Develop Bugs

Launcher Reviews

ADW.Launcher
So, after trying out a few Home Launchers, I have settled upon ADW.Launcher. I must admit, I didn't think anything would be able to replace Helix Launcher, but ADW has all of the speed, eye candy, tweaks, and features that I am loving right now! I also love the feature of Tag Home, which has labels for your different apps when you open the drawer, so I do wish it had that. But aside from that one feature, everything else on ADW OWNS!!!
- It can have up to 7 screens (9 would be great though).
- You can hit nexus style buttons on the bottom to flip to the next screen, instead of sliding with your thumb across the screens (which sometimes hits icons and launches them instead of sliding, I guess because our screens aren't the most sensitive anymore - always happened to me, so I appreciated this navigation option. Does anyone else have this problem? Or needing to swipe a few times to get it to go to the next screen?).
- Since we don't have multitouch, we can't pinch-to-zoom out on our home screen to preview all of our screens. ADW overcomes this via TWO Preview methods:
Method 1: When you hit the home button from any of the screens, or...
Method 2: You can preview JUST the screens to the left or right of whichever screen you are on at the moment, by holding down on the nexus style buttons on the bottom-left or bottom-right, flanking the dock
- The animation of the screens sliding left and right looks awesome.
- You can choose either Galaxy Spica S style navigation of your apps, or the 3-D Fly-In (which I prefer), when you open the drawer. Unfortunately, no option for just sliding the drawer up I don't think.
- You can choose which of your 7 screens (or 5 or 3, whatever) you want to be your "Home" screen (very cool!).
- Customizability:
-you can adjust the speed that you change screens
-you can adjust the "overshoot"
-you can adjust the speed of the Fly-In when opening drawer
-you can adjust the tint of the docked icons
-you can adjust the size of the docked icons
-you can hide the app titles
-you can show or hide the background screens when apps or the app drawer is open, and also adjust the shading of them
-You can customize almost everything!!!
- There are still more features that I haven't discovered yet
I found the creator's thread here, he's an xda member of course
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=645550
And a Youtube video here of many of the customizable features:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gRgpuQE_k
I just installed ADW.Launcher from the Marketplace.
Please feel free to leave your Home Launcher reviews in this thread if you like! Tell us why you have chosen what you have, and which features are particularly important to you and why. Hopefully this will help people or newbies to be able to weed out the less useful or non-working launchers. Maybe I'll start a poll too

Reserved. Just because I've always wanted to be in a position where I can "reserve" posts like devs lol.

Thanks for the post. Id like to see some reviews of the other launchers in this thread.

Launcher Pro is Good As Well. 2.1 only though

thebulletfromhell said:
Launcher Pro is Good As Well. 2.1 only though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about a review?

Just tried it out for myself. Great launcher. The only thing I miss from Helix is the double tap to preview. The button isnt super hard though. ill have to make my way to the dev to suggest

blindguyinanorgy said:
Just tried it out for myself. Great launcher. The only thing I miss from Helix is the double tap to preview. The button isnt super hard though. ill have to make my way to the dev to suggest
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which launcher are you talking about? If it's Launcher Pro, then yeah, I agree with you, that's why I went back to Helix, and since then have stuck with ADW. I love the preview!!

helix had preview with double tap on background. preview does rock

Icon Grid To 5x5

For the last two years I have been using ADW Launcher. When it came out at the end of 2010 I paid for ADW_EX. It has been great for me. I have tried to use the TouchWiz on the S3 but there have been two main things that kept me from using it regularly. One was fixed (by an answer in another forum).
The one that was fixed was the ability to have shortcuts to individual files on my home screen. In ADW I was able to create a shortcut with Astro File Manager. For some reason Astro does not have a way to do this with TouchWiz. Then someone pointed out that a long press on a file in ES File Manager would create a shortcut. I use a lot of individual files and that feature was great.
Now the last deal breaker for me is the lack of a 5x5 icon grid. Again, in ADW you can have a choice of icon numbers both horizontally and vertically. While 6 or 7 is too much, I like the choice. 4x4 with that gigantic screen indicator is useless. I use a couple of big widgets on my main screen and there is no room left for the important icons.
Now for the question. Is there any way to create a 5x5 icon grid on stock unrooted touchwiz?
From my point of view, Samsung is copying Apple by limiting the choices and configurability. If we could choose our icons and how they act, it would be a lot less like Apple. Personally, when I try an Apple device, I get frustrated because of the lack of control I have. I don't like someone else making my choices. One last part of my rant: I recently tried Windows 8 on a laptop. It looks like everyone is trying to copy Apple.

