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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
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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
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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

HomeScreen: Different Wallpapers / Shortcut to Screen?

I am looking for two things that I am not sure if they exist or not:
1. Is there any tool/hack/app/magic that will switch to a different wallpaper depending on which home screen you are on at the time?
2. Additionally, I don't see a way to create shortcuts on the home screen that will allow me to launch the app drawer, or to "jump" to a specific home screen.
Does anyone have any ideas if these are possible or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Thanks!

If you're using the (stock) Sense launcher, I don't know of any way to customize the wallpaper on a per (home)screen basis. Not sure if any third-party launcher does. I do know that Launcher Pro lets you disable the wallpaper scrolling.
The little triangle on the bottom left of the curved bar (next to the "Phone" button) opens the app drawer.
The stock launcher, besides allowing you to use the HTC widgets, offers practically no customization.
I've been using Launcher Pro for the last week, and have been very happy with it (disclaimer: if you've updated Qik, your default launcher setting frequently goes into the bit bucket (at least with the updates before the latest, which I have not tried). ADW Launcher is also very good, but I was getting intermittent force closes with it.
HTH,
-Jerry

#2 I don't know if you knew this put if you 'squeeze' the screen it shows an overview of the screens.

elegantai said:
#2 I don't know if you knew this put if you 'squeeze' the screen it shows an overview of the screens.
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Click to collapse
Ah, yes. Forgot about that one...
Launcher Pro also does that, and you can also do a double-tap of the home button in Sense, for the same function.
ADW will let you assign that function to an up or down swipe on the screen, along with (or) some other choices.
Cheers,
-Jerry

adw allows you to assign a 'swipe up' and 'swipe down' command. i use them to access my preview screen (ie: see all desktops) and to show/hide notification bar.
great tool. lots of fun options to muss with.
regarding your questions
1) i dont think so. i think of it was one wallpaper covering 5 workspaces. not 5 different desktops.
2) try adw

[Q] Dumb down defy? + w/ wificalling

I convinced my dad to get a waterproof smartphone for the free wifi calling.
Its his first smartphone and he wants me to lock down the phone so he doesnt mess anything up. Hes quite talented that way.
This thread says some of the roms dont have tmobile uma wifi calling
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=931972&page=3
I dont have the post count for that forum.
In new to android and dont know which rom to use? Motorblur has to go lol.
Phone has a red lens.
He doesnt have a data plan only wifi. He will mostly use wifi for calling but might read email and check weather once in a while but wont be surfing the web or playing games or anything.
If i could i would like a launcher with a single home screen with only about 10 apps and they would be locked from moving. There would be a largish call dock icon on the bottom and a clock widget near the top. The notification bar would have the date and a longer battery icon.
While on the home screen, the menu button would turn a flashlight on and off and the search button would launch the music player. Hitting the home button five times and entering a password would bring up the list of all the installed apps so i could go to the settings or market etc to change things.
The notification bar woud have slightly bigger icon and when swiped down would also show wifi and bluetooth controls like on my moms samsung galaxy. Also liker hers the lock screen would change to the puzzle piece swipe when theres a new message.

Get a custom launcher like Go Launcher EX and hide all the apps you dont want to use from the launcher
Stuff like browser I is a bad idea to remove, just hide the icon to launch it.
For WiFi intensive, I'd suggest going with a stock Blurless Froyo, since CM7 could have some issues when using WiFi.

Adw ex has an option to lock the homescreen so nothing moves. You can set it to be one page and lock it.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App

adw launcher works pretty good! I was able to remove all but the one main desktop screen and then lock it. Had to set desktop overshoot to 0 to stop screen from bouncing when flicked.
Where would i ask for the following requests.
-Wider dock bar icons. having 3 or 5 dialer icons on the dock looks crappy lol.
-taller dock bar icon.
-menu button turns a flashlight app on and off
-search button launches a music player app
-home button works normally and goes home, if pressed 30 times in a row then brings up menu for me to get to settings/wallpaper/unlock/app drawer.

