[HN Gopher] Niagara Launcher
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Niagara Launcher
Author : unstuck3958
Score : 79 points
Date : 2024-02-10 16:37 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (niagaralauncher.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (niagaralauncher.app)
| lcnmrn wrote:
| I use Zenit Launcher. It sorts all apps alphabetically. Makes
| Android easier to use than iOS.
| DocChi77 wrote:
| Niagara has been my go-to Android launcher for several years now.
| I would certainly recommend at least giving it a shot!
| qmarchi wrote:
| Same! Black background, with only a few pinned apps, and
| replacing the clock with the "At a Glance" widget. Simple
| simplicity.
|
| Apps: - Kiwi Browser (Ad Blocking) -
| Messages - Signal (Might get replaced by Beeper) -
| Discord - YouTube - Phone
|
| YouTube Music is set as my music app, so that appears whenever
| I've got headphones connected.
| qrush wrote:
| As a Buffalo/Niagara Falls native, I really thought this was
| going to be some new tourist attraction that surely will save the
| city this time.
| mcphage wrote:
| BassProShop.app is the future!
| mcritz wrote:
| Why does their website have a photo of the iOS App Library
| feature?
| tnetenbaa wrote:
| Where are you seeing that at?
| CharlesW wrote:
| My guess is that there's an implied "/s", since it may remind
| iPhone users of what App Library looks like when they tap the
| search bar. https://imgur.com/a/nC2R0hG
|
| The App Library is nice because it relieves iOS users from
| micromanaging app grouping/arrangement. I now have just one
| Home Screen of widgets (including contextual Siri app
| suggestions), then swipe left to use App Library when needed.
| Throaway1086 wrote:
| Because the iOS App Library is a ripoff of Niagara. Niagara was
| like this years before Apple introduced the App Library.
| karmakaze wrote:
| I've been using the Microsoft Launcher for years. I have all my
| apps on one 6x5 grid (with the top row showing time/date/weather)
| in addition to the 5 bottom tray apps. The infrequently used apps
| are in group folders, so every app is at most two taps away. The
| frequently used apps are on the bottom 60% of the screen.
| anilakar wrote:
| I tried the Microsoft Launcher and loved its functionality but
| hated the way they pushed Bing and other MS services and
| Android apps.
|
| Just like Outlook for Android is one of the best mail clients
| but the only way to get rid of ads is to subscribe to Office
| 365.
|
| I long for the days when apps were one-off purchases.
|
| Edit: I'm a happy Niagara user, bought the forever license two
| years ago.
| karmakaze wrote:
| That's weird, I don't recall getting those Bing/services ads
| and certainly haven't been getting them for a long time.
| account-5 wrote:
| KISS launcher for the win. Never use android without it.
| quaintdev wrote:
| If you want to go further on minimal design check out Olauncher
|
| https://github.com/tanujnotes/Olauncher
|
| Available on both fdroid and play store
| paulrouget wrote:
| And it's so simple. Very easy to fork and tweak the hell out
| of. I added a better fonts, a 3rd swipe gesture (from top) and
| some random little tweaks.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| I've been using Olauncher for a few years now - it's rock
| solid!
| conaclos wrote:
| One thing I love is the automatic app launch when there is a
| single match in the search panel.
| senkora wrote:
| I really appreciate how Android made the "graphical shell" a
| user-replaceable component of the OS.
|
| Back in the day, I used Nova Launcher and an icon pack to
| completely re-theme my home screen. I felt so cool.
|
| I encourage anyone curious to take a look at the following
| subreddit for some neat themes that users have created for
| themselves over the years using custom launchers:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/androidthemes/top/?t=all
| whycome wrote:
| On iOS, the thing I miss most is Nova. Replacing icons with
| images of your choice. Changing the swipe transition. Icon
| organization. Removing text.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| You can still replace icons with custom images on iOS, it is
| much more of a hassle however:
| https://www.theverge.com/22529978/apple-iphone-ios-apps-
| icon...
| zmk5 wrote:
| Honestly it's the one thing I don't miss about Android. I
| always felt compelled to tinker with things a lot more than I
| should've.
| sjwhevvvvvsj wrote:
| Yeah, and equal time spent futzing with your launcher is
| better spent tinkering with a raspberry pi or similar. At
| least then you may develop a skill.
|
| Android customization is sort of like junk food - enjoyable
| in the moment, but not meaningfully improving your life.
| Iulioh wrote:
| I really disagree.
|
| I use my phone more than any other device and having it
| be "beautiful" is an important part of my user experience
|
| At this point any decoration in real life is useless
| because not productive
| danboarder wrote:
| I've been using this for a year and I love it. My favorite
| feature is how it organizes notifications under each app so I
| don't miss important things. Also I can dismiss all notifications
| from a category of apps (all social notifications for example) in
| one swipe on my home screen. I've set up folders for my major app
| categories and I see notifications grouped at a top level there
| by category, so no massive list of combined morning notifications
| in Android to deal with.
