Here is a list of top Android launcher According to igyaan .
For those of you who are unaware about the capabilities of a third party launcher: a different launcher, with the requisite feature set, can completely change the way you interact with your smartphone device. Gesture control, dozens of choices for transitions and animations, context aware home screen arrangement, strong app management, folders on home screens, dock, and app drawer, icon and label customizations, and the like, are just a minor sub-set of the features afforded by any of the numerous launchers available over at the ocean that is Play Store.
The question then arises is which are the ones you should check out, and even trust, considering the installation of a third party launcher entails an exceedingly long list of device permission requests. And that is why we are here here to help you focus on five pearls, if you may, among pebbles that litter the ever growing confines of the Play Store. These five may not necessarily be the best five homescreen replacements that can be mined over at the interweb, but they represent the choices favoured over all others by yours truly.
Let’s start off:
For those of you who are unaware about the capabilities of a third party launcher: a different launcher, with the requisite feature set, can completely change the way you interact with your smartphone device. Gesture control, dozens of choices for transitions and animations, context aware home screen arrangement, strong app management, folders on home screens, dock, and app drawer, icon and label customizations, and the like, are just a minor sub-set of the features afforded by any of the numerous launchers available over at the ocean that is Play Store.
The question then arises is which are the ones you should check out, and even trust, considering the installation of a third party launcher entails an exceedingly long list of device permission requests. And that is why we are here here to help you focus on five pearls, if you may, among pebbles that litter the ever growing confines of the Play Store. These five may not necessarily be the best five homescreen replacements that can be mined over at the interweb, but they represent the choices favoured over all others by yours truly.
Let’s start off:
Nova Launcher
Nova Launcher laid its claim to fame with the advent of Ice Cream Sandwich flavour of the mobile operating system out of Mountain View’s gates. With ICS, Google offered a newer, fresher, flatter take on the user interface elements it offered. But, in retrospect, we can say that the hardware, then, had not kept pace with the software the search giant had outed. Most of the devices at the time, specially those that were being updated from Gingerbread, struggled under the combined load of the OS and the stock launcher, making them stutter, often to a screeching halt.
TeslaCoil stepped up with its fresh offering, Nova Launcher, which offered a virtual clone of Google’s much appreciated Holo look, but in a light-weight package, offering tons of customization options that had been missing from the stock one. Nova Launcher was fast, fluid, and surprisingly feature rich, and instantly attracted hordes of users.
As of itself, Nova Launcher offers completely stock look and feel, a boon for Android purists using non Nexus devices, and those unwilling to root and flash custom ROMs. Numerous themes available via Play Store or otherwise, though, for those in need of some flair, can be used along with Nova Launcher. With visual appeal out of the way, Nova Launcher’s settings menu beckons, offering tons of customizability options. You are free to choose a custom grid size for both home screen and the app drawer. Margins can be adjusted to fine tune the widths at the fringes of the display. Drawer styles can be chosen from the options of vertical paginated, horizontal scrolling or list. Infinite scrolling choices are optional for both, home screens and the app drawer.
A maximum of five side swipe-able dock pages can be used for featuring 20 of your most used apps, or even app folders, so that you may never have to open the app drawer again. Every visual thing about the dock, right from its look and feel, to its size can be tuned to your taste.
Backup and restore options are two of the most under-appreciated but highly valuable features, helping you get your launcher layout back, after a device reset, within seconds.
Nova Launcher is well optimized for tablets, offers noticeable performance improvements over the stock launcher in virtually all of Android versions after Ice Cream Sandwich, and is generally very stable for every day use. Animation speed options are also present for the extremely nit-picky among us.
A Prime option for the otherwise free Nova Launcher exists over at Google’s Play Store for Rs. 246, and it unlocks a number of additional features for the already pretty powerful utility. iOS inspired Unread Count badges for homescreen icons, folders, dock, and app drawer notify you of the number of new or missed events. A plethora (nine) of gesture controls are unlocked through the purchase of the Prime variant, helping you operate your device with two finger swipes and pinches. And lastly, apps can be hidden from view within the app drawer, and/or placed in custom tabs, if you so desire.
All in all, we are not too shy to say that Nova Launcher is our favourite home screen replacement app, and you should give it a spin, too, if you prefer a fast, fluid interface, without too much flair.
TeslaCoil stepped up with its fresh offering, Nova Launcher, which offered a virtual clone of Google’s much appreciated Holo look, but in a light-weight package, offering tons of customization options that had been missing from the stock one. Nova Launcher was fast, fluid, and surprisingly feature rich, and instantly attracted hordes of users.
