Same. I've been using Nova for years across three or four phones. I bought Nova Premium because I enjoyed using the free version so much. Their export functionality makes it so easy to switch to a new phone.
I've been using Nova Launcher for I don't know how long. It feels like 10 years or more. It throws me off when I see other peoples' phones with the standard launcher.
I've used Niagara Launcher for a few years. Highly recommend. I set my app icons to "dots", remove the alphabet from the sides and remove the music widget from the home screen. This makes things feel pretty minimal to me. It has a notification summary as well with glancable calendar, battery, and weather on the home screen.
I'll second Niagara Launcher. Easily the best minimal experience, great for one hand use and honestly makes it super hard to go back to other launchers. They continue to add more features and the free experience is pretty good if I remember correctly.
While you can subscribe, there is also a one time purchase you can do instead. It was definitely cheaper when I purchased but I believe it is $29.99 now which is definitely worth it in my opinion if you end up liking the launcher.
Yet another voice for Niagara. I used to be a big customiser and tweaker, via the old favourite Nova Launcher, but the simplicity and lack of too many options in Niagara are unbeatable IMO. It's highly opinionated, but I don't mind that, since its opinions and mine seem to overlap rather nicely.
I use Lawnchair, and I love it. The reason I switched is because the default OnePlus launcher has the slowest and most inaccurate searching functionality, it was driving me up a wall. It was also super slow. Lawnchair has way better search, and it's faster. It reminds me of my old Pixel phones. I would super recommend it!
I haven't seen the launcher I use mentioned yet: Unlauncher. My screen time easily dropped an hour easily between using that and eliminating all non-critical notifications.
I use Lawnchair, and like it, but have been pretty confused at its development status.
What I have installed is Lawnchair 2, which was last updated 4 years ago.
But I've been aware of a rewrite that was known as "Lawnchair 11" that I believe is now called "Lawnchair 12". I don't think it has ever left alpha, and the last release they did was a year ago (Version 12.1.0 Alpha 4): https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases . Most of the activity on the repository for the last year has just been bumping up dependencies.
I think there was an issue last year where the lead dev quit after learning a contributor was adding proprietary code into Lawnchair, but I didn't pay enough as it was happening to give an informed response. Here's an article. That may (or may not) also impact the development status.
So if Lawnchair doesn't currently meet your needs, I'm unsure that it will moving forward.
That being said Lawnchair 2 does everything I want it to, which isn't a ton. My home screen is barren, no icons or widgets. I just go to the app drawer for everything, and the search bar integrates with Sesame Shortcuts.
I'm using KISS Launcher. The navigation is smooth and the launcher is really lightweight. Kiss differs from conventional launchers in that it places more focus on the search functionality for navigation, but it works well once you get used to it. Also, the launcher adapts according to your usage making it easier to access your frequently used apps.
I haven't used any of those you mentioned, no. But I did try a few different ones a few years back, until I landed on Final Interface. It's not really minimalist the way Indistractable and its ilk are, but it's tidy and stylish, and I like the widgets. I think the only difference between the free and paid versions is you can't use custom wallpapers on the free version.
Tried Niagara but funnily found it more complicated to use than Nova so I went back to Nova like I always do. Nova combined with Sesame is awesome if you miss iOS’s Spotlight feature.
I'm using Discreet Launcher. It's available on F-Droid, but I believe you can get it on Google Play too.
I've set it up so my home screen only displays the time, and I can immediately access my most-used apps with a left or right swipe or a double tap. That functionality is particularly handy if you only use a few apps regularly I think.
I use OLauncher and can't see myself going back. I even managed to convince a friend to use it, and as far as I know, he still is.
It's simple, fast, free and open source.
It doesn't show icons and allows you to hide and rename apps.
I do have two qualms:
pressing the clock up the top of the home screen somehow directs you to the alarm mode of the clock app, so if i want to run a timer i have to open the clock app manually
chrome powered PWAs don't actually show up in the launcher anywhere. But it seems like firefox ones do? Unfortunately firefox has less support for PWAs it seems
I’m using Lawnchair 12 on my Android tablet, which I selected simply because it was the closest thing I could find to a “normal” launcher (design isn’t quirky or overly minimal, etc) without cruft. Seems fine so far, but it’s only been a week.
YMMV though, I don’t really need more from a launcher than what the Pixel launcher or iOS Home Screen provides.
I've been using Kvaesitso (got it from F-Droid but it's also there on Github) for months now. I switched after Nova got sold, tried several apps, and stuck with this one. It's not entirely minimal, but I found it hard to navigate an app drawer with just text so I was looking for an app that would have icons and also support icon packs. It has a couple of neat features I like:
The home screen is blank with just the search at the bottom, you have to scroll down to see the pinned apps, which you can customize. I like the extra break this adds. All of the usual home screen clutter is below the fold. You can fit as much in there as you want, but I just have two rows of apps (one for pinned apps and one for most-used apps that it adds by default.
The search has shortcuts so I can search apps and within apps directly, including Maps. It also does an automatic search on Wikipedia (which can be turned off but as someone who loves searching random bits of information through out the day, I love) and calculations. Most of the time I don't even need to navigate somewhere else. You can also sign in to Nextcloud, Owncloud, or Drive to add that search.
The bottom-up app drawer arranged in reverse alphabetical order, so the A is at the bottom and you scroll up.
The bottom-up UI in general, which I prefer as someone with a bigger phone. The navigation is primarily at the bottom half of the screen.
Gesture support. Since I missed the swipe-right to open the Google feed from Nova, I added a shortcut to open the Google app on swipe. It's not as smooth but it works.