| oniony wrote:
| Same. I kinda regret not paying the one-off lifetime fee now.
| chasil wrote:
| Unfortunately, this is not on F-Droid, and it does not appear to
| be open source.
| Sytten wrote:
| Not everything needs to be OSS, it is OK for people to charge
| for software and make a living...
| aloisdg wrote:
| You can pay for free and open source software. I do it to
| support FOSS developers and maintainers.
|
| software example: Krita
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/280680/Krita/ source code
| under GPLv3 https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita
|
| game example: Shapez
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1318690/shapez/ source
| code under GPLv3 https://github.com/tobspr-games/shapez.io
| BadHumans wrote:
| If people paying for FOSS was the norm, we wouldn't have a
| post on the FOSS developers not making money on the front
| page every 2 months. I don't blame people for not going
| this route.
| wiseowise wrote:
| You assume them being commercial would imply their
| success.
| anacrolix wrote:
| I wish people would pay for FOSS :'(
| treyd wrote:
| After being stabbed in the back so many times by non-FOSS
| software I find it hard to trust companies that promote that
| kind of dependent relationship. I gladly pay to support free
| software that I heavily rely on like an Android launcher.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Fortunately it is an excellent piece of commercial, closed
| source software with a long history and a responsive developer.
|
| I tried searching for open source launchers on F-Droid but
| there's no way to sort a search by date or popularity that I
| could find.
| piaste wrote:
| If you search for launchers in F-Droid, regular ones are
| largely nonexistent / unmaintained (Neolauncher has some repo
| activity, but the last actual release is from two years ago).
|
| Instead you'll find it's full of lazy KISS clones that brag
| about the "minimalism" and "productivity" of search-based
| launchers... I'm sure that has nothing to do with those being
| much, much easier to code than ordinary graphical launchers
| :/
|
| Kvaesitso is the exception, and the one I currently use -
| it's technically search-based, but it can add enough icons
| and widgets to the homepage so that during everyday use you
| don't actually need to type the names of your apps like a
| caveman.
| eganist wrote:
| Niagara on the Fold is a wonderful pairing honestly.
| imperialdrive wrote:
| I gave it a quick test drive but almost immediately uninstalled
| it because it wouldn't let me dismiss the cluttering messages on
| top of the app list :/ Looks promising though. Thanks for
| sharing.
| niederman wrote:
| As a long time Niagara user, it is probably the biggest thing
| that keeps me on Android over iOS.
| r0ckarong wrote:
| That's a bit too streamlined for me. I don't group apps by their
| first letter, I group them by purpose of convenience. I need a
| lot more than maybe ten favorites on screen and having to scroll
| or go into a menu to find anything beyond that is just a waste of
| time. Yes, there are folders but other than with Nova Launcher
| you can't see which apps are in there unless you open one. I like
| being able to see a notification bubble on an app within a
| folder. The concept is slick but it doesn't match my usage
| pattern at all.
| maxammann wrote:
| Just sent this threat to Peter :)
| thanksgiving wrote:
| For the confused reader, they probably meant thread, not
| threat.
| Sytten wrote:
| I have used this launcher for several year and I love it, I would
| never go back to the stock one. But it is not for everybody
| buster wrote:
| I really like the minimalistic and focused launchers. I use
| https://beforelabs.com Let's you silence notifications for
| unimportant apps and such.
| Scene_Cast2 wrote:
| I love Lynx Launcher - best one I found after Evie was
| discontinued.
|
| Like many others in the thread, I really like how I have freedom
| of choice w.r.t. launchers (I personally dislike the iOS home
| screen and the stock Google launcher, fwiw).
| ApolloFortyNine wrote:
| This launcher has solved launchers imo, organization barely
| matters when if you simply remember the name of the app, you can
| get there in under a second easily.
|
| Sometimes I forget something was in my favorites and just use the
| scroll by habit, its just that big a non issue.
| peheje wrote:
| Your thoughts about the Niagara Launcher and how it solves your
| problems, is quite interesting to me.
|
| You mention you simply remember the name, I find that difficult
| for me. I don't remember whether it's "Google Maps" or "Maps",
| if it's "Headphones" or "Sony Headphones".
|
| I have tried a few times to get into the Niagara launcher, but
| without luck. It's too mm. "sterile" for me?. I really like
| being able to group apps in the 2D-"space" of the grid system.
| Main screen tries to be uncluttered but music control to the
| right, light-bulbs control to the left, car in middle.
|
| Payment? That's a bottom row on page 2. Communication - right
| side of lower row. Etc. etc.
|
| It does sometimes get a bit wonky . not very "pleasent" to the
| eye, but it's so pleasent for my brain at least.
|
| I sometimes try to clean up, but the apps often ends up
| grouping together again in almost the same configuration.
|
| Here's to difference preferences for launchers! Cheers.
