As a decade-long consumer of Android telephones, my Android dwelling display screen retains getting worse the extra I exploit my telephone. It has nothing to do with {hardware} or sluggishness.
The issue could be very easy and easy. Every part simply piles up.
Between new apps, widgets that I check out on occasion, and folders that I create to get some semblance of group, in some unspecified time in the future my telephone stops feeling like a device and extra litter.
For some time I accepted it for what it’s. However then I made the change to Niagara launcher.
The aim behind it was easy. I needed to resolve the issue as soon as and for all.
I do not need to redesign my dwelling display screen once more or spend time tweaking layouts. I needed a one-and-done answer to cut back friction in order that I may unlock my telephone, do what I must do and simply transfer on.
Niagara Launcher is constructed particularly round that concept, and it adjustments how dwelling screens behave from the bottom up.
As a substitute of a grid filled with icons, Niagara launcher offers you a single vertical checklist centered across the curated collection of apps you employ.
Which may sound like a small change in principle, however in observe it removes a lot of the frustrations related to a cluttered dwelling web page.
6 Android tweaks I made to chop litter from my telephone
A fast cleanup helped me use my telephone extra mindfully
Forcing higher consumer habits
A design that stays out of the best way and optimizes for one-handed use
After you’ve got put in Niagara Launcher from the Play Retailer, the setup course of forces a small however essential choice.
It asks you to choose a handful of apps that you just use probably the most. Not the whole lot in your telephone. It makes you choose the apps that you just open day by day. And that turns into your property display screen. So simple as that.
There are not any grids, no pages, no folders. Only a easy checklist of favorites that sit proper inside a thumb’s attain.
That does not imply that the remainder of your apps aren’t obtainable. They’re simply tucked away behind an alphabetical scroll on the facet.
I can slide my thumb up and down to achieve particular alphabets and the apps beneath it. After that, it is a easy faucet to launch the app course of.
That one-handed movement is what actually stands out. Not solely does Niagara scale back dwelling display screen litter, it additionally makes it improves usability.
With an everyday dwelling display screen format and outsized telephones, you are still left reaching out and stretching your thumb. Not so with Niagara. It retains the whole lot inside straightforward attain.
Niagara goes a great distance in the direction of simplifying notifications too. Notifications out of your most well-liked apps present up proper there on the house display screen, and you may swipe to answer or cancel them out.
The general influence of this simplification is difficult to overstate. Your own home display screen not screams for consideration. It is predictable, straightforward to navigate and optimized for productiveness.
How Niagara Launcher modified the best way I exploit my telephone
Much less time spent navigating
A couple of days into making the change to Niagara, the most important commentary for me is that I am spending much less time on my dwelling display screen. And that is with out even making an attempt too arduous.
I unlock my telephone, faucet an app, and I am accomplished. There’s nothing competing for consideration, nor do I get distracted and find yourself happening a random path of opening apps or video games.
You will not discover any visible distractions both, which have an enormous influence on how you employ your telephone all through the day.
Niagara Launcher makes search a giant a part of the expertise. As a substitute of scrolling, you’ll be able to swipe up and begin trying to find the app in query.
It is quicker, way more intentional, particularly once you’re in search of one thing particular.
It isn’t that Niagara does not supply customization. It does. However there’s loads of restraint inbuilt.
You may change themes, icons and extra. However it’s removed from as in depth as what different launchers supply. And it is definitely not a distraction.
And sure, you’ll be able to have widgets in order for you. Nonetheless, all you get is a single row of swipeable widgets as a substitute of them being cluttered all through the interface.
Over time, you begin utilizing a number of the options much more. I’ve hidden a lot of the apps that used to distract me. Past the important messaging apps, I haven’t got the rest on my dwelling display screen.
Elsewhere, I’ve actually come to understand a number of the contextual options.
For instance, I needn’t preserve a Spotify icon on my dwelling display screen as a result of Niagara robotically surfaces a Spotify widget once I join my Bluetooth headphones. All of it feels extraordinarily responsive.
Much less management, way more readability
Most Android launchers are constructed across the concept of management. Be it extra layouts, extra gestures, or just extra methods to customise your interface.
As a lot as that sounds interesting, it results in the same old issues of dealing with too many choices and visible litter.
Niagara removes all that. I might go so far as saying that the list-based format is not a limitation, it forces you to consider how you employ your telephone. And that simply is perhaps its greatest power.