Nine Android launchers selected by experts

Seeking a home screen that feels new instead of familiar? Your phone’s character lives a layer of Android behind, and swapping it can change how you navigate, focus, or even use one hand on giant screens. With Kindles and phone unlocking counts averaging between 50 and 60 times per day, according to studies by digital well-being researchers, the right launcher isn’t a novelty — it’s a daily execution upgrade. Here are nine of the standouts rethinking icons, gestures, and information at a glance.

What makes these picks stand out from typical launchers

Each of the following launchers gives your phone an unusual interface model — gestural wheels, handwriting search, terminal commands, word clouds, or a single source for everything you need to know. Most run just fine on even mid-range or older hardware, and several are designed to keep resource use low. Compatibility is generally varied among recent versions of Android, and a lot tend to play nice with icon packs, theming, and privacy-focused settings.

Pie Launcher: radial menu for faster one-handed navigation

A radial “pie” springs forth from wherever you tap, so you can slide to an app and release to open (fast, one-handed — no distractions). By stripping static icons from the home screen, it adheres to Fitts’s Law: big, reachable targets are easier to hit than tiny taps. And if you need it, a traditional grid is still just a tap away.

Discreet Launcher: ultra-minimal speed and simplicity

Ultra-minimal and faster than lightning, Discreet leaves the home screen blank. Swipe up for the app drawer, or swipe down for a clean favorites shade that supports apps or folders. It’s a good match for small-screened phones or older devices on which smoothness and simplicity matter more than flash.

Yantra: a command-line launcher for power users

For power users, Yantra is a command-line launcher that turns your home screen into a terminal. Type “launch,” followed by the name of an app, or simply begin typing to get matches along a bottom bar. It reminds me a lot of the desktop launchers Alfred or Launchy — click, type, and oddly addictive once you get into muscle memory.

ReZ Launcher: handwriting-style search for apps

Scrawl a letter onto the screen and ReZ will instantly narrow apps down that contain it; add other letters to fine-tune. It’s quirky, fun to use, and especially good with a stylus for Galaxy Note and Fold models. It’s not the fastest alternative for everybody, but it is a clever rethinking of search in a form that leaves your thumbs free.

Before Launcher: focus and notification management

Intended to promote focus, Before offers a clean list of essential apps in bold text, optionally alongside a clock and an unlock counter. Its calling card is notification control: a special screen quietly gathers alerts so they don’t take over the home view. Studies from universities like UC Irvine have tied notification batching to reduced stress and fewer task interruptions — and this launcher centers you right into that wisdom.

Win X: Windows-style desktop experience on Android

Have you ever wanted to see what a Windows-style desktop looks like on Android? Win X brings us a Start menu featuring pinned apps, an alphabetical list and search, as well as a cutesy “This PC” view of storage. It isn’t made by Microsoft, but on tablets and foldables that let you use a keyboard and mouse, it scratches a productivity itch while doubling as nostalgia.

Minimalist Launcher: clean look with progress bars

Minimalist takes clutter-cutting seriously. It welcomes you with bold, sobering/motivating day and year progress bars balanced with a clean alphabetical app list. Theme colors, choice of gestures, and support for icon packs ensure you can dial up a serene grayscale look that keeps all those endorphins in check.

ap15 Launcher: typographic cloud that adapts to use

No icons — just a typographic cloud of app names. Tap to initiate; the more you open an app, the larger its font size becomes, the easier it is to find your frequent choices. It’s a clever, neat way of personalizing your phone but happens to also be featherlight in terms of resources.

AIO Launcher: an information-dense, card-based hub

Maximalist answer to minimal launchers, AIO stacks “cards” — news headlines, currency rates, a Bitcoin chart, the weather and calendar; even a dialer and RSS feeds — into a tight dashboard. It could help reduce habitual app-hopping by surfacing info streams you normally open apps to check. For all its volume, it is thoughtfully put together and highly customizable.

How to pick your next launcher based on your needs

If you want as few distractions as possible, begin with Before or Minimalist. Prefer speed on large phones? Pie and Discreet nail one-handed operation. For a new mechanism-and-abstraction-and-transformation workspace, experiment with ReZ or Yantra. If you live in widgets and data, AIO is hard to beat; for fun and big screens, Win X sparkles. Whichever you experiment with, remember that launchers can be switched out in seconds: tinker until your home screen feels right to you rather than the other way around.