Open source android launchers

5 Best Free Open Source Android Launcher Apps

Here is a list of best free open source Android launcher app. Android launchers give additional features and themes to Android users that they don’t get in their default Android launcher. Unlike standard Android launcher apps, these launchers are free and open source, thus users can download and edit their source code without any restriction.

Most of these Android launcher apps offer a beautiful and functional interface with customizable themes. Although, one of these launchers is specially designed for minimalistic users. Apart from a beautiful user interface, these apps also provide many useful features that stock launchers don’t have. Useful features that you get in these apps are Icon Pack, Hidden Apps, App History, Night Mode, Gestures, and more. With the help of the Icon pack, users can manually adjust the size, shape, and design of app icons. Through the Hidden app feature, users can hide an app from the main gallery. The Night Mode turns the whole interface dark to reduce strain on eyes during night time. Using Gestures, users can quickly access certain apps like swipe right to launch the camera, swipe left to launch contacts app, etc.

These open source Android launchers also provide many additional tools like Root Mode, Lock Device using proximity, Double-Tap to Lock/ Unlock, etc. Go through the list to know more about these apps.

My Favorite Open Source Android Launcher App:

Emerald Launcher is my favorite app because it offers a beautiful and functional interface. Plus, it offers useful features like Keep In Memory, History, App Search, Icon Pack Support, and more.

Emerald Launcher

Emerald Launcher is a free open source Android launcher app. It is a fast and lightweight Android launcher that you can use to customize the main interface of your Android device. Apart from the look of user interface, it also changes the app drawer, icon size, layout, etc. Let’s discuss main features of this app now.

Main Features:

• Icon Pack Support: In this app, you can add custom icon packs to change the appearance of icons.
• Hidden Apps: This launch also lets users hide apps from its main interface. When users want to see the hidden app then they can use its Access Hidden Apps section.
• App History: This app automatically saves all the apps used by users. By going to the App History, users can view and quickly open up all the previously accessed apps.
• Keep In Memory: It is an advanced feature that keeps selected apps in memory for a long time so that users don’t need to load the whole app again.
• Categories: This app divides the main interface into four main categories namely All Apps, Unclassified, History, and Hidden. By swiping left or right on the main interface you can switch categories.
• Search: It is another useful feature that allows users to search for apps by their names.

Final Thoughts:

It is one of the best and beautifully designed open source Android launcher app that offers many useful features that you don’t get in a stock Android launcher.

Rootless Pixel Launcher

Rootless Pixel Launcher is another free open source Android launcher. This app is designed to give non-Google Pixel Android users a Pixel launcher experience. It provides some really interesting features along with standard ones. Checkout primary features of this Android launcher below.

Main Features:

• Stock Interface: This app offers the stock Pixel interface which is responsive and smooth similar to the Pixel device launcher.
• Wallpaper Based Theme Selection: It is an advanced feature that changes the launcher theme according to the wallpaper color profile.
• Long Press Icon Settings: By long-pressing an icon of an app, you can discover app shortcuts like for a camera appyou get options to directly record video and capture photos. In the case of a social media app, you can get shortcuts to access the main feed, access timeline, etc.
• App Drawer: Similar to the stock Android launcher, it also offers an app drawer to find all the app in one place.
• Search App: Use it to search for apps by their names.
• Icon Shape Selection: For Android 8 and above devices, it offers an icon shape selection tool so that users can manually adjust the shapes of app icons.

Final Thoughts:

It isa great open source Android launcher app that anyone can use who wants a smooth and stable launcher.

Zen Launcher

Zen Launcher is yet another free open source Android launcher app. This app is specially designed to integrate apps and settings with its search tool so that users immediately find apps and settings that they want to use. Besides this, it also offers many other useful features that you don’t get in a stock Android launcher. Now, have a look at the main features of this app.

Main Features:

• Advanced Search: This launcher offers an advanced search bar through which you can quickly launch an app and also find any system setting by specifying its name.
• Night Mode: It is another handy feature that lets users turn the whole interface of your device dark to reduce eye strain when using your device in a low light environment.
• Barcode Reader: This launcher offers its own bar code reader to read bar code and QR codes with ease.
• History: In this section, you can view all your recently accessed apps and settings which you can again visit.
• Favorites: It allows users to add all their favorite apps on the main interface.
• Blue Light Filter: It is a useful feature that reduces the harmful blue light emits from your Android device screen.

Additional Features:

• In this app, you get many additional features like Root mode, Lock Device with Proximity Sensor, Improved Calculator, Zen Flashlight, and more.

Final Thoughts:

It is another good open source Android launcher app that improves the overall user interface and simplifies apps and settings access.

Olauncher

Olauncher is one more free open source Android launcher app. It is a lightweight and minimal Android launcher that specially designed for users who like a minimal user interface. To make the interface minimal without losing important features, this app takes advantage of gestures. Unlike other similar apps, it doesn’t bring more features to the table when compared to the stock Android launcher. Now, check out the main interface of this app.

Main Features:

• Minimal Interface: On its interface, you only get options to add names of four favorite apps along with a clock.
• Gestures: This app offers various useful gestures like swipe right to open up contacts, swipe left to open up the camera, and swipe up to open the app drawer.
• No App Icons: Unlike other similar launchers, it doesn’t show icons with app names to continue the minimal philosophy at every aspect of this launcher.
• Double-tap to Lock and Unlock: It is another useful feature through which users can lock and unlock their Android devices by double-tapping on the screen.

