dock icons it'd be perfect for me, but development is deader than a dodo.
Haven't installed/used TW for 6 months.
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Click to collapse
I like ADW Launcher EX as well... But the thing I REALLY like about LPP over ADW is the scrollable dock, allowing for 10 more shortcuts. If ADW had that, I would move over in a heartbeat.
Was a launcher pro plus user but go launcher is what I prefer due to its widgets, the Facebook and twitter ones are useful for quick updates. Calendar widget is good as well.
I find the supported decant not as smooth as launcher pro but no big issue.
ADW ex is also good use it on my tablet and its fast and customisable.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
ctomgee said:
I like ADW Launcher EX as well... But the thing I REALLY like about LPP over ADW is the scrollable dock, allowing for 10 more shortcuts. If ADW had that, I would move over in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the dock you can have other five apps in go launche. How? Just make use of the gesture feature on every icon on dock. That is what i have done for a long time.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
the only thing that annoys me with ADW EX is that you can not have folders in your app screens like go launcher. yes i know you can have them on your desktop but not really the point is it and makes the app screen full of apps...specially if you have over one hundred...or the feature is there and i do not know how to work it? any ideas from someone to correct me please
mariosraptor said:
In the dock you can have other five apps in go launche. How? Just make use of the gesture feature on every icon on dock. That is what i have done for a long time.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Fair enough - but then you have to remember what each of the icons' gestures launches. It won't display it, right? I still prefer the scrolling dock.
EDIT: also, in LPP, you can add gestures to each of the possible 15 icons in the deck as well. Leading to a whopping potential 30 shortcuts, just in the dock. I don't use the swipe gestures though; 15 total dock shortcuts suffices for me for now.
Personally, i prefer and use 360 Launcher from XDA, that is surely the most customizable, fast, smooth and easy to use launcher ever seen!
Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 usando Tapatalk
Tested some launcher and a lot of rom (most with an other launcher or modded TW)
I always get back to launcher pro!
Sure long time no updates but maybe because most users are happy with it ;-)
CHEERS ;-)
Sent from my Galaxy S2 - I9100 with SensatioN Rom!
I would say that the Go Launcher is the most beautiful one in the matket but from time to time you have lags here and there when you turn on effects like sphere or cylinder. for smoothness you can go for ADW Launcher imo I dont like the aesthetics of Launcher pro at all...
Definitely Go Launcher for me. Highly customisable and zero lag.
Of you have lag on wakeup, maybe try a different kernel and governor etc.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
mariosraptor said:
Go launcher EX is the one that i have fallen for. Fast and stable with alot of customization.
And check out Nemus launcher too.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Tried Nemus yesterday and I liked it, but it needs a "hide status bar" option IMO.
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imo go launcher ex
Hi,
I wanted to get a sense of what others are using for their launcher interface for their TS.
I have tried a handful but nothing really seems to fit the bill all that well.
I have tried
Google Now Launcher
Launcher 8
Smart Launcher
Various "Big" and "Senior Phone" launchers
Nova Launcher
among others....
I seem to be constantly going back to the stock launcher (not OUI 2.0 as that is just crap)
What are you guys using or recommend trying?
One thing I seem to really hate about going to alternative launchers is the loss of the "real" status bar..... I have tried Swipe Status Bar, but that just introduces issues with having to swipe down when you need to access touch points that are near the top of the screen. (Plus the last version that was released completely made icons no longer clickable)
D.
Stock launcher for me seems fine.
I switch between stock Android launcher and GEL. I never use OUI2.
"OK Google ! Find me a smart watch like the TrueSmart was promoted to be during Kickstarter..."
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
trent999 said:
I switch between stock Android launcher and GEL. I never use OUI2.
"OK Google ! Find me a smart watch like the TrueSmart was promoted to be during Kickstarter..."
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smart Launcher for me, Operative style.
I'm pretty happy with lucid launcher across all my devices.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I have used ADW EX on my other devices for a few years, so I installed it. After tweaking the icon/text sizes and a few Gravity box tweaks, seems to work quite ok.
