What launcher are you using for your TS?

GADGTGUY

Senior Member
Aug 18, 2007
87
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Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Hi,

I wanted to get a sense of what others are using for their launcher interface for their TS.

I have tried a handful but nothing really seems to fit the bill all that well.

I have tried

Google Now Launcher
Launcher 8
Smart Launcher
Various "Big" and "Senior Phone" launchers
Nova Launcher

among others....

I seem to be constantly going back to the stock launcher (not OUI 2.0 as that is just crap)

What are you guys using or recommend trying?

One thing I seem to really hate about going to alternative launchers is the loss of the "real" status bar..... I have tried Swipe Status Bar, but that just introduces issues with having to swipe down when you need to access touch points that are near the top of the screen. (Plus the last version that was released completely made icons no longer clickable)


D.
 

trent999

Senior Member
Nov 16, 2013
785
165
0
I switch between stock Android launcher and GEL. I never use OUI2.

"OK Google ! Find me a smart watch like the TrueSmart was promoted to be during Kickstarter..."

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

raynan

Senior Member
Jan 2, 2011
1,127
576
0
I'm pretty happy with lucid launcher across all my devices.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 

mklopez

Member
Aug 8, 2006
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I have used ADW EX on my other devices for a few years, so I installed it. After tweaking the icon/text sizes and a few Gravity box tweaks, seems to work quite ok.

I think pretty much any launcher will do, as long as you can customize it around the limited screen space.
 

dragonfly1113

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2009
633
60
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Hopatcong
nova for me just with the icons set very big :) like my status bar to much and not a fan of the status bar app that will give you access to it never worked quite like the stock status bar should.
 

stingray454

Member
Apr 23, 2014
22
4
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I keep falling back to the stock launcher. I've tried a few (nova, apex, and similar), but the status bar is the biggest issue. I'm really fond of the bar for easy overview of new notifications, and can't really live without one. Swipestatusbar solution works ok:ish, but not having the bar there after exiting apps and having the bar interfere with touch event at the top makes it a dealbreaker.

OUI is almost there - it has widgets, app drawer and screen sorting, and the status bar. It does however lack in other ways, like missing an indicator for which screen you are on, and everything looks very blurred, together with almost no customization. Some widgets looks as if they are rendered at like 50x50 pixels and zoomed to fit the screen. Also seems unstable, it has crashed a ton of times.

If the stock launcher could just get widget support, an app drawer and preferably a way to add/remove/sort your screens, I'd be happy with it. For now it works though, and seems fast and stable with status bar working..

EDIT: After playing around a few hours with different launchers today, I finally went back to Nova. It takes some getting used to, but the status bar issue now feels like an acceptable loss compared to all the gains. It works very well, and renders on small screens better than most other launchers (some have too much paddin in the grid, some render icons very pixelated or blurry, and so on). Nova does a good job, my only peeve is that icons are aligned to the top of their grid position, and widgets are aligned to the center. This means that if you place an icon next to a widget, they will not align, and also the icons come a bit too close to the top. However, it's still better than the alternatives I've tried, so sticking with Nova for now.
 
Last edited:

ottoen

Member
Jun 8, 2013
9
2
0
I am using launcher 8.
The tiles uses most of the screen at any given time, as opposed to a more regular android launcher.
Android launchers in general wastes a lot of screen real estate. This is because of the way the icons are organized, with lots of empty space between them.

The tiles you get in launcher 8 is quite tight, like in a proper windows phone.
I like this.
The tiles are also customizable in size, so stuff that is often used will have big tiles, while the lesser used programs get smaller tiles.
Launcher 8 also runs smoothly.
 
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BPM

Senior Member
Mar 4, 2006
381
39
58
i use tsf shell for many years on all my phones and tablets.
now i use it on the truesmart and it really works great.
its smooth, it looks cool, you reach everything you want in short time.

shure i have to use swype status bar, but that is not really a problem.

ok it is not really cheap, but you only pay one time and can use it on all devices, so i think the price is fair if you have more devices
 
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