| seraphine wrote:
| You can rename apps in Niagara btw. Spotify -> Music for
| example
| rubslopes wrote:
| I've been using Niagara for years and I like it very much,
| but the scrollable list is my least favorite feature for the
| same reasons you mentioned.
|
| To access an app I always swipe up, tap the first two letters
| and Enter.
| janice1999 wrote:
| https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/27-privacy-policy
|
| > Personal Data collected: Cookies, unique device identifiers,
| Usage Data and IDs (package names) from installed apps.
|
| It sends a unique device identifier, your IP address and your app
| usage to Firebase. I understand why the developer would want
| crash reports but he gathers a lot of data on users.
| mrsaint wrote:
| Fortunately it can be disabled: Share error and usage reports -
| off; Digital Wellbeing Initiative - off; App Categorization -
| off
| jurgenkesker wrote:
| Seeing there is no business model (or did I miss that?), how
| likely is it that this app is sending installed app lists to
| 3rd party for appstore analytics like Data.ai and similar
| services? Something needs to pay the bills?
| Mxrtxn wrote:
| There is a business model: niagara premium.
| NwpierratorR wrote:
| I've been using Niagara since its first days. Absolutely loving
| it and it keeps getting better year over year.
|
| The only thing I miss still is not being able to open drawer by
| swiping up (though fastscroll on letters is good enough, but
| kinda sucks that it only handles latin letters there, cuz like
| 3rd of my apps are in Cyrillic and thus stuck at the first
| category).
|
| UX on foldable device is unmatched, especially after it added
| support for side-to-side widgets and widget stacking.
|
| Another slight annoyance is that in modern android quickstep is
| no longer standard part of AOSP, and depends on how OEM
| implemented it, which means that on many devices (including mine
| mix fold 2) you either lose access to gesture navigation in order
| to use Niagara(I get around it by using Infinite Gestures + OMS
| overlay to hide the navbar) or get broken animations when
| swapping between apps and going home.
|
| UPD: it also recently got client-side implementation of monet and
| built-in contextual variable icons, which works even on devices
| that don't have it as a part of AOSP. It works marvels and I
| can't get enough of how good it looks.
|
| And in general, I wish more launchers had fastscroller as overlay
| option, so that you can get to any app via tapping/flicking onto
| a letter in a single tap/swipe. Once you experienced it, it's
| hard to go back to the app grid.
| FireInsight wrote:
| This a good place to plug my favorite launcher? Search-based
| launchers in general are something I just cannot live without
| nowadays, there's way less friction there with openint apps and
| such.
|
| Kvaesitso is the one I use currently: https://kvaesitso.mm20.de/.
| The design is really good, and the widget support is nice. Search
| is not as perfect ass the classic KISS, though:
| http://kisslauncher.com/.
| arcanemachiner wrote:
| > as perfect ass the classic KISS
|
| KISS is the be-all-end-all launcher for me.
|
| I guess that makes me a KISS ass.
| oohffyvfg wrote:
| kiss is pure shit when you first install it. but if you take
| the time to set it up, it's like vim/emacs. things start to
| make sense
| osmsucks wrote:
| I think it worked fine for me with basically no setup, so I'm
| curious: what kind of setup did it require for you?
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| I'm a fan of this launcher; I switched to it when I realized I
| only ever launched things via typing the app name into search.
| Why not just have a list of apps by name then? Works great.
|
| It's a real testament to Android's flexibility too. It's terrific
| to be able to radically change the UI for the phone.
| abhayhegde wrote:
| I am on Pixel 8. Stock launcher seems so much better than
| anything else.
| smallerfish wrote:
| I'm a fan of smart launcher. It has 8 gestures that you can map
| to frequently used apps (or various phone activities), and
| supports both searching by app name and browsing by app category.
| It's weird that Google haven't innovated much in their default
| launcher, but I really like that I have the choice to customize.
| prashp wrote:
| Niagara Launcher is broken on my S10+. The apps don't align to
| the left correctly, sometimes I get two columns of apps instead
| of one, sometimes the text and icons are incredibly small and
| difficult to read. I had to cancel my subscription
| hodanli wrote:
| no search for contacts is deal breaker for me. i am checking time
| to time to learn if the feature is implemented. kiss launcher is
| perfect right now.
| PMunch wrote:
| I still wish someone would take up the torch from ZLauncher. I
| still use it on my phone as it's just such a great launcher. I
| tried Niagara, but I found myself looking for the letters too
| much. With ZLauncher I can type the letter without even looking
| at my phone. You might think it would be annoying to have to
| write multiple letters (like you see people doing in many of the
| videos about the launcher) but the launcher remembers you most
| searched for apps for a certain letter. So after a couple
| searches your frequently used apps will be on top after only one
| letter. I do wish it had better support for widgets though,
| especially something like the pop-up widgets from the Blackberry
| Priv. But all in all it's a great launcher and it's a shame it
| was discontinued..
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