Customization with widgets, color schemes, icon packs, fonts, and app grid customization. I tried some apps where I just didn't like the fonts and didn't have an option to change it. I also love the default weather, calendar, and media control widgets that come with it. Other widgets might look a little out of place but they are supported.
It also has active updates. I've experienced some bugs but they've not been very frequent. Issues are reported on Github and addressed.
I've been a happy usr of Nova Launcher since almost the beginning of Android. Equivalent of a windows 95 theme on windows vista.
Same. I've been using Nova for years across three or four phones. I bought Nova Premium because I enjoyed using the free version so much. Their export functionality makes it so easy to switch to a new phone.
Has Nova changed materially since it got acquired by that analytics company?
I've been using Nova Launcher for I don't know how long. It feels like 10 years or more. It throws me off when I see other peoples' phones with the standard launcher.
I've used Niagara Launcher for a few years. Highly recommend. I set my app icons to "dots", remove the alphabet from the sides and remove the music widget from the home screen. This makes things feel pretty minimal to me. It has a notification summary as well with glancable calendar, battery, and weather on the home screen.
Niagara Launcher
Edit:
Niagara Launcher has a $4 annual subscription for the Pro version, but that is ultimately up to you whether you think it's worth it.
I'll second Niagara Launcher. Easily the best minimal experience, great for one hand use and honestly makes it super hard to go back to other launchers. They continue to add more features and the free experience is pretty good if I remember correctly.
While you can subscribe, there is also a one time purchase you can do instead. It was definitely cheaper when I purchased but I believe it is $29.99 now which is definitely worth it in my opinion if you end up liking the launcher.
I'll add a third for this one, minimal, but full of unique features to massively improve your experience.
You can also replace any of those main widgets with your own, I use a task list.
Main, all those categories open the main app on click
Folders, all those categories reveal "hidden" apps when swiped
I set a custom font (IBM Plex) and added custom icons (Mainly from Whicons). Widget/Tasks is TickTick.
Yet another voice for Niagara. I used to be a big customiser and tweaker, via the old favourite Nova Launcher, but the simplicity and lack of too many options in Niagara are unbeatable IMO. It's highly opinionated, but I don't mind that, since its opinions and mine seem to overlap rather nicely.
I use Lawnchair, and I love it. The reason I switched is because the default OnePlus launcher has the slowest and most inaccurate searching functionality, it was driving me up a wall. It was also super slow. Lawnchair has way better search, and it's faster. It reminds me of my old Pixel phones. I would super recommend it!
I haven't seen the launcher I use mentioned yet: Unlauncher. My screen time easily dropped an hour easily between using that and eliminating all non-critical notifications.
My six pinned apps are:
I use Lawnchair, and like it, but have been pretty confused at its development status.
What I have installed is Lawnchair 2, which was last updated 4 years ago.
But I've been aware of a rewrite that was known as "Lawnchair 11" that I believe is now called "Lawnchair 12". I don't think it has ever left alpha, and the last release they did was a year ago (Version 12.1.0 Alpha 4): https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases . Most of the activity on the repository for the last year has just been bumping up dependencies.
I think there was an issue last year where the lead dev quit after learning a contributor was adding proprietary code into Lawnchair, but I didn't pay enough as it was happening to give an informed response. Here's an article. That may (or may not) also impact the development status.
So if Lawnchair doesn't currently meet your needs, I'm unsure that it will moving forward.
That being said Lawnchair 2 does everything I want it to, which isn't a ton. My home screen is barren, no icons or widgets. I just go to the app drawer for everything, and the search bar integrates with Sesame Shortcuts.
I'm using KISS Launcher. The navigation is smooth and the launcher is really lightweight. Kiss differs from conventional launchers in that it places more focus on the search functionality for navigation, but it works well once you get used to it. Also, the launcher adapts according to your usage making it easier to access your frequently used apps.
It's available on F-droid
I haven't used any of those you mentioned, no. But I did try a few different ones a few years back, until I landed on Final Interface. It's not really minimalist the way Indistractable and its ilk are, but it's tidy and stylish, and I like the widgets. I think the only difference between the free and paid versions is you can't use custom wallpapers on the free version.
Tried Niagara but funnily found it more complicated to use than Nova so I went back to Nova like I always do. Nova combined with Sesame is awesome if you miss iOS’s Spotlight feature.
If you want minimalist, you want Aero Launcher. Can't get more minimal without actually getting in your way.
I'm using Discreet Launcher. It's available on F-Droid, but I believe you can get it on Google Play too.
I've set it up so my home screen only displays the time, and I can immediately access my most-used apps with a left or right swipe or a double tap. That functionality is particularly handy if you only use a few apps regularly I think.
I use OLauncher and can't see myself going back. I even managed to convince a friend to use it, and as far as I know, he still is.
It's simple, fast, free and open source.
It doesn't show icons and allows you to hide and rename apps.
I do have two qualms:
I’m using Lawnchair 12 on my Android tablet, which I selected simply because it was the closest thing I could find to a “normal” launcher (design isn’t quirky or overly minimal, etc) without cruft. Seems fine so far, but it’s only been a week.
YMMV though, I don’t really need more from a launcher than what the Pixel launcher or iOS Home Screen provides.
I've been using Kvaesitso (got it from F-Droid but it's also there on Github) for months now. I switched after Nova got sold, tried several apps, and stuck with this one. It's not entirely minimal, but I found it hard to navigate an app drawer with just text so I was looking for an app that would have icons and also support icon packs. It has a couple of neat features I like:
I would use something like Olauncher but I rely a lot for my calendar and such being always visible due to my ADHD.. So I can't really use it.
I use KISS launcher now since it lets me add widgets to the main screen, so I have all I need.