All this is because the motion scrolling features and eyeball sensor are TouchWiz only. I would like to move my phone to move icons around. I would like to keep the screen on time short to save battery but still be able to have it stay on when I am reading a long web page.

I'm pretty sure all the TW features stick around even if you use a different launcher. I know smart stay and tap to top work on Nova and those are the only ones I use.
Edit: all the motion features still work on other launchers. I just went through them all. Liberate yourself. I use Nova.

Alternatively, if you are rooted you can find a modded stock launcher. Or even flash a more heavily modded rom. This is where Android shines anyway. Not because of what the manufacturers allow, but what open source allows!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

dkmdlb said:
I'm pretty sure all the TW features stick around even if you use a different launcher. I know smart stay and tap to top work on Nova and those are the only ones I use.
Edit: all the motion features still work on other launchers. I just went through them all. Liberate yourself. I use Nova.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use nova also with the motion featres
Sent from my SGH-T999 or GT-P3113 using xda premium

Idea for a launcher (give an opinion/suggestion)

This is my first idea for anything smartphone related so please do not flame me or call me names! Okay. So my my idea is for a launcher design, and maybe an OS later, where the idea of Windows OS and IOS come together under Android software with a custom GUI never before seen. This is going to be very hard to explain since I just got this off the top of my head; Basically the UI is 'Circular' and fluid while requiring less clicks and menus through the entire phone compared to all the other operating systems. Here's an example, The dock is scrollable to the left/right and when scrolled you see these options:
1. (Home Screen) Menu-Home-Return, 2. (Notifications) Instead of reach up to the top of the phone the bar slides up, 3. (Phone) Phone-Contacts-Message-Internet, 4. (Camera) Camera-Editor-Video
To make the UI more fluid and smooth the 'Open" action for these apps isn't to click them, like a button, but to slide them up from their position on the dock. Like so, 1App / 2App / 3App Grab the number 2 app and slide up which it then opens like a vertical page(imagine windows 7 mobile unlock screen) except that it directly opens the app like it was waiting there the whole time to be opened.
The second part is the "app drawer" which is non-existent in this launcher, like in IOS, because the home screen serves as a widgets / app drawer where the apps are accessed by sliding down the dock, which leaves a button to return the dock, and then sliding left and right.
The neat part is that the "Real" home screens are seemingly connected to the app drawer. To put it basically, if the dock is up and you swipe the screen you are swiping through the home screens. If you lower down the dock nothing on the screen changes, except the dock, and then if you swipe you're suddenly in the apps/widgets.
To place a widget on the screen you swipe it up to the screen selection, you select a home screen by scrolling horizontally through a bar above the widgets and the apps, in which it "loads up" your selections into something I call a "Case" where it stores the apps and widgets for that specific home screen until you're down selecting and tap the home screen. After you enter the screen the "Case" slides up from the bottom, with the dock on top to keep the dock usable, and then you can place the items one by one specifically.
To adjust the size of the widgets or X items touch and hold the item and then pinch outwards to expand.
I have more of this design in my head but I want to know what you guys, and gals, think of this launcher and/or OS.