I am not sure on ADW EX but Go Launcher EX have the option of changing the dock background. Just use a picture with just 2 or 3 icons as back ground and use transparent icons. I set this way to mimic original DEFY launcher home with just Phone and Contacts in the dock bar. Attached the files here. Got it from here only but forgot the original post.
*** Note sure if I have explained it properly here

Try Launcher 7. You can lock the screen so icons can't be moved, and hide the rest from the app list. MIUI it's simple and easy to use, was great for my wife to learn Android, CM7 can get kind of confusing for some people.
Swyped from my MIUI 1.9.23 Defy

Angelus47 I dont like launcher 7 cant put enough icons/tiles on one screen.
Does MIUI have tmobile wifi calling app?
pprakash Is it better to have button image on the dock background and transparent icons over or is it better to cut the button image across several icon sized wide pieces.
In adw launcher the dock background is set by the theme. Im not sure how to create a theme. On the other hand if i didnt scale the split icons pieces to the right size there would be gaps between them I think.
Right now i have one visual voicemail on the left, one messaging on the right and three dialers in the middle.

perhaps i could find where the images for themes are stored and replace the dock backround image for the default theme.

tmiket said:
pprakash Is it better to have button image on the dock background and transparent icons over or is it better to cut the button image across several icon sized wide pieces.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With Go Launcher EX I find having the single image as background provided slightly bigger images rather than using individual icons. But I have attached individual icons as well here hopefully it helps you ..

Micro lag on nova launcher

Folks when using nova launcher there's a clear noticeable lag when launching apps from home screens.
I've tested this versus stock oneplus launcher. On stock oneplus launcher apps launch instantly after you tap on an icon, whilst on nova the app icon lights up & then the app is launched afterwards. My best mate who also uses a oneplus 3 has been experiencing the same issue.
To test this for yourself, use oneplus launcher for a minute, opening various apps - then do the same on nova and you'll immediately notice the micro lag.
This also occurs when launching apps from the app drawer.
Anyone else noticed this?

I also experience the exact same issue. Noticed it couple of days ago but haven't had time to post about it here.
I have reported the issue to the Nova Launcher Dev via email and also in the Beta Google+ page. This is definitely a Nova Launcher bug as I have tested Google Now Launcher, the new Pixel Launcher and the official One plus launcher.
On all three apps open the instant an icon is touched while on nova an icon is touched, the icon briefly lights up and only then opens. It is something you might not notice initially but once someone tells you or shows you, you can't miss it and it gets more and more iritating with time.
Have tried moving to other launchers but the uncustomisable grid size on Google Now, Pixel and Oneplus launcher keep me from doing so as most of them have massive vertical gaps inbetween apps on the homescreen.
It happens on both Latest Beta and Latest Stable version of Nova Launcher Prime. Have tried to remove all widgets off homescreen, turning off animations system wide, but it did not make a difference.
Running Official Rooted Stock with Viper4Android Oxygen 3.2.6. Do not use xposed so a module can't be the culprit.

Try changing scroll speed and animation speed to Fast under nova setting look and feel. Also in developer settings change transition animation scale, animator transition scale and windows animation scale all to .5

stevessvt said:
Try changing scroll speed and animation speed to Fast under nova setting look and feel. Also in developer settings change transition animation scale, animator transition scale and windows animation scale all to .5
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Click to collapse
The problem isn't an animation problem. It is a delay that happens before the animation even takes plays. It doesn't matter even if you switch the animations off system wide under eveloper options the delay between when you tap on an app and it opening is still noticeable

Oh, ok. Mine is bone stock unrooted and don't have any stutters that I can see. Wish I could help.

stevessvt said:
Oh, ok. Mine is bone stock unrooted and don't have any stutters that I can see. Wish I could help.
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No worries bro, thanks for chiming in :beer:

Can't say I notice anything more than the animation.

My nova beta with prime on stock oxygen 3.2.6 is as smooth as one plus launcher.