As of itself, Nova Launcher offers completely stock look and feel, a boon for Android purists using non Nexus devices, and those unwilling to root and flash custom ROMs. Numerous themes available via Play Store or otherwise, though, for those in need of some flair, can be used along with Nova Launcher. With visual appeal out of the way, Nova Launcher’s settings menu beckons, offering tons of customizability options. You are free to choose a custom grid size for both home screen and the app drawer. Margins can be adjusted to fine tune the widths at the fringes of the display. Drawer styles can be chosen from the options of vertical paginated, horizontal scrolling or list. Infinite scrolling choices are optional for both, home screens and the app drawer.
A maximum of five side swipe-able dock pages can be used for featuring 20 of your most used apps, or even app folders, so that you may never have to open the app drawer again. Every visual thing about the dock, right from its look and feel, to its size can be tuned to your taste.
Backup and restore options are two of the most under-appreciated but highly valuable features, helping you get your launcher layout back, after a device reset, within seconds.
Nova Launcher is well optimized for tablets, offers noticeable performance improvements over the stock launcher in virtually all of Android versions after Ice Cream Sandwich, and is generally very stable for every day use. Animation speed options are also present for the extremely nit-picky among us.
A Prime option for the otherwise free Nova Launcher exists over at Google’s Play Store for Rs. 246, and it unlocks a number of additional features for the already pretty powerful utility. iOS inspired Unread Count badges for homescreen icons, folders, dock, and app drawer notify you of the number of new or missed events. A plethora (nine) of gesture controls are unlocked through the purchase of the Prime variant, helping you operate your device with two finger swipes and pinches. And lastly, apps can be hidden from view within the app drawer, and/or placed in custom tabs, if you so desire.
All in all, we are not too shy to say that Nova Launcher is our favourite home screen replacement app, and you should give it a spin, too, if you prefer a fast, fluid interface, without too much flair.
Apex Launcher
Nova and Apex Launchers have long established their name and game in the traditional launcher space, so, how do newer developers get on the bandwagon of successful home screen replacement apps? By offering alternative and rather unique ways to control your Android smartphone, of course. Previously available as a paid application only, Action Launcher now offers a free variant with limited functionality.
So, what is Action Launcher’s claim to fame? Five different things, namely, Quickdrawer, Quickpage, Covers, Shutters, and 1-Swipe. Let us examine each of them individually.
Quickdrawer is the way you access your app drawer in Action Launcher. It offers an easy and quick way to access an alphabetically sorted list of your apps and widgets (in separate tabs) along with icons for Google Search, Play Store, and Action Launcher’s settings. Quickdrawer can be accessed by swiping from the left edge of the screen.
Quickpage, on the other hand, let’s you access a customized, full featured home screen through a swipe from the right edge of the display, thus, providing you with your most used apps and widgets home screen pane just a swipe away.
Covers is an innovative new way to quickly launch apps and shortcuts without compromising the look of your carefully crafted home screen. Covers are a combination of folders and shortcuts merged together: You launch the main app with a simple tap upon the Cover icon, while a swipe up, pops the folder open.
Using Shutters, swipe up on an app icon, and that app’s widget is automatically created and displayed, thus, keeping your home screen clutter-free.
With 1-Swipe, you can access the Quickdrawer and Quickpage from any app on your device, whether Action Launcher is running or not. Though, this feature is reserved for the paid application only.
Most of the features of other launchers, including support for themes, grid size, icon scales, etc, are all supported, with the only miss out being deep gesture controls. The Pro version of Action Launcher costs Rs. 219, and is well worth the money if you fancy the unique controls it offers.
So, what is Action Launcher’s claim to fame? Five different things, namely, Quickdrawer, Quickpage, Covers, Shutters, and 1-Swipe. Let us examine each of them individually.
Quickdrawer is the way you access your app drawer in Action Launcher. It offers an easy and quick way to access an alphabetically sorted list of your apps and widgets (in separate tabs) along with icons for Google Search, Play Store, and Action Launcher’s settings. Quickdrawer can be accessed by swiping from the left edge of the screen.
Quickpage, on the other hand, let’s you access a customized, full featured home screen through a swipe from the right edge of the display, thus, providing you with your most used apps and widgets home screen pane just a swipe away.
Covers is an innovative new way to quickly launch apps and shortcuts without compromising the look of your carefully crafted home screen. Covers are a combination of folders and shortcuts merged together: You launch the main app with a simple tap upon the Cover icon, while a swipe up, pops the folder open.
Using Shutters, swipe up on an app icon, and that app’s widget is automatically created and displayed, thus, keeping your home screen clutter-free.
With 1-Swipe, you can access the Quickdrawer and Quickpage from any app on your device, whether Action Launcher is running or not. Though, this feature is reserved for the paid application only.
Most of the features of other launchers, including support for themes, grid size, icon scales, etc, are all supported, with the only miss out being deep gesture controls. The Pro version of Action Launcher costs Rs. 219, and is well worth the money if you fancy the unique controls it offers.