Imagine not using Lawnchair or Neo Launcher in 2024
Imagine if it didn't work on your device. Lawnchair apparently isn't available on Android 12 without sideloading.
In the list of available apps I see "Neo Launcher Hyperion SciFi" (no plain "Neo Launcher") and the first thing that I notice with that is the "contains ads" flag.
Nova, meanwhile, comes up consistently among searches for launchers, and up until when I stopped using it provided a good mix of functionality and customization (ad-free, and without sideloading). It's disappointing to learn it's run by a company that may be likely to harvest data
Genuine question from someone with Nova launcher since like Android 6: do these alternatives have all the same features?
No, but as someone who just dumped Nova after realising I've been given some company free reign of my device (because I've had it so long) I feel Neo is closer to being a more comparable feature set... though still not as much as Nova
And I BOUGHT pro! Went to Neo launcher when I started GraphineOS. May move to launchair if/when it supports work profile.
It is unfortunate and I was looking at dozens of other open source launchers, but I was not able to find one that fits my needs and is as customizable as Nova Launcher :(
Reading the article and justification given I do actually get the idea of it. They want to levarage the parent company's clout and connections in order to convince other app makers into implementing a way for Sesame, the universal search app/plugin, to pull results directly from those apps. For the parent company it would give them a USP in the analytics market.
In short: Think of searching for a product from the launcher and rather than it opening Google, it returns results directly from the Amazon app, or eBay, or any other app that supports the functionality. Obviously there'll be an affiliate kickback for any click-through and you've got a decent revenue source.
It's a good idea, I get it. Would I feel comfortable using it? I don't know. On the one hand it just cuts out the middle-man of searching for and clicking through to products via Google etc. On the other hand, all of the concerns already raised in this thread!
Is there evidence that they are collecting data from the app?
I love Nova launcher but will switch to an alternative if I have to.
Is there any launcher that works well with Pixel's transition animations when using gesture mode? I haven't tried for a few years because there would be weird animation glitches from things like switching apps or going back to the home screen.
Lawnchair seems alright.
Where is my tldr bot
Switched back to action launcher when this happened
Main feature I love, which to my knowledge action did first anyway, is to have a folder of app icons where one is the most frequent. You tap on it to open the frequent option or swipe it to open the folder.
Basically means you almost never need the app deserter l drawer
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