I switched to KISS Launcher several years back and had been loving it. I like the philosophy of search-based launcher. This way, if I don't actively search for an app, I won't be distracted into opening one
Yep, I was doing a lot of launcher hopping back in the day, but ever since I moved to KISS, I haven't felt the need. It brings a level of intentionality by forcing you to search for the app you want to use. For my most commonly usef apps, binding them to swipe gestures makes using the phone very fast and easy.
I did this as well when the previous Nova launcher news came out. It took maybe a day to get used to, but I like it much more now - I have nothing to organize, I just access what I want to use instead. It feels natural.
But then when I use a launcher like lawnchair with widgets I rarely end up actually using them. Wish there was something like widget drawer that was FOSS tbh
KISS supports widgets though. Tap the right side of the input box in the launcher to open settings, and the third item down on the menu is "add widget".
I moved to Lawnchair when I recently-ish migrated to GrapheneOS. I can't remember why I didn't go with Nova Launcher again, might have been related to the permissions required.
Lawnchair has fewer options, ie. is simpler, but I haven't, in practice, noticed any memorable differences.
I've been mostly happy with Action launcher. It has the few features I really liked from Nova that are missing from pixel launcher: I can make my home screens scroll in a circular/infinite manner, I can remove the search bar and the google news feed or whatever they call the left page, I can set more than one page in the dock.
Unfortunately, the app list page isn't quite as configurable. There are folders rather than tabs, and there's an extra click necessary to search by app name. Overall, it does the job.
I switched from Nova to Smart Launcher a couple years ago because it allowed me better customization of app groups - although I did need to work on the config a bit. I like it.
People are suggesting mostly search-based launchers here. Lawnchair is a launcher similar to Nova (icon-based) which should be safer from enshittification because it's FOSS. Actually derived from an old Google Launcher...
Yes, Lawnchair isn't packed with functionality, but it's also not packed with anti-functionality.
I get the error if I try dragging the icon to the home screen. But it works if I click "add to home screen" so it auto-places, then move the icon afterward.
I've got a bunch of web pages on my Lawnchair home screen.
It’s interesting, Lawnchair works totally fine with these “app action” 1×1 widgets, and Firefox can add website shortcuts without any problem for me. I’ll try it in Brave a bit later.
Thank you! I had looked at several recommended launchers and none were real Nova Launcher replacements. I randomly saw your comment and was intrigued, especially since I hadn't seen a lot of sources mentioning Octopi Launcher as a suitable option.
It is the perfect Nova Launcher replacement. The UI and features feels like a more polished Nova and transitioning to Octopi is such an intuitive process.
Do you know if this, or any other launcher for that matter, works well on the latest Android for Pixels? Ever dang launcher I try (Nova included) has this horrible problem where at some point during the day the app launcher becomes a wasteland of blanked out apps with no names and no order. Only fix is to restart the phone. It got a little better with Android 16 but not much.
It's quite different compared to Nova and other launchers but after using it a while I've come to love it. Do yourself a favor and give it a few days before you dismiss it.
3. Types of Data collected
Among the types of Personal Data that this Application collects, by itself or through the listed Data Processors, there are:
Unique device identifiers
Approximate geographic position (city level)
IDs (package names) from installed apps
Usage Data
Cookies
Yeah.. I used to use Niagra because it really is a great launcher but I don't like the data collection. A great FOSS alternative is Kvaesitso which doesn't have the exact same layout but it is search based. They also managed to implement a native search that in my opinion is better than Sesame.
I'm using Evie Launcher, but a really old version from just before the developer shut down the project and later removed it from the store. If you look today, you'll find a fairly convincing imposter that loves spamming you with ads, from a different developer.
I like to use non-default apps from F-Droid so it's easier to feel at home on any new device. I do try to only get phones with LineageOS support, but it's cool how much of my usual stuff I can throw on an Amazon tablet or Fire Stick also.
How much am I missing out by using the standard launcher my Pixel comes with?
I haven't played with different launchers since the Nexus 4 and Android 2/3 (I think).
I don't like the stock launcher because I can't remove the search bar and I never use the search bar. Nova feels like a no nonsense launcher that does what I need. I think last time it came up, the recommended option was missing something for me so I stayed with Nova, but the writing is on the wall.
