Lawnchair launcher launched but is it better than oxygen launcher?

Lawnchair is a launcher which is based on Pixel Launcher with more customization options. You can change almost everything starting from icon pack to app drawer. I will give you an overview of features that Lawnchair has to offer. I’ll dive into sections of the launcher settings and talk about all the new features and options.

Lawnchair Features and Screenshots

• Google Now (a.k.a. Google Feed) integration (Requires the Lawnfeed add-on app)
• Android Oreo shortcuts and notification dots
• Icon Pack support
• Variable Icon Size
• Custom Grid Size
• Dock Customization
• Adaptive Icons (For Nougat & above)
• Optional Blurry UI for pretty much everything
• And much more!

Themes

In Themes category, you can change the shape of the home screen icons. Available options are square, rounded square, squircle, circle, and teardrop. This is the feature that a lot of the launchers added after Android 8.0 introduced Adaptive Icons. You can see square and squircle variants below. Shame on Spotify, Instagram, and Enpass for not adopting adaptive icons yet.

 

The next option is icon packs. This is a feature that pretty much all 3rd-party launchers have, but it’s not something you’ll find in the Pixel Launcher.

You can change the launcher’s color scheme to light or dark at any time. The “Auto” option changes the theme based on your wallpaper, but you can still select it manually. Currently, changing the color scheme only applies to launcher settings, application drawer, and Google Feed. You can see how Dark with OLED black theme looks below.

The next option, “Blur,” applies a blur to the dock, the drawer, and launcher settings. You can even adjust the percentage manually. This feature is currently buggy, but keep in mind that this is the first alpha of the version 2. Everything will be sorted out eventually and I’ve already reported this bug to the creator of Lawnchair.

Desktop

This is where the fun begins. You’ll see a lot of toggles in this category. Most of them are additional, while some of them are enabled by default. The first one you’ll see is the “At a Glance” feature, which is enabled by default. Additionally, you can add time and date to the widget by toggling the options just below. Notice the difference in the widget before and after toggling those options. Weather is not supported at this time.

 

Next option toggles the Google Feed (formerly Google Now Cards). Many users are upset that the Feed isn’t as informative as it was before. If you’re one of them, you can get Google Feed out of your sight by toggling this option off.

Next option lets you enable notification dots, first introduced in Android Oreo. You need to give the app notification access first, of course. You’ll see the full notification by holding an app’s icon.

Other features in this category contain adding icons for newly installed apps to the home screen automatically, changing grid and icon sizes, and enabling full-width widgets. All of them are self-explanatory.

Dock

You can also change the style of the dock. The available options are Rounded, Gradient, Flat, and Transparent, but Gradient doesn’t seem to work, at least on Android P. The Rounded dock adds a slight shadow effect. Also, notice the blur we added earlier.

App drawer

This category doesn’t contain anything extraordinary or super customizable. Here you can enable app suggestions and Google search, also hide apps and their labels from the app drawer. That’s it. Oh, you can also set a custom opacity for the drawer, but this feature is buggy at the moment.

Conclusion

There is also a “Backup” category that lets you backup and restore your settings, while the “About” category gives you an info about Lawnchair and its developers.

I personally think that Lawnchair is one of the best launchers available, simply because I love the stock Android experience. Rootless Pixel Launcher is also a good option, but it lacks all of the extra features and customization tools. You’ll want to install the Lawnfeed application as well if you want to benefit from the Google Now panel.

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