Final Thoughts:

It is a simple and minimal open source Android launcher that simplifies the overall interface of an Android device.

Lawnchair 2

Lawnchair 2 is the next free open source Android launcher app. This app offers a fully customizable launcher that users can adjust according to their requirements. Now, check out the main features of this open source launcher.

Main Features:

• Icon Packs: In this app, you can add one or more icon packs to customize the size, shape, and designs of app icons.
• Gestures and Tap Settings: Using gestures and tap tools users can easily add double-tap to open app action, touch and hold action, swipe down to open app gesture, swipe up to open app gesture, etc.
• Themes: This app comes with various themes to quickly change the look of your Android device.
• Automatic Dark Mode: This feature automatically enables dark mode when needed according to ambient light conditions.

Additional Features:

• This launcher offers many additional features like Notification Dots, Integration with Google Feed, Integration with Android Recents, etc.

Final Thoughts:

It is yet another good open source Android launcher app that offers a beautiful interface and improved functionality over stock Android launcher.

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Open source android launchers

This is an open source launcher project for Android devices that has been built completely from scratch. The main goal of this launcher is to find a healthy medium between customization and simplicity. At this point in time it implements most features required in a typical launcher but could benefit greatly from some general polish. If you would like to help out feel free to submit issues or ask about submitting a pull request with a feature you want to see in the launcher.

If your instance is crashing frequently please update the app and reset the data and settings before creating an issue. This project is not actively developed at the moment since all of the main contributors either started working on other projects or find the current state of the launcher sufficient for daily use. If you would like to see a change please realize that it may not get added at all unless someone decides to write the functionality. Pull requests are welcome from anyone! Please ask about large features first, we can help navigate the codebase and talk about where best to add the functionality.

• Paged desktop
• Dock
• Drag and drop
• Hide apps
• Scrollable background
• Search bar
• Icon packs

The project is always open for contributions and accepts pull requests. Please use the auto reformat feature in Android Studio before sending a pull request. Translations can be contributed on GitHub. You can use Stringlate to translate the project directly on your Android phone. It allows you to post the translations on GitHub with little effort.

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Open Source Android Launchers in 2020

While there are more manufacturers offering stock Android like OnePlus or Nokia, many still offer bloated launchers by default. Other launchers have been available for years. They can add various levels of customization or simplicity. A launcher can even speed up your phone.

True to Hacking the Hike, all of the launchers on this list must be free and open source software. Many of these launchers have not been updated since the original list of Open Source Android Launchers was revealed.

Hyperion Launcher

Hyperion has a clean, stock look. The top search bar and swipe up app drawer are recognizable Android traits.

• A rocket? Launching? Oh…
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• Theme options
• Google Feed and Sesame
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I prefer an AMOLED black theme. It helps battery life and more importantly, keeps my office dark. Transparent and light themes are available as well.

Sesame integrates directly with Hyperion. It can replace the Google search bar. For a complete Pixel launcher replacement, Google Feed is available as a separate download from Hyperion.

Some of Hyperion’s feature are locked behind a $2 add-on called Hyperion Supreme. I didn’t find anything I was desperately missing. Some options like gestures are included free elsewhere.

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Open Source Android Launchers in 2020

Rootless Pixel Launcher

If you like Lawnchair or Hyperion (or Pixel) but feel that there’s just too many options, well, I don’t understand why. But the developer behind Rootless gets it.

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Really, its very close to Lawnchair and Hyperion. There’s no Sesame integration but the Google Feed lives on. There’s no hiding apps either. Oddly, Rootless is missing long press menus on the apps.

Posidon

Posidon starts out differently than the others. There’s normally some level of customization but Posidon has a hard start. Posidon is billed as an RSS feed and app drawer so I’m not sure how that plays out with iOS.

Pixel. One UI. iOS.
Your choice.

I started with Pixel. Notifications filled the top of the screen with a search bar and dock at the bottom. Swiping up on the dock reveals the app drawer. The notification/news feed scrolls indefinitely.

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During setup, Posidon has the option to disable news and add additional RSS feeds (like Hacking the Hike). News, RSS feeds, and notifications fall onto the home screen. Notifications can be dismissed with a swipe. Widgets can be added to the home screen but I broke the clock when I did. I liked the search feature. Search revealed installed apps and a Wikipedia article on the subject. A link to DuckDuckGo search results is handy.

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Menu colors correspond to the app icon’s dominant color. A nice touch.

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Long pressing on the news feed revealed Posidon’s menu. All of the standard options are present like changing icon sets or the wallpaper. The wallpapers don’t list a source but they’re high quality and somewhat random. I liked the squirrel.

I added Hacking the Hike to the Feed list. Sorry, shameless self promotion. Notifications can be adjusted so only specific app notifications will display. I found this helpful for persistent notifications like KDE Connect. While there were plenty of options to customize the launcher, none of the presets like One UI or iOS were present. I cleared the storage on Posidon and started over.

• One UI
• One UI
• iOS
• iOS

The change in themes was a slight let down. I expected a bigger difference in styling. The theme presets change the icon shape, dock style, and feed appearance.

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