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Launchers are listed by minimum Android version needed. The list was getting rather populated and it needed a new way of being organised, as well as split into separate posts.
If you know of any new ones, bad links, incorrect info, etc. let me know and I'll edit the list and throw you a thanks! Any guides or mods are more than welcome to edit as needed.
The Big List of Home Launchers - Varied, Jelly Bean,
Ice Cream Sandwich, Honeycomb, Gingerbread, Froyo
So which one is the best or should I say NO LAG. I put CM6.1 on my G1 then went to Zeam launcher because its supposed to be the lightest BUT when in a heavy app it can take 8 seconds for my icons to come up when returning to home. I have tried all the performance settings and have only 8 icons in the dock and only 2 on the home screen but still the lag.
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So which one is the best or should I say NO LAG. I put CM6.1 on my G1 then went to Zeam launcher because its supposed to be the lightest BUT when in a heavy app it can take 8 seconds for my icons to come up when returning to home. I have tried all the performance settings and have only 8 icons in the dock and only 2 on the home screen but still the lag.
Zeam does seem to be one of the lighter launchers for what it does. But if your having issues like that, a new launcher isn't going to be your solution. I'd explore other avenues, like a good cache cleaner, Auto Memory Manager, DT's a2sd, SD-Booster, cutting down on apps, etc.
Last edited by Scur; August 29th, 2011 at 01:55 PM.
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Nice. This should be a sticky, maybe it would cut down on "What launcher should I get". I usually stick with all things Go, but I miss HTC's wide selection of widgets. Might switch back.
It might not be a bad idea to add a market link to these launchers just to make it one step easier for others to find.
I thought about that after the list was about done, and I was running out of time. I might yet. I definitely will if anyone mentions any launchers that are found somewhere other than the Android market.
Just did a "Launcher" search in Appbrain and there are 2 more just on the 1st page (Wave and PlugIn)... I typically try to use apps with the highest rating (always above 4 stars), and lowest memory usage... GO has my vote on this list, but I've only tried GO and Zeam (and Car Dock, which I don't think qualifies as a "main" launcher).
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Just did a "Launcher" search in Appbrain and there are 2 more just on the 1st page (Wave and PlugIn)... I typically try to use apps with the highest rating (always above 4 stars), and lowest memory usage... GO has my vote on this list, but I've only tried GO and Zeam (and Car Dock, which I don't think qualifies as a "main" launcher).
Saw those.
Wave Launcher is a bit of an overlay launcher that can launch a max of 5 shortcuts I believe. SwipePad is similar. They might be handy for starting apps when you don't want to exit your current one.
Plug In Launcher is an app that automatically launches certain apps when you connect bluetooth, WiFi, or various cables.
As far as Car Dock goes, I haven't tried it yet. I'm not convinced from reading the details
that it can't be used as a home launcher, but I'll re-categorize it, since it does seem that it isn't meant to be the main home launcher.
Last edited by Scur; August 29th, 2011 at 06:48 PM.
This is a very helpful thread. I am going to add a link to this from the intro/guide sticky (with your permission of course
Go ahead. I've spent some time on this, and it would be nice to know it helped others. It was originally a much shorter list in a notepad file, but when I decided to hunt deeper for more and found out how much time it was actually taking me, I realized how much I wished a list was in the forums.
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I've given ADW (free), Launcher Pro, Go Launcher EX, and Zeam, pretty thorough looks on my Dinc2 and I keep going back to Go Launcher. ADW and Launcher Pro lack developer support.
Zeam for what ever it is supposed to be (light on resources and very fast) has bad lag issues on my Dinc2. I really want to like Zeam, their dock is very nice, but I've tried all the recent updates, gone as far back as version 2.88 that was supposedly their best version before version 3, but I just don't have a good experience using it.
Go Launcher EX, which many don't like because they copied features from other launchers, works the best for me. It's the smoothest and is constantly being updated...literally once a week.
I tried Launcher 7 as well and it may be a nice alternative but it requires work to get it to what most would want. It's not the easiest to customize but it looks like a good launcher is you're willing to put in the time to get it to where you want it and like the Windows Phone look.
Looking for different launchers, as most of them are the same style and just differ in small things (GO, LPP, zeam, ADW etc). So i played with MXHome, which i liked very much with its 3D effects, but it's not customizable at all. Now i am playing with Claystone, a nice launcher, different as it uses panels and stacks.
Looking for different launchers, as most of them are the same style and just differ in small things (GO, LPP, zeam, ADW etc). So i played with MXHome, which i liked very much with its 3D effects, but it's not customizable at all. Now i am playing with Claystone, a nice launcher, different as it uses panels and stacks.
Yeah, I noticed most of them look pretty much the same. There are a couple of bare bones launchers, and a few that play with 3D, but there are a few here and there that really are different, like Claystone Launcher or Honeycomb Launcher.
