5 ways Olauncher elevates my Android experience

Over the years, I’ve tested out a number of excellent Android launchers. These apps serve as full home screen replacements, often featuring advanced customization tools, unique navigational paradigms, and other niceties. For example, one of my all-time favorite launchers is Niagara — it provides a clean aesthetic, and it makes use of a slick list-based user interface setup.

Aside from Niagara, there’s another list-style Android launcher that I’ve grown increasingly fond of, and it’s called Olauncher. The app places you within a calming home screen environment, which helps to reduce digital clutter and to fight against distracting smartphone elements.

Olauncher is entirely free to download and install from the Google Play Store, and it provides an ad-free experience out of the box. I’ve been using the app for several weeks in a row now, and I’ve been enjoying my experience. Here are 5 reasons why I simply can’t get enough of Olauncher.

Olauncher. Minimal AF Launcher

Olauncher is an Android launcher that’s designed with decluttering your digital space in mind, stripping back the interface in favor of minimalism.

1 It keeps my screen time at bay

Olauncher is my secret digital detox pal

Olauncher’s main pitch is that it provides a minimalistic and clean home screen environment, with a focus on distraction-free interface design. In my experience, this is absolutely the case: the app provides just enough functionality to remain useful as a launcher, while stripping back on the non-essentials.

What you see is what you get with Olauncher — the main home screen is populated with pinned apps, which are written out in text as opposed to being represented by icons. Swiping up reveals the app drawer, which maintains this same aesthetic. To configure settings, simply hold down on any empty spot on the home screen.

The handy screen time option places an informative ticker on the top right-hand part of the home screen, which has helped me keep track of how long I’ve been using my phone for. Without any colorful widgets, icons, or superfluous interface chrome to worry about, I’ve found Olauncher to be an excellent tool in my quest to ward off my screen addiction.

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2 It works well with OLED panels

OLauncher comes with a built-in daily wallpaper feature, which cycles through pleasing and scenic imagery on a regular basis. The app also includes a hidden feature: by long pressing on the daily new wallpaper setting, the entire launcher darkens, and a pitch-black wallpaper is automatically applied to your home screen.

These days, most Android phones ship with OLED displays, and my Google Pixel is no exception. Swapping in a pure black backdrop not only cranks up the minimalism factor, but it also helps to conserve battery life. To display a perfect black on-screen, an OLED panel will simply turn the associated pixels off, which is a net positive from an energy-saving standpoint.

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3 It’s single-hand-friendly

Olauncher makes it less likely that I’ll drop my phone

One of the biggest benefits of list-style home screen launchers like Olauncher and Niagara is that they’re easy to use with one hand. Modern smartphones are physically domineering, and I tend to struggle with reaching up and tapping on icons near the top of the screen.

It’s easy to configure Olauncher to display apps near the bottom of the home screen, and the entire list can be right-justified or left-justified. I’m right-handed, so I personally opt for the former configuration the majority of the time.

My only gripe is that there’s no letter scroll bar or scrubber within the app drawer, which would make navigation even easier. I’d also love to be able to swap through justifications on the fly, without having to dive into settings.

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4 It’s clean and minimalistic

I love a slick and aesthetic home screen setup

Olauncher might appear simplistic on the surface, but it’s actually a fairly customizable piece of software. I’ve spent some quality time playing around with the launcher’s various settings, and in turn I’ve created some stunning (and highly minimalistic) home screen setups.

You can configure text size, the number of apps displayed, whether you want to show your screen time, whether you want elements like the date, time, and status bar obscured, and more. There’s even a built-in gesture system, which lets you quickly launch apps with a simple left or right swipe.

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5 It gets me into the habit of searching

I’m incentivized to search for my apps, which is a time saver

When I first set up Olauncher, one of the first settings I configured was to adjust the app drawer’s behavior. I enabled the auto show keyboard option, which surfaces the keyboard whenever I swipe up from the main home screen. Due to the launcher’s simplicity (and its lack of an alphabetical scrubber tool), I find myself incentivized to use search to find and launch my various apps.

Of course, searching for installed apps is nothing new in the smartphone world, but it’s something I’ve only just gotten into the habit of doing regularly. Olauncher’s implementation cuts out the fluff — there are no web results or other suggestions to muck up the experience, and simply tapping the enter key automatically launches the first search result on the page.

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