What app launchers does everyone use (home screen/swipepad/power strip, etc)?

[polstein]

I've been playing a lot lately with the most simple/efficient way to launch apps & switch to them but haven't decided which I like best. I'm curious to know what everyone else does. A list of things I've played with:

- Stick with going to Home screen & using MultiIcons. Use hold-down-Home for recent tasks.

- Home screen backed by widgets like Circle Launcher or Folder Organizer.

- SwipePad. Having some problems with it vibrates, but doesn't fire.

- Clutch Pad. Love the swipe to last task, but also having problems with it fails to swipe.

- Quick Launcher (haven't actually tried this one)

- Gesture Launcher by pcm2a, same guy as Quick Launcher (this is the one where you click a floating icon & draw a symbol to launch an app)

- Power Strip. Activated by hitting Home button, but is slow to respond & may no longer be in development.

- QuickDesk. Also Home button launcher, but still in development.

- Smart Taskbar. Been following since it came out, but oddly it never felt right to me & hard to explain why.

- Combination of above (f'instance using SwipePad and setting a box to launch Gesture Launcher so you can have your other 11 boxes be top apps you run and the rest fired from Gesture Launcher)

I think I've been switching every few days. All have advantages & disadvantages. I just can't seem to settle on what is 'best'. I should add that personally, I dislike text labels for apps, so a minus if I can't rename or remove text labels. Ability to change image is a plus (but I've been modding my apps to change the icon anyways).

What's everyone using nowdays? Are there other app launchers I'm missing?

 

[polstein]

Testing out Smart Taskbar today. Been a while since I used it. Looks like the dev has been putting out regular releases. I sent him a list of like a dozen requests (including ability to change text, icon and sort order).

On the plus side, it's wicked fast & since it's just a press (no sliding) it hasn't missed a click/activation yet.

Anyone?

 

[ardchoille]

I really like App Organizer. First you tag all the apps in the app drawer, then add the App Organizer widget to the home screen. The widget you add shows shortcuts for all the apps of a single tag. It's kinda like having folders on your home screen but you don't have to fiddle with adding and removing apps later - the tags list does it for you. Try it.

 

[polstein]

I really like App Organizer. First you tag all the apps in the app drawer, then add the App Organizer widget to the home screen. The widget you add shows shortcuts for all the apps of a single tag. It's kinda like having folders on your home screen but you don't have to fiddle with adding and removing apps later - the tags list does it for you. Try it.

Looking into this now - looks like about the same thing as Folder Organizer. Does App Organizer have good widgets?

Oddly, it's by the same maker as Folder Organizer.

 

[polstein]

My last post on this unless interest picks up. Been using Smart Taskbar for a day, and most impressive part is it has never missed a click to go into the launcher. It's also running very fast without a hint of lag at all.

I've sent a list of requests to the dev, will be interesting to see what, if any, feedback I get. I do like devs that respond back to emails

 

[beachhead]

Just stumbled upon this thread.

Have any of you tried out *Spark? It's a different style of Home replacement - vertical scrolling, update fbook & twitter status, live sports scores, etc.

I've been rocking it lately, I like the style & the UI is money.

 

[mc48]

I don't think I saw Launcher Pro Plus in your post. It is the the only one of really used and is probably the best known.

 

[AngryHatter]

http://androidforums.com/android-applications/299545-favorite-home-replacement-launcher.html


Go Launcher EX again, again.

 

[ap0stle]

I use Multitaskmanager .. and/or Quick switcher. Smart tray..it is quite gimmicky, in terms of speed and function, it is just as fast to jump to the home screen to start find a new app to start..if that is what you need it for. Multi Task Manager is quick and snappy... quick switcher is just as good..but best for phones with physical keyboard for make use of its features, otherwise it runs from the notifications bar, which makes Multi Task Manager faster and simpler to use. ..it will snap ready no matter what activity you have going on screen/game, browsing, docs... etc.

..alternatively, Go Launcher Ex has a running apps section in the app tray... does the trick too.

As for the 'folder organizer' app...it is a very useful tool, but it is very closed off in terms of the groupings you can make into a folder. It doesn't play nice/make available for labelling shortcuts from ES file manager at the moment. For true home screen organization of files/docs/apps and shortcuts, Open Home 6 or Go Launcher EX.

... Open Home 6 now has iOS 4.3 style folder creation by drag n drop one app onto another...then you can change the folder icon too.
..however, the folder widgets of folder organizer are excellent. No launcher that I know of can match those widgets.

 

[polstein]

Glad I happen to peek in on this thread I thought was dead/no one was interested.

I didn't re-read my original note, but I was lumping home launchers (ADE, Launcher Pro, Go) together as Home screens.

Home screens have some major edges over the others, since you can customize the heck out of them & add widgets. But to me, it would be the equivalent of keeping all your stuff on your Windows desktop (or Mac, I guess) and running everything from there.

