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Chatting with the AC forums.

In the world of Android customization, one of the best ways to change the entire look and feel of your phone is with a third-party launcher. Whether it be Action Launcher, Nova Launcher, Smart Launcher, or anything else in between, these apps make it easy to give your home screen a complete makeover with more fine-tuned controls than you get out of the box.

Third-party launchers can be a ton of fun, but ever since Android shifted towards gesture-based navigation, launchers have suffered in the process. The experience tends to be jankier than in years past, some phones work better with third-party launchers than others, and it's all just kind of a mess.

Some of our AC forum members recently started talking about the state of launchers in 2020, saying:

neil74

10-19-2020 04:15 PM

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Ever since gestures were baked into android the performance of 3rd party launchers has become less seamless and just a generally worse experience (IMO). I am mostly seeing it when navigating back to home where I often get a delay or extra animation and app switcher is also a little clunky. Don’t get me wrong it’s not terrible but it is enough to push me back to the stock launcher on my...

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me just saying

10-19-2020 06:09 PM

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naw, users will always want the control launchers have over the stock.

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Mike Dee

10-19-2020 07:38 PM

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I stopped using launchers with the Pixel 2XL and there just aren't any features that I need that One UI doesn't have. They certainly add value if you like customization but just not for me.

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L0n3N1nja

10-19-2020 08:23 PM

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I gave up on them years ago when I realized my phones ran better using touchwiz.

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What about you? Have you given up on third-party launchers?

Join the conversation in the forums!