I think pretty much any launcher will do, as long as you can customize it around the limited screen space.
Lightening launcher with x3 UI layout.
Just tried smart launcher 2 as mentioned on here. It's really good! all the elements fit perfectly on the screen almost like it's made for the TS.
I really use the OUI... But I only tried stock and OUI, didn't try any others yet, so this might change
nova for me just with the icons set very big like my status bar to much and not a fan of the status bar app that will give you access to it never worked quite like the stock status bar should.
I've been using Mini Launcher... although only for a few days and haven't tried many other options yet, so i might change if there's anything better
+Lokifish Marz. Can you please elaborate a little on your set up.
Thanks in advance.
Right now it based on Lightning but really needs to be a standalone.
Thank You Sir?
---------- Post added at 01:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 PM ----------
Would love to have this for my Watch!
Personally, I really liked the WP8 launcher. Could fit lots of useful info and apps on the watch screen.
jd
I keep falling back to the stock launcher. I've tried a few (nova, apex, and similar), but the status bar is the biggest issue. I'm really fond of the bar for easy overview of new notifications, and can't really live without one. Swipestatusbar solution works ok:ish, but not having the bar there after exiting apps and having the bar interfere with touch event at the top makes it a dealbreaker.
OUI is almost there - it has widgets, app drawer and screen sorting, and the status bar. It does however lack in other ways, like missing an indicator for which screen you are on, and everything looks very blurred, together with almost no customization. Some widgets looks as if they are rendered at like 50x50 pixels and zoomed to fit the screen. Also seems unstable, it has crashed a ton of times.
If the stock launcher could just get widget support, an app drawer and preferably a way to add/remove/sort your screens, I'd be happy with it. For now it works though, and seems fast and stable with status bar working..
EDIT: After playing around a few hours with different launchers today, I finally went back to Nova. It takes some getting used to, but the status bar issue now feels like an acceptable loss compared to all the gains. It works very well, and renders on small screens better than most other launchers (some have too much paddin in the grid, some render icons very pixelated or blurry, and so on). Nova does a good job, my only peeve is that icons are aligned to the top of their grid position, and widgets are aligned to the center. This means that if you place an icon next to a widget, they will not align, and also the icons come a bit too close to the top. However, it's still better than the alternatives I've tried, so sticking with Nova for now.
When?
Lokifish Marz said:
Lightening launcher with x3 UI layout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When will you be releasing it??? :highfive:
I am using launcher 8.
The tiles uses most of the screen at any given time, as opposed to a more regular android launcher.
Android launchers in general wastes a lot of screen real estate. This is because of the way the icons are organized, with lots of empty space between them.
The tiles you get in launcher 8 is quite tight, like in a proper windows phone.
I like this.
The tiles are also customizable in size, so stuff that is often used will have big tiles, while the lesser used programs get smaller tiles.
Launcher 8 also runs smoothly.
jdommer said:
Personally, I really liked the WP8 launcher. Could fit lots of useful info and apps on the watch screen.
jd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
am using this too
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
i use tsf shell for many years on all my phones and tablets.
now i use it on the truesmart and it really works great.
its smooth, it looks cool, you reach everything you want in short time.
shure i have to use swype status bar, but that is not really a problem.
ok it is not really cheap, but you only pay one time and can use it on all devices, so i think the price is fair if you have more devices
Big Nova prime fan here. Updated to lollipop and find that it broke expanded notifications gesture. This is a deal breaker for me. Way to far to reach with one hand. Swiping down for notifications should be a standard feature for big phones nowadays. I'm sure it'll be fixed but need to try something different for the time being.
Can you all help me with a new launcher?
Must have: expanded notification gesture.
Wants: similar features to Nova but I'm willing to try something new and expand my horizons, as long as notifications come along for the ride.
Thanks!