Myself, I like Zeam for the single scrolling dock, running full screen, with Apps Organizer shortcuts in the dock and wp clock wallpaper. ATM anyway.
Last edited by Scur; September 4th, 2011 at 10:04 PM.
So I got my new Droid X2 and wanted a launcher that showed it off, so I bit the bullet and grabbed SPB Shell 3D. This thing is awesome looking. Just letting it sit at the 3D home screen is very cool to watch.
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This is a really great forum entry. It's good to know the alternatives and it's hard to look for launchers beyond the big ones. I've found Go to be the most stable and smooth and it's the one I keep coming back to. I just made it my default again after using Zeam for the past 2 weeks. It was okay, but didn't run any better then Go and has fewer bells and whistles. Launcher 7 was also nice, but lasted only a day on my phone as did LauncherPro. I think today's launcher will be Nemus Launcher.
Sure. Sticky it, link it to another forum, even copy/paste it, it's all good. The whole point was for folks (including me) who want to change up their launcher to be able to find them.
If anyone is interested, dxTop Pro is free in the Amazon App Store today ... personally I am not a big fan, but worth checking out for free
I used that one up through the spring of this year.. It's nice, in that it's relatively uncomplicated, but it's strictly the five-screen cube configuration, which makes it a bit out-dated. The screens actually do rotate in a cube-like fashion (just as a Rubix cube would), and this can be as confusing as it is helpful for some people. Also, one out of the three dockbars is dedicated to two app-management functions, and one is a task killer - again, it's kinda out-dated, and there is no option to remove these.
Power Launcher Free-Best App free
Power Launcher Full-Top App paid
Those are both dead links.
Great idea in this thread.
Please add Wave Launcher...which I found after wading through this thread.
Thnx for the heads up.
Wave Launcher is actually an app, kinda like a floating dock. There are a few apps like it out there, but they aren't home launchers. They have little tricks to make a few commonly used apps easy to launch. Wave Launcher is one of the better ones.
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Did you see the youtube videos on tsf shell coming out... If it ever gets feel like they out a whole lot of launchers will like their in Siberia. Also I don't see 360 launcher or the one I use Hi launcher the thing I like about Hi launcher is that it uses zones so whole pages don't turn only the section you need to advance
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Yeah it isn't a launcher pro/adw clone. Did you check out the tsf shell video. I can't wait to get the beta to try. Team_rou has a new launcher coming too
Any chance you could display a date within the launcher list of when you post new launchers? Also I would imagine if you had an app for people to go to and add comments about launchers or reporting new launchers they found your app likely would see interest. If I had seen this as a paid app I would have bought it.
Any chance you could display a date within the launcher list of when you post new launchers? Also I would imagine if you had an app for people to go to and add comments about launchers or reporting new launchers they found your app likely would see interest. If I had seen this as a paid app I would have bought it.
I don't edit it unless I'm adding or removing launchers. The date a post is edited is found at the very bottom of any post. I can post when I add a new one, but I rarely add them any more unless someone mentions it, in which case it will get posted anyway. But if I find one from a different source or remove one that can't be found on a market anymore I'll post it.
Can anyone tell me which of these launchers can work for 1.6 (Donut) or higher?
(i have a behold 2)
ADW has a Donut launcher, and the higher version is a solid launcher. I can't see the Donut version not being solid as well. I think I remember another launcher working for Donut, but I can't remember for the life of me which one it was.
edit: Looking through some now, Old Crazy Home Lite supports 1.6, lemme see if I can find some others...
Last edited by Scur; December 26th, 2011 at 07:23 PM.
Yeah it isn't a launcher pro/adw clone. Did you check out the tsf shell video. I can't wait to get the beta to try. Team_rou has a new launcher coming too
TSF Shell looks very cool indeed. As far as the HI launcher goes, I had it for a few days, but uninstalled it. The colors in the settings were wacky on my phone, and I couldn't get all my apps to show up. But the idea is nice, I like it.
Can anyone tell me which of these launchers can work for 1.6 (Donut) or higher?
(i have a behold 2)
Ok, I was just going to look through a few of them, but I'm finding lots of 1.5 and 1.6 launchers, plus lots of new ones and launchers that are no longer on the market. I'm going to spend tonight going through them all, reformatting the look of the list, and adding what versions of Android each can run on. Give the list a gander tomorrow.
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As a point of interest, Zeam is supposedly not compatible with Honeycomb. However, as you can see by the attached sceenshot from my tablet, it works just fine. I have emailed the developer about this, so maybe they can get it corrected in the Market and Amazon appstore.
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I do love me some Zeam, my favorite dock bar ever.
sidenote: I've gone through all the links, reorganized them, added a couple (though there are plenty more to add) and added the Android version numbers you need for each one. I'll finish adding the rest of the launchers I've found tomorrow, after 3 hours I'm done with this for tonight.
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The Big List of Home Launchers - June 8, 2013
