Take better control of your Android experience with one of these launchers
The best Android launchers are the ideal tools for personalizing and customizing your Android experience. User choice has long been one of the best things about the Android ecosystem, and launchers ramp that up to 11. They give you the chance to tinker and alter the best Android phones in ways Google and the stock launcher could only dream of
Some of the best launchers are designed to let you change almost everything about Android, while others are built for a more minimalist experience. But if that’s not for you there are even launchers offering a smorgasboard of color that would put painting aisle at the hardware store to shame.
But no matter what you choose, a launcher is the perfect way to give your phone a fresh new look and feel — but without the expense of buying a new handset. It’s just a matter of picking one, and we’ve been testing the best Android launchers to help you pick out the right one for you.
The best Android launchers
1. Nova Launcher
You can’t talk about the best Android launchers without a mention of Nova Launcher. Fast, sleek and highly customizable, Nova Launcher balances extensive appearance and utility customizations with a minimal performance impact, letting you set your home screen just right without slowing down performance.
There are a lot of options to work through, from color themes to icon packs, scrollable docks to app drawer customizations, to folder settings and infinite scrolling. The Nova team is never content to rest on its laurels, continuously adding new features, such as Sesame Shortcuts, animations, and other improvements.
2. Niagara Launcher
Niagara is a lean Android launcher designed to place your apps and notifications front and center, while keeping other distractions to a minimum. Notifications are displayed right on your home screen, with spam and persistent notifications automatically filtered out. The app drawer automatically surfaces your favorite apps, while also providing handy alphabetical shortcuts.
That said, Niagara’s extreme minimalism means that you shouldn’t be expecting any unusual visual frills and options you might expect from most third-party launchers. it is updated frequently and it shows great promise.
3. Smart Launcher 6
Smart Launcher has long been a favorite for the best Android launcher, with its simple “flower” favorites grid and sorted app folder. The latest version, Smart Launcher 6, adds a ton of features and refinements.
Smart Launcher’s flower grid is still available, but it’s joined by a number of other well thought-out layouts designed to keep your favorite apps within easy reach of one hand, while smart search and an intelligently sorted and customizable app drawer makes it easy to find whatever you need, whether on your phone or out in the web. Adaptive icons and colors, fully resizable widgets, and more customizations round out the package, making for a great update to a classic launcher.
You’ll need to shell out $7 for the Pro version of Smart Launcher to access the many of those extra features, including pop-up widgets and expanded gesture controls.
4. AIO Launcher
Where other launchers might offer up decluttering visual customizations, AIO Launcher is all about cramming as much info as possible on your screen in a relatively spartan format.
The app displays your frequently used apps, as well as system information, recently received calls, messages and email, as well as upcoming calendar events and more.
While AIO Launcher is free, in-app purchases unlock other features such as widget support, app icons, and Android notifications in the home screen stream. It’s not the friendliest interface out there among the best Android launchers, it’s still an interesting choice if information density isn’t a turn-off for you.
5. Hyperion Launcher
A Pixel-like launcher from the team behind the popular Substratum theming engine, Hyperion Launcher is an extremely customizable Android launcher app that lets you tweak a vast array of settings.
Besides the standard wallpapers and widgets, users can configure a gamut of settings for themes, folders, transparencies, animations, icon packs and adaptive icons. Hyperion provides a ton of its features for free, but others — like launcher-level font changes and custom gestures — are unlocked with an in-app purchase for the Pro version.
6. Action Launcher
Action Launcher Pixel Edition was among the first of the big third party launchers to give itself a Pixel-style makeover, combining its extreme customizability with new interface features and styles introduced with the Pixel Launcher.
Action Launcher includes an adaptive app bar, the pill-shaped Google search bar, and Oreo-style app shortcuts (backward compatible to Android 5). A slide-out app drawer provides users with quick access to an app library and widgets. Special gestures such as “covers” and “shutters” allow for speedy access.
Action Launcher automatically picks out dominant colors in your wallpaper and adjusts the app drawer, folder backgrounds and search box to match.
7. Microsoft Launcher
Microsoft rebranded its excellent Arrow Launcher into the Microsoft Launcher, keeping Arrow’s compact, context-sensitive app pages and customizable feed, while also working to improve the interplay between your Android phone and Windows PC.
Users can quickly snap photos from the phone and view them on their desktop; they can also open web links from mobile to Edge on PC, or start editing Office 365 documents from their PC and continue on the go with their mobile phone.
All of this is in addition to Microsoft’s universal search bar, customizable themes, and configurable gesture controls.
8. Square Home
If you’re looking for a more, old-school, shall we say, Microsoft-inspired mobile experience, then Square Home might be for you. It’s not got quite the same interface as Windows Phone 8, but it does offer a squared-off grid layout that should conjure up some nostalgia for Microsoft’s ill-fated smartphones.
I like to think that this is what Windows Phone could have looked like, if Microsoft hadn’t killed it off in the previous decade. There’s Live Tile support, for those of you that miss that particular design flourish, home screen widgets, and a “Tiles on a Cube” system that lets you swipe between different tiles almost like twisting the top of a rubiks cube. Better still it’s compatible with Android tablets and foldables as well.
The downside? It’s not free for more than 2 weeks. After your 14-day trial you’ll be asked to unlock the full version of the app with even more features — which is a one-off $5 payment.
9. Olauncher
Most Android launchers are about adding stuff to your phone, or unlocking things you couldn’t otherwise do. Olauncher is different, because it’s all about the clean and minimalist look. There are few graphics on screen, replacing the usual app artwork with simple words instead.
Slap in a stylish background and you have the makings of a very smart-looking interface. The only downside here is that minimalist launchers aren’t feature-rich. If that’s what you’re looking for, then this isn’t the one for you.
There is support for gesture control, basic text customization and multitasking, plus a changing daily wallpaper. So there is some opportunity for personalization here. Better still, Olauncher is completely free, and promises not to collection any data.
10. Ratio Launcher
Ratio Launcher bills itself as a productivity launcher, allowing you to “transform your home screen into a distraction-free space.” The app predominantly uses a grayscale theme, with everything from wallpaper to app icons adopting a somber look. Instead of splashy app icons and folders, the home screen simply displays the app categories in large fonts. This design aims to display only what you need so you can be more deliberate with your smartphone usage and not get sidetracked.
You tap on a category to reveal listed apps or swipe from the bottom to open the full app drawer. Meanwhile, swiping right reveals the “Conversation” tab, which organizes all your chats and texts from messaging apps in one place. It also lets you reply to chats right from the home screen without opening the app. Much like Android’s Digital Wellbeing tools, Ratio Launcher also lets you set time limits on your apps to cut down on mindless use. Ratio Launcher offers a 7-day free trial, at the end of which you’ll need to shell out money for the paid version.