J_Bone said:
Big Nova prime fan here. Updated to lollipop and find that it broke expanded notifications gesture. This is a deal breaker for me. Way to far to reach with one hand. Swiping down for notifications should be a standard feature for big phones nowadays. I'm sure it'll be fixed but need to try something different for the time being.
Can you all help me with a new launcher?
Must have: expanded notification gesture.
Wants: similar features to Nova but I'm willing to try something new and expand my horizons, as long as notifications come along for the ride.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried apex launcher or I think it's called lucid both have gestures, I use nova as well and have used the other two when nova is having issues apex more than lucid, hope that helps some
I rarely use 3rd Party Launchers, but I know Solo isn't horrible and supports gestures and has a free notification add on.
That's one of the main reasons why I downgraded back to KitKat. There was no app being able to expand the notification bar anymore. A little, but absolutely horrible thing. Samsung, what were you thinking?! As long as this doesn't get fixed, I don't even think about upgrading to Lolliflop anytime soon.
Looks like Action Launcher is our only option for expanding notifications. There are others, like those listed above, that support gestures but just not notifications. At least we know it can be done and may be a sign that it won't take too long to fix.
Don't really hate Action Launcher but not sure I am ready to pay $5 to test. Will settle for a few days and see if it grows on me.
Works perfectly for me in latest Nova Launcher Material Beta. It prompts you the first time to enable Accessibility Service when using the gesture.
https://plus.google.com/+KevinBarry/posts/4U8TPBMFSkw
{adds vpnair to personal list of heroes}
You need to enable Accessibility Service , i have nova with lollipop, works like a charm
pratik_193 said:
You need to enable Accessibility Service , i have nova with lollipop, works like a charm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that under nova settings out accessibility settings under system settings of the phone? I'm using apex and I don't see anything under system accessibility.
It works perfectly for me, I have Nova on in accessibility. I'm pretty sure it worked before I turned Nova accessibility on too
keep nova, try my gesture control
MyHomeButton is the only app I know of that works at the moment. But as a stand alone app? Nada. It's unbelievable!
Try the beta version it's fixed and working fine now!
In playing with the G4 over the past few weeks, I've discovered some interesting things about launcher performance, so I thought I would share.
After using Google Now Launcher for several days, I began to notice that it was sometimes dropping frames and stuttering a bit much for my liking when swiping between screens. I switched back to the stock LG Home launcher and amazingly, scrolling was almost perfectly smooth with hardly any dropped frames.
Curious as to why this was, I began testing various launchers... Nova, Action Launcher, Apex Launcher, L Launcher, an AOSP launcher3 build from KitKat, etc. Finally, I noticed a pattern. Launchers based on the KitKat AOSP launcher source all ran very smoothly, while launchers based on the Lollipop AOSP launcher source all dropped frames too often when scrolling around the home screens and app drawers.
So from this, we can deduce two things:
1) The stock LG Home launcher is based on KitKat or earlier AOSP launcher source code. No surprise there.... just look at the page indicator dots, the app drawer background, and the three dot menu style in the app drawer. They all have KitKat styling.
2) LG optimized the G4 to run KitKat based launchers more smoothly since that's what their own launcher is.
So what can we do about it? Well, use an old version of your favorite launcher, of course. Action Launcher 2 is still available in the Play Store and has its own listing. I went with an old version of Nova (Classic v3.3 from http://novalauncher.com) and find it performs more smoothly than the newly released Nova v4. And not to fear, Nova v3.3 can still be configured to look and act like a Lollipop based launcher by changing a few settings. See my screenshots of Nova v3.3 below to see for yourself.
Hope all of you who are driven crazy by the slightest stutters find this information helpful. Let me know about your experiences.
Thanks for this. Will give it a try.
I was surviving with the stock launcher but went crazy after installing the tempered glass protector. After removing the glass all of my swipes or scrolls were being registered as taps.
