Smart Launcher is a launcher that has been working on improving its features since its original release in 2012 and has won numerous awards for the best app of the year in different years. With this prestige, the app allows you to enjoy your Android device like never before, thanks to a carefully customized experience for each user.
One of the first things that strikes you about Smart Launcher is how easy and quick it is to set up. After installing the app, you will need to grant all the necessary permissions for it to work correctly, which, as is the case with many launchers, are numerous. Once you have done this, wait a few seconds for the app to automatically sort all your icons in a very similar way to how iOS has done since version 14. Of course, if after this automatic organization you are not happy with the location of an icon, you can move it manually.
After the automatic icon configuration, the next step to start enjoying what Smart Launcher offers is to choose your theme and wallpaper. By default, the app will give you the choice of keeping your own wallpaper, but if you prefer, you can choose from a range of high-resolution images. Then, you will need to select a theme. You can choose your desired color for backgrounds, surfaces, elements on surfaces, etc. In short, you can set up your own color scale so that your theme suits your taste and looks completely unique.
Another highlight of Smart Launcher is the ability to easily manage and customize several gesture shortcuts. It's up to you. You decide what you want to happen when you swipe in a given direction. For example, by swiping from left to right, you can open the settings menu while making it so swiping from top to bottom opens your recent apps. You can also configure the Home (double-tap) and Back (long press) buttons. This way, you can open all your favorite apps quickly.
Download the Smart Launcher APK and start enjoying what is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious launchers on Android. The app is brimming with features and offers a beautiful and elegant design you can customize. It is an outstanding launcher that continues to improve with each new update.
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The best Android launchers are the perfect way to customize your Android experience. Choice is one of the best things about the Android system, and launchers give you the chance to tinker and customize the best Android phones in ways the stock launcher can 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.
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.
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.
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 5, 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.
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.
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.
Core features include the ability to customize the home screen grid size, with up to nine screens, as well as a scrollable dock with up to five pages. Infinite scrolling, transition animations, numerous folder styles and multiple app drawer styles add even greater customization.
Xiaomi's phones, like the new Xiaomi Mi 11, might not be widely available in the US, but you can get a taste of the Poco Launcher through the Google Play Store. The Poco Launcher deviates from Xiaomi's usual design sensibilities, offering an app drawer complete with smart category tabs that automatically sort apps into groups like Communication and Photography.
The launcher offers a customizable screen layout, transition effects, icon pack support, and notification badges. It doesn't offer as many deep customizations as rival launchers, but it does look nice and is designed to be on the streamlined end of things. And recent additions include dark mode support and the ability to lock your phone by tapping the screen.
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.
We went hands-on with every launcher on this list, which is how we drew the above conclusions on ranking. A launcher is a very personal thing, but we value the ones that give you a lot of functionality, even if the feature set itself is minimal.
In the end, we encourage you to try out different launchers to see which one you like best. You might find the more feature-packed options to be overwhelming, in which case you may want to look at one of the lighter ones.
Jordan is the Phones Editor for Tom's Guide, covering all things phone-related. He's written about phones for over six years and plans to continue for a long while to come. He loves nothing more than relaxing in his home with a book, game, or his latest personal writing project. Jordan likes finding new things to dive into, from books and games to new mechanical keyboard switches and fun keycap sets. Outside of work, you can find him poring over open-source software and his studies.
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