Checked again and I don't see a way to get a button to show the app drawer on Lawnchair, and I don't want to use a gesture, so that's going to be hard to use.
I just tried a few launchers and none of them forced a search bar (or do you mean not on the home screen?). In fact, in Lawnchair and Octopi, I had to manually add a search bar if I wanted one.
Yeah, I tried out a handful of launchers too and none of them forced a search bar on me. Most of the had a search bar widget by default, but it was easy to remove.
I switched to Nova for the same reason. I paid for it, too. I pay and donate for good software all the time, but this is another sober reminder to never pay for proprietary software.
For me the advantage of nova is increasing the density of app icons able to be displayed on the home screen and app drawer.
I run with a 9x7 home screen grid and 8x6 app drawer.
This allows me to have a weather widget with a large clock and an excellent calendar widget called Todo Agenda displayed while still allowing me to have all my apps accessible on one screen.
I didn't immediately jump to it, but here's why I mentioned it. DEI is essentially nothing more than "brown nosing", as you put it; manipulation of various factors for personal gain.
In DEI type con jobs, it is just administered by an odd and even contradictory hodgepodge of people/identities who are hijacking different characteristics, or more accurately, maybe manipulating characteristics differently.
Where brown nosing also manipulates things like flattery, currying favor, narcissistic positioning and sabotage; DEI manipulates things more like sympathy, graciousness, generosity, and empathy. At the same time is also employs psychological and emotional coping mechanisms, like gratuitous pride and affirmation, while also making heavy use of rather harmful personality traits like shaming, blaming, blame shifting, cooption, purloining, appropriation, and emotionally abuses people generally.
It's all very common and typical of extreme and malignant narcissism, including the put on, fake self-congratulation you often see the DEI type crowd engaging in where they lay on the affirmation of equality and equity so heavily that it usually just highlights the contradiction with reality most people experience.
indeed - https://www.dbreunig.com/2026/01/08/a-software-library-with-... appears to be exactly that - the idea that the only leverage you have for fixing bugs is updating prompts (and, to be fair, test cases, which you should be doing for every bug anyway) is kind of upsetting as someone who thinks software can actually work :-)
I don't understand why we don't have a law that specifies an operating-system level input that will always close an ad.
No hunting for tiny X's. No shifting DOM to dodge clicks. Hit Esc and it stops. For iOS and Android force it as part of the UI, like the volume buttons, back/home buttons.
When you see AI giving you back various coding snippets almost verbatim from SO, it really makes you wonder what will happen in the future with AI when it can't depend on actual humans doing the work first.
I'm fairly certain that there's a large segment of the population who would deeply dislike that rationale, especially if it's applied consistently to all past actions (cough slavery)
Why wouldn't apply to the people that keep or have kept slaves? It's probably harder to find anyone alive who has kept slaves or conspired with those who kept slaves, but I'm sure you could find some. Most of them are sex trafficking victims nowadays.
(to be clear here, living person Maduro was in an active conspiracy with the [at the time] living person Chavez who seized those assets* and Maduro knowingly and intentionally used the stolen assets of currently living shareholders of Exxon and and Gulf oil, this isn't even remotely analogous to some nebulous group of white people paying people who look like they might have been slaves but have never been slaves for the sins of other dead people who happened to be the same skin color who kept slaves)
If you mean just grabbing some random person who looks like a former slaveholder and then going after them for reparations to someone who happens to look like they might have been a slave if born in another time, then no that doesn't make sense. In fact most white people that are here probably can trace their lineage to the post civil war pre-WWII mass immigration, they don't even have a family lineage or personal inheritance lineage to slave holders.
>, especially if it's applied consistently to all past actions (cough slavery)
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Also of note here, it was applied against slaveholders in a literal civil war where a notable portion of them were killed, although it by no means made up for what happened nor was it even the sole reason for the war. So yes the US government has done far more against slaveholders than they have against the Maduro/Chavez regime.
* Yes it happened before Maduro was in the Chavez regime, but he wittingly and knowingly later entered the conspiracy and used the stolen assets of living people as an ongoing continuation of the theft.
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