Sent from my LG-H815
I too have been trying out the top 10 most know launchers in the playstore and have seen that issue as well compared to the stock launcher. What makes me go back to the stock launcher is two things. Health widget for step counter, and the smart notice widget.
wadamean said:
I too have been trying out the top 10 most know launchers in the playstore and have seen that issue as well compared to the stock launcher. What makes me go back to the stock launcher is two things. Health widget for step counter, and the smart notice widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know me too. How nice will be to add those into nova.
I'll be honest, I am running the latest Nova launcher and I haven't noticed any dropped frames or hiccups whatsoever. Everything seems buttery smooth.
Ken4G said:
I'll be honest, I am running the latest Nova launcher and I haven't noticed any dropped frames or hiccups whatsoever. Everything seems buttery smooth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
apex is the smoothest launcher at the moment. nova ( i have the paid version ) is not that smooth like action launcher 3,
i'm only running apex for now
The app drawer and everything runs better , try and see yourself , you'll be impressed.
Great discovery. Nova and Google Now was always my go-to launcher but I have noticed frame drops. Very minimal, but I guess some of us are cursed to notice these things.
I always end up reverting to the stock launcher after awhile. I'll try the suggestion above and give Apex a run for a few days.
Also, anyone find it weird that some widgets like the default clock widget can't be used with other launchers?
Sent from my LG-H818
JustinDulay said:
Also, anyone find it weird that some widgets like the default clock widget can't be used with other launchers?
Sent from my LG-H818
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not weird at all, LG based widgets are baked into the LG launcher. Same thing happens with Samsung based widgets, can only use them on the TW launcher.
I'm using stock LG's launcher and it works very nice for me. I disabled Smart Bulletin option from settings and the launcher flies. With this feature enabled the launcher was getting laggy after a few hours of use ,now it's just perfect.
The only thing that drives me crazy about the Stock launcher is the lack of backgrounds for the icons. I like all my icons to feel somewhat uniform. I know the LG Launcher supports themes (basically icon packs)... but the Verizon model has this ripped out. I know it is accessible through some song and dance but the icon packs were pretty bare, only like 20 icons to cover the basics. Some custom packs have more but still barely cover the grand scheme of play store apps.
Overall good find though. I actually really like Action launcher 2 and run it on my tablets but I am unsure about on a smaller device I intend to use with 1 hand. I know you can setup swipes to pull open the drawer. At least we have options. I wonder if this happens on other devices, or just LG?
Very interesting to see that Lollipop based launchers stagger. Although KitKat was the best Android experience I ever had. Lollipop is fun but on the LG (or other skinned devices) the change is miniscule. KitKat ran like a beast on the G2 but started having problems when it upgraded to Lollipop.
I use KISS Launcher. No framerate loss there.
That I am perfectly fine using. Every Android I have ever had got Nova FIRST. This S10 has all the options and features I need to not have to do that. Anyone else skipping 3rd party?
No. I don't mind Samsung's software now days, but that is after replacing the home screen. I'm using Action Launcher on my S9+ with OneUI and probably will with the S10 as well.
My primary motivations are: Swipe left for Google, I don't like side scrolling app drawers, and replacable icons... That's really mostly it. Their launcher isn't awful, it just isn't very customizable.
I feel pretty much the same as AJerman. I never ran TouchWiz any longer than I had to and One UI is almost usable but I'll probably still stick with Nova. The #1 reason for that is no vertical scrolling in the app drawer. That was a major gripe in the One UI beta program and many of us suggested that to Samsung. It's a shame Samsung left out that one minor tweak.
I always switch to Nova to hide apps, for the 5 x 6 home and to lock down the home screen. This has all 3, so I'm gonna stick it out to see how it goes. But miss the swipe to Google Now though.
Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk
Nova prime a must have for me...
Trying to give the Bixby screen a fair shake, but I think I am very likely to load up Nova for the Google feed on the left. I don't hate Flipboard but it's clunky compared to Google or old-style Blinkfeed. I do wish Nova supported motion backgrounds.
galaxys said:
Nova prime a must have for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, used to get a unlocked pro veison for 1 dollar.