One of the reasons for the popularity of Google’s Android operating system is the flexibility and customisation it offers to users. While the custom interfaces that smartphone makers preload on their phones do allow a lot in terms of features and user experience, they often end up becoming cluttered and difficult to use. It can also hurt the overall performance of the phone, by eating up critical system resources, leaving very little for apps.
Thanks to the vast repertoire of third-party launchers that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, users are no longer saddled with one user interface on their phone. Here are some really cool ones that you can download and check out on your phone.
Arrow launcher by Microsoft
Price: Free
One of the interesting apps developed by Microsoft for Android includes a third-party launcher called Arrow. It focuses more on utility than visual elements. For example, it constantly updates the most used apps list, and puts them conveniently on the home screen so you can access them easily. The launcher also shows your recent activities and calls that were made recently on other pages of the homescreen. What we like even more is the notes and reminders page that is built into the homescreen, allowing you to take a note right there, set a reminder and see the ones saved earlier. It comes with its own set of fine-looking wallpapers too.
Launch by Quixey
Price: Free
Launch is a beautifully designed user interface which not only changes your phone’s look but also replaces key features with its own set of alternatives. For example, it replaces Google Now cards with something called Deep View Cards. These cards open by swiping in from the left side of the screen and shows you weather updates from Yahoo Weather, availability of cabs in your area from Uber, latest tweets, news updates from Bing and articles from Wikipedia. The interface allows limited customisation, however, but you can change the grid layout on the homescreen or select or deselect any of these features on cards. There is also no app drawer icon on the home page. The app shows up by swiping up on the homescreen. This is quite unique and pretty accurate no matter where you are swiping up from. It is also smooth and doesn’t bog down the phone’s performance.
Smart Launcher 3
Price: Free
It isn’t easy for any Launcher to keep a user interested for long. With the options available, fans tend to switch between them sooner rather than later. Smart Launcher is one of the few which is running its third iteration, such has been its following. The new version offers new themes and wallpapers and adds a new search bar to the interface. The layout is still the same—single homescreen with your most-used apps presented in circles and the app drawer in one corner. Unlike most launchers, the app drawer doesn’t put all apps together, but like Yahoo Aviate, breaks them into different categories such as communication, utility, media and games by itself. Though customisation options are few, it still stands out from the crowd on account of its clean design and ergonomic design.
Shadow Fight 2 launcher
Price: Free
Game-based launchers are a bit different from the regular launchers as they strive to replicate the visual of the game in the phone’s interface. If you are a fan of the popular Shadow Fight 2 game, you will probably like this launcher. It basically transforms the look and feel of the interface, redesigns the app icons, adds more game-based 3D wallpapers which move when you tilt the phone. We liked the widgets more as each one has a character from the game attached to it. The interface is, however, not just about design and classifies apps in the app drawer under multiple categories such as recent apps, social media apps, games, tools. This is a beautiful launcher with plenty of fun elements. However, it is a bit resource-intensive and not meant for low-configuration Android devices.