Sounds cool, but I like my app drawer. Lol. That's the main reason I don't use MIUI.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium

oh wow
d3athsd00r said:
Sounds cool, but I like my app drawer. Lol. That's the main reason I don't use MIUI.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reading my post! =] Everyone on here thinks they're too good to post on such an insignificant thread. lol
I agree with you about the app drawer actually that's why I mentioned the "seamless" integration of the app drawer with the home screens.
In my honest opinion I'd prefer a full renovation of the android layout to give it some new life.

No problem. I'm always interested in what ideas people have, and yours sounds really nice, but also very deep in the android framework.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium

oastval bellum,
Even I was thinking of something similar and tried to find on net but there isnt anything like it. I like the idea of just sliding the homescreens into app drawer and then coming out to quick settings like the ones motorola has, and then back to homescreen completing a circle. In MIUI it gives an iOS feel but a transition to black background for App drawer like windows UI with the sliding effect would look awesome. kinda like meego effect...
Do tell if you find anything like this or lets just cook up one of our own...

I would try it!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

SSLauncher
Hey,
Did you find/make anything as per your idea?
I found this launcher SSLauncher which is really cool
lets you do a lot of stuff. Give it a try maybe. You might be able to fill a lot of your requirements. There are like wild home screens that people have created with it.

[APP][LAUNCHER] TasKarou Launcher Overlay

Tired of moving your fingers up/down your tablet to switch applications? Try out TasKarou!
TasKarou is a multitasking launcher overlay.
Taking inspiration from the 'Quick Controls' feature in the android browser, TasKarou provides a multitasking layer on top of a launcher on tablets.
By swiping anywhere on the left or right edge of your tablet screen, you can activate TasKarou's UI.
It gives you access to a quick, smooth, and intuitive interface to facilitate app launch, transition, and management for the user
The user interface brings a more responsive, and enjoyable level of interaction to your tablet.
Notes:
To use TasKarou, set it as the default home launcher, and from TasKarou's settings, select the actual home launcher you want to overlay.
TasKarou user interface is then triggered by swiping from either the left of right edge of your tablet screen, while still allowing access to the overlaid home launcher through the home button.
The app is also available in the android market.

nice app, but how do i use the browser controls? when im in the browser and put my finger to the side the taskarou menu opens...

kendong2 said:
nice app, but how do i use the browser controls? when im in the browser and put my finger to the side the taskarou menu opens...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not possible to use both at the same time, since both controls rely on the user touching the edge of the screen.
If you have an idea on how I could get around that issue, I'm all ear.

ne0fhyk said:
It's not possible to use both at the same time, since both controls rely on the user touching the edge of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that sucks, because it basically makes the browser unusable.
ne0fhyk said:
If you have an idea on how I could get around that issue, I'm all ear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some ideas from the top of my head:
- disable taskarou menu completely when in browser
- disable one side of the screen (permanently or when in browser)
- disable the upper/lower/middle half of the screen (permanently or when in browser)
on another note, the notification HAS to go. at least make it optional.
that being said, i really do like the concept of the app :good: i found myself regularly swiping in from the screen edges when not in browser, and then being disappointed that nothing happened.

kendong2 said:
that sucks, because it basically makes the browser unusable.
some ideas from the top of my head:
- disable taskarou menu completely when in browser
- disable one side of the screen (permanently or when in browser)
- disable the upper/lower/middle half of the screen (permanently or when in browser)
on another note, the notification HAS to go. at least make it optional.
that being said, i really do like the concept of the app :good: i found myself regularly swiping in from the screen edges when not in browser, and then being disappointed that nothing happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your suggestions. I have a few other ideas along with the ones you suggest that I will try to integrate, and test in the following days.
In the meantime, I updated TasKarou to also support android phones. I duplicated this thread in the 'Android Apps and Games' section to make it more visible: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1984010