I don't notice it myself; that said, I'm using FreedomOS (slightly modified OOS) and blu_spark kernel, which might help improve performance a bit.
Most apps open up before I even manage to lift the finger off the screen, those that take longer are equally slow on both launchers. (Talking about cold starts here, once they're in RAM everything's pretty much instant).
Sent from my OnePlus 3 using Tapatalk

It probably comes from the fact you can assign 2 different apps for the same icon.
One for "click" and one for "slide up".
If you slide up the app drawer icon you'll enter in Nove Settings for example.
"Not a bug, just a feature" ^^
Same thing with SmartLauncher.

krohme said:
Folks when using nova launcher there's a clear noticeable lag when launching apps from home screens.
I've tested this versus stock oneplus launcher. On stock oneplus launcher apps launch instantly after you tap on an icon, whilst on nova the app icon lights up & then the app is launched afterwards. My best mate who also uses a oneplus 3 has been experiencing the same issue.
To test this for yourself, use oneplus launcher for a minute, opening various apps - then do the same on nova and you'll immediately notice the micro lag.
This also occurs when launching apps from the app drawer.
Anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Nova since two weeks with RR and Boeffla's Kernel, and I have no lags at all. I've set the animation of Nova to "Fast". When I open the drawer, or the widget menu, I can't notice any micro lag. I think this problem is not Nova-related

Dushaine said:
It probably comes from the fact you can assign 2 different apps for the same icon.
One for "click" and one for "slide up".
If you slide up the app drawer icon you'll enter in Nove Settings for example.
"Not a bug, just a feature" ^^
Same thing with SmartLauncher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That shouldn't cause any lags, sliding and tapping are completely different actions.
Lags or rather delays happen when you have double tap functions, because in that case the system has to wait after first tap to see if you'll tap again. But sliding has no influence here.
I'm using swipe-up functions on multiple icons and still see no lag whatsoever.
Sent from my OnePlus 3 using Tapatalk

Explorer23 said:
That shouldn't cause any lags, sliding and tapping are completely different actions.
Lags or rather delays happen when you have double tap functions, because in that case the system has to wait after first tap to see if you'll tap again. But sliding has no influence here.
I'm using swipe-up functions on multiple icons and still see no lag whatsoever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said "micro-lag" not huge lag. But you're right, those are two different things
I just checked on my device and I have a little latency due to the animation (just tried to change the speed animation and it fixed it).

I can confirm this lags on RR with Nova launcher, Trebuchet open the aps faster!

Doesn't happen to me on Sultan's ROM.

Micro Lag
Paraless said:
Doesn't happen to me on Sultan's ROM.
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Click to collapse
The lag is a MICRO lag not a very noticeable lag. Any other launcher including, google now, pixel, one plus and action launcher 3 don't have it but nova does. doesnt matter if your using stable or beta builds. Makes no difference what home screen set up you got. There is slight delay between when you touch the screen and the app icon you pressed starts playing animation. The app lights up first which it shouldn't do. it should just start animation the minute the app icon touchscreen input is detected. It is alot less likely to happen if the app is not in memory. Once the app is in memory it does it every single time you press home, whatsapp for example. Moved to Action Launcher 3 after using Nova Prime for past 3 years. Reported to developer via email and google+ beta page but no reply in 3 days.

noticed this since i got the phone a couple of weeks ago, but only if keeping app in memory (i.e. hitting home instead of back). if i hit back to exit app, this delay doesn't occur (except maybe w/ facebook)
only happens w/ nova launcher and definitely specific to OP3. i would use stock launcher, but i prefer to turn all animations off, and nova seems to be the only launcher that keeps the light up on button/app press with animations off.
in general, OP3 seems to lag a bit compared to my OPX in regards to navigating menus (i.e. settings)

I can also confirm microlag when launching apps, really annoyed with it.

Recent Apps changes style

So recently, I'd say maybe since getting the Sept update last week here in Canada on my s20+ (g986w). I've been noticing my recent apps screen changing the way it looks and behaves while running Nova Launcher on OneUi 2.5.
Using gesture navigation, I'll swipe up and get my recent apps screen which I've always seen since getting this device and always running Nova Launcher. Grey background with apps as tiles. Current app as first tile, swipe left for other apps.
But sometimes when I swipe up my recent apps screen shows my current app in full screen, swipe right for other open apps. Search bar and close button are transparent and sometimes hard too see.
Anyways see pics. (apologies for the open apps and subject) Just finding this odd.