(no Start Menu, no Windows keyboard shortcuts, no Start bar thingy at the bottom of the screen. Anytime you wanted to run a program, you had to Minimize all to run something)

I keep going back to it. I found Scrollcut recenly, and like it a lot. I also got lucky & found an 'all programs' replacement called Organized Drawer that is working very well - if a biiit slow. I'm currenly using Clutch Pad/hold press to launch Organized Drawer. (Clutch Pad/click = favorite 12 apps, Clutch Pad/hold = OD).

Looking up some other programs mentioned. I should add that I watch about 6 'show me your home screen thread' - and I don't look at icons/graphics so much but overall layout & ease of getting to what you need.

Will keep an eye on the thread again unless it dies out.

 

[Usta]

Launcher Pro does the job for me, coupled with different themes per homescreen and apps folders.

 

[yeahrightasif]

quickdesk +folder organizer means i can get to any app from any screen. a double tap home key brings up the quick desk tray in which i have folder organizer links.

 

[Usta]

I've changed my launcher to Go Launcher EX. More features and more fun.

 

[sookster54]

I've used LauncherPro for a long time then switched to ADW Ex but ran into some sluggishness and stability issues with it so I went to Zeam, now messing with Open Home 6, it's slightly buggy but works nice.

I use FolderOrganizer and Wave Launcher to access my most used apps.

 

[yeahrightasif]

i have made a comparison spreadsheet between the common and not so common launchers here -

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...4NmJ4X29sRk43dGc&authkey=CMfSjJgH&hl=en#gid=0

the original discussion at xda-developers here-

A Launcher Comparison - xda-developers.

summary (my opinion so ymmv) -

the current top launchers-
go launcher, up to 30 homescreens, notifications, i find vertically scrolling widgets to be too sensitive to left / right swipe movement. i have yet to encounter lag.

launcher pro, notifications plus its own in built widgets in pro version. if you want to emulate these widgets in other launchers you need to try pure messenger, pure rss reader and Colorize Widgets for facebook / twitter. I get some occasional lag but developer is in process of re-write

adw - the most visually customisable launcher, themes, notifications. i have experienced some lag with this launcher also.

zeam, a lightwight launcher with a few features (scrollable widgets, scrollable dock, resizable home screen, but strangely i found the app drawer to be less responsive than most.

different to above style launchers (neither are my 'cup of tea')-
Xperia Arc Launcher
NetFront Life Screen

Not yet compared-
Open Home 6
Launcher 7

 

[Usta]

@yeahrightasif,
Good comparison (confirms most of what I thought about the different lanuchers). Thanks.

 

[EdAndInn]

Go Launcher Ex works best for me.

Horizontal App Tray Scrolling
Upto 30 (may be more) Home Screens
Uninstall Apps directly from Home Screen
Adding APp to a Home Screen is easy and quick
Upto 5 Apps per Home Screen in Dock


Senior user Tokenpoke at SamsungIntercept Forum wrote a very good article on Go Launcher Ex features. Here is the link:

http://samsunginterceptforum.com/huawei-ascend/306579-go-launcher.html

 

[yeahrightasif]

zeam, a lightwight launcher with a few features (scrollable widgets, scrollable dock, resizable home screen, but strangely i found the app drawer to be less responsive than most.

tried zeam on a 2.2 rom and it was very fast, the speed issues i experienced may have been due to the rom i was using (spike pure gingerbread).

 

[polstein]

Just wanted to update. Lately I've been using an app called Calendar in Status Bar combined with Organized Drawer.

CiSB shows the current day/date, and lets you pick any 1 app to run from the drop down (kind of a 2 way function in 1 app).

Organizer Drawer is fast becoming my all star app for launching programs. It's a free app to let you make folders (and sub-folders) and assign apps to the folders. You can also change icons to custom icons. I've written to the dev with requests a few times, and he's updated the app within days each time!

I'm also using SwipePad a bit, I'm kind of using it to get to my top 12 apps & using the pull down to Organized Drawer to get to everything else.

 

[snakeeyes21]

A dock that ive been using recently is dock4droid, it hasnt been out lonk but the developer updates it regularly.
I paid for the upgraded on so I could have transparent background and a few other bits, think it was 61p when I bought it.

 

[polstein]

A dock that ive been using recently is dock4droid, it hasnt been out lonk but the developer updates it regularly.
I paid for the upgraded on so I could have transparent background and a few other bits, think it was 61p when I bought it.

Looks very similar to Wave Launcher (tried Wave & didn't like it)

 

[amerifax]

I have tried most of the above. After a lot of research I have broken it down to three.

Folder Organizer - for all Apps by type.
a. music
b. Graphics
c. System
d. camera
Etc

I use "Circle Launcher" next to a "Folder Organizer" widget 4 x 2 for a smaller specialized group. I might have a couple of "Circle Launchers" when grouping with camera. Pre-Shot, Shot & Edit.

The last launcher is "Launcher Pro Plus". I use this just for fine-tuning and docking.

My system is a Motorola- Xoom-Family. The above launchers work for the most part very well together. I have found though that when working with the three it's a good policy to be backing up frequently. The only issues that I might've had was through my own carelessness.

Bob