I like this. Definitely a nice addition to my current launcher.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Definitely slick in some aspects. Can't say I really like it as it messes with my LMT set up and takes up more RAM on top of it.
There's a lot to be done like distinguishing different "hotspots" and designating right side only or left side only. Overall though I really enjoy the transitions and how the menu auto-switches based on which choices you're hovering over. Very intuitive choices too that I agree with about which things go where.
Looking forward to the potential this holds in the future. I may just abandon my LMT setup if done right.
Edit: And of course the ability for users to add/edit the options, potentially switch the color for mere superficial reasons. Something like my screenshot.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

ne0fhyk said:
It's not possible to use both at the same time, since both controls rely on the user touching the edge of the screen.
If you have an idea on how I could get around that issue, I'm all ear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe ask SwipePad's developer.
(I'm not being sarcastic)

Really useful. Love the idea, but it does cause a few conflicts with apps that rely on swiping from the sides of the screen. Having said that, when I set the margin to 13 pixels I can use the Dolphin browser (for example) without too many issues by not swiping from the outer edge, but by placing the finger a little more away from the edge and then swiping inwards. Other apps are less forgiving.
What about a button in the notification area, which is visible at all times anyways?
EDIT:
If swiping has the preference, then it would be more logical to align the available programs/tasks to the side from which was swiped. Swiping and selecting can be done with one hand then, regardless of which hand was used to swipe with.

The recents button is useless, I never use it, ever.
I'd like the option to use this instead and just disable the side activation altogether.

Nice idea. However on TF101 after getting the quick control moving the finger to one of the options too fast causes the quick controls to disappear. I have to move the thumb really slow in order to select any option. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon:fingers-crossed:.

ppl get over it, the man is trying to make ur life simpler, so if u don't like some stuff about the app then tell him your opinions in a decent way so he can make a proper development for the app instead of trashing it, otherwise f*** off

I like this!
1. I only see it from the right edge in portrait.
2. Might have a user selected area(s) for its swipe. This would allow those with conflicts to fix them. There is a similar app on Play which just gives a row running/recent apps icons which is not a bad interface. I found its use of the bottom obtrusive.
3. The home key does not go home in the base browser (I am using Trebuchet on a CM10).
4. There is a difference between "running" and "recent" (exited, cached, and still available.) !!
Long press of home gives a vertically tiled thumbnail view of both.
Taskarou shows only icons of running apps, not recent.
Taskarou should show both, either in two panes or in one with some distinction?, i.e. frame around one or the other. I sort of like having the thumbnails and they could be tiled or cascaded. If cascaded, should be focus-able, if tiled, scroll larger view like the app list. Best eliminated the number of apps option or make that for the pane (but that would be scroll-able for more). Cascading the main webOS motif. Flick down to kill?

mosta_9741 said:
ppl get over it, the man is trying to make ur life simpler, so if u don't like some stuff about the app then tell him your opinions in a decent way so he can make a proper development for the app instead of trashing it, otherwise f*** off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, as far as I can see, no one is trashing his app. So maybe lower your tone a bit and at least pretend to be able to communicate in a proper way.instead of telling people to "F-off".
The developer probably appreciates the feedback as he responds to it. Feedback (be it positive or negative) is valuable for both him and the app he works on. The end product can benefit from any kind of feedback as it points out flaws and strong points, and it can give the developer some different perspectives and experiences from different users and from different devices.
The day a developer stops listening to his/her targeted market is the day the product will begin its downfall.

Hey man, I just noticed that you dont have a video demo on google play... would you like one? I can do some switches with a background music... may I do it and you decide after if use it or not?

360porcento said:
Hey man, I just noticed that you dont have a video demo on google play... would you like one? I can do some switches with a background music... may I do it and you decide after if use it or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That'd be cool, thanks.

Was having issues on my Nexus 7 running SmoothRom 4.1.2. Updated to 4.2 and no more disappearing quick controls as soon as my finger leaves the border. To get them to stay I had to leave my finger there for at least 1.5 seconds. Now all is well. Really liking it. I look forward to extended and customizable menus
Update:
Scratch that. Conflict was gesture control. Had it set to consume events in starting zone. So a touch on the edge first went to gesture control. Just an iD10t error.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

ddlooping said:
That'd be cool, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you the the same guy as the OP?

