I’ve been using Niagara Launcher for a few years, but in the process of owning back my phone (until I can afford a pixel/motorolla to install grapheneos) I’m trying to switch to FOSS alternatives where I can, I’m now looking for a minimalist launcher that has a vertical list of apps
So far I tried the following:
- Quedalle just doesn’t have the option to be launched when installed so basically non existent
- Fokus Launcher, but I don’t like the search bar and my keyboard appearing every time I’m scrolling down the list, haven’t found how to disable it so I’m assuming it’s by default
- Olauncher can disable this, but doesn’t have the side scroll to go through app alphabetical order faster like Niagara has, also no way to disable swipe gestures
- I’m currently on Mako, which looks very nice and I like the somewhat deep customization, the app list folders are closed by default which isn’t quite convenient
- Briefly tried Fairphone Moments, looks nice but not what I’m looking for (this is more of a compartmentalization app for digital health)
Basically my features wishlist is:
- vertical scrolling list of app
- can scroll from the edge to scroll the alphabetical order of apps (faster than “manual scrolling” of apps)
- select “favourite” apps appear on top
- no keyboard or search
Nice to have:
- custom gestures can be disabled
- deeper customization
- app folders
So yeah, also I only looked through fdroid but maybe there’s unregistered launchers on github, idk, appreciate if you guys have recommendations !
I was going to recommend kiss launcher but then saw you said you dont want it focused on search. By default the keyboard doesn’t open by itself but I always enable it since its faster for me to type a letter than scroll
Well if you tap the kiss button (in the search bar on one of the sides) it gives you an alphabetical list to scroll through. So you don’t have to use the search.
Favourites you can only pin to an always visible favourites bar though. But it can show you the most used apps also in the vertical list, so maybe its a compromise, not sure.
Kvaesitso is really cool but iirc its built around search not alphabetical scroll. I am still on Niagara myself as I haven’t found an alternative, its starting to suck. I never asked for AI theming.
Lawnchair might have a couple of those features? Its highly customizable.
Lawnchairs most recent versions aren’t on F-Droid due to a dependency in AOSP itself. I turn internet access off on it just in case though.