360porcento said:
Are you the the same guy as the OP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No but it'd cool regardless as I'd be interested in seeing it in action.
(the app that is)

360porcento said:
Hey man, I just noticed that you dont have a video demo on google play... would you like one? I can do some switches with a background music... may I do it and you decide after if use it or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would loved one, that'd be greatly appreciated... thanks! (i am the op)

[APP][4.0+] HomeFlip 1.1 is live and out of beta!

Found yourself switching between the same applications all the time?
HomeFlip get the job done quickly in a convenient way.
No Ads and free forever.
Instructions:
Press Home button once to quickly switch between recent tasks.
Swipe a task to the left to mark as favorite.
Swipe a task to the right to mark as hidden.
Press the hardware menu button or the right corner on-screen menu button to access actions and settings.
Press Home button again to go back to the original launcher.
Tested on the following devices:
- Samsung Galaxy S3.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
- Google Nexus S.
Planned features:
- Full control over color theme.
- At glance information's such as time and date.
- Support for left handed operations.
Note that this application is in beta.
Download HomeFlip
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lean_and_mean.HomeFlip

AW: [APP][4.0+] HomeFlip 1.1 is live and out of beta!
Sounds cool :thumbup:

f1tty said:
sounds cool :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup i just find out this quite impressive app !

Version 1.25b
- Korean translation, thanks to Chae Jina.
- Russian translation, thanks to Oleg Gljadkov.
- Custom fonts now work with custom themes.
- Added tasks focus animations.
- Display actual fonts in settings.
- Added tasks label stroking effect.
- Various eye-candies and a pinch of fairy dust.
Enjoy.

Removed

Just give a shot hope you like this app its quite handy :good:

So its recents app that is pretty much built into 4.2 thanks for work but could have been useful a year ago recents works well enough for me keep building tho
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

sped_13 said:
So its recents app that is pretty much built into 4.2 thanks for work but could have been useful a year ago recents works well enough for me keep building tho
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the recents app has been changed to open apps you hadnt launched yet?

Guys Give a Shot If You Want To Feel How Is Ubantu Work On Mobile :good:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fb.glovebox&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5mYi5nbG92ZWJveCJd

i REALLY like this, i think it just needs a few little tweaks and it will potentially forever be my first loaded app after a flash
I find the trigger point for swiping sometimes covering buttons a bit ang gets activated without fully intending. What about maybe making it activate on a triple click, or maybe a double click, with the slide on the second click? Dont know how well they would work, but just some thoughts i had to try to solve that issue.
Ahhh whilst just reloading it i noticed the home double click option, i'll give that a whirl
The other thing is that i woiuld like to be able to make the scrolling bars maybe be a little less themed. I've been checking out some similar programs and i just find the scrolling to not quite be as good on this. I'm thinking if the bars were simplified a bit, it could perhaps help that? or maybe it might be drawing them as an overlay, rather than actually using a full side of the screen for example. I do a lot of coding, but havent done any on android, so i've got some ideas, but just not sure if they would necessarily make much of a difference or not.
I'm just about to reload it now, but i'm just trying to remember if there is any sort of option to add shortcuts/actions etc to tabs, rather than just apps, something else to consider perhaps.
there are people complaining in the play store about it being a home launcher, i dont quite get what they mean, (yes it has the default action for launcher applied), but the way it uses it's backup launcher it really does seem to work "in addition" to the backup launcher. I'm thinking they are talking about screen redraws, but i couldnt get any to happen (maybe needs to be running a while longer)
Anyway overall i LOVE your work, but (and obviously it's the message from the play store comments) i'd love to see it be cut back more if possible, to try to avoid any noticeable impact to the system, and for the people on play (who arent really clarifying what they want i dont think) maybe trying to tweak it's interaction with the fallback launcher (i'm not sure exactly what their issue is as i said, i'm taking a bit of a stab)
:good:

reinstalled it just then and disabled the trigger, and set activation to double click home :good::highfive:
disabled themes as much as i could, i'll give it a spin like this and see how it goes.