What's a Launcher?

[Android Curious]

Hi guys.

What's a Launcher? What does it do or change compared to what normally comes on the Note 5? How hard is it to change launchers? Lastly, how hard is it to change back to the default Note 5?

Thanks. Sorry for the ignorance!

 

[Catman51]

A launcher allows you to customize home scrrens, resize widgets and a host of other options the built in one doesn't allow. Go wth Nova Prime, it's the best.

 

[pbickel]

A launcher is what controls the looks of a home screen and phone. Like if you pick up a HTC and a Samsung the reason they look different is the launcher they have. Samsung has touch wiz and HTC has sense.

 

[Glock23-G4]

Easy to change launchers... just like installing an app, then customize it how you want it.

 

[Android Curious]

Thanks. What tends to be preferred, Touchwiz or Nova Prime?

 

[Glock23-G4]

Touchwiz is what comes on the phone. I use Nova prime, mainly because of the gestures and greater grid customization.

 

[Android Curious]

Thanks again.

 

[Android Curious]

One more question... I see that "icon packs" are available for Nova to change the icons. Can these icon packs be used on the Note 5 without using a special launcher? Or do they only work with a launcher like Nova?

 

[Glock23-G4]

Not sure on that one, as I know you can use themes with Touchwiz... dunno if that includes changing icons or not.

Maybe someone more familiar with Touchwiz can answer that one.

 

[Matt Behnken]

One more question... I see that "icon packs" are available for Nova to change the icons. Can these icon packs be used on the Note 5 without using a special launcher? Or do they only work with a launcher like Nova?

Icon packs are made for launchers, so most will not work with touch wiz. U can buy an icon pack to test and uninstall within a few minutes for an automatic refund from google play. Most icon packs list requirements in app description, ie. Need nova launcher to work. Many apps support icon packs but typically touchwiz does not.

I highly recommend nova free and added icon packs. You can mess around with the "themes" on touch wiz to get icon packs for TW.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Jamez Avila]

Quite a few people use Nova Prime launcher.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

 

[Android Curious]

Sounds good. Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[anon(7894520)]

Anyone who installs a launcher other than nova doesn't know what he is doing.

Posted via my Galaxy Note 5

 

[Android Curious]

Anyone who installs a launcher other than nova doesn't know what he is doing.

That seems to be the general consensus.

 

[Laserbutt]

Anyone who installs a launcher other than nova doesn't know what he is doing.

Posted via my Galaxy Note 5

*They, assuming females installer launchers as well ;-)

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[anon(9652351)]

Quite a few people use Nova Prime launcher.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

....and I don't understand why. Customer support sucks. Calendar and clock are static. Badges seldom if ever work and certainly are far from accurate. It is a huge memory hog......No thanks Nova

 

[anon(9652351)]

Quite a few people use Nova Prime launcher.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

....and I don't understand why. Customer support sucks. Calendar and clock are static. Badges seldom if ever work and certainly are far from accurate. It is a huge memory hog......No thanks Nova

 

[Glock23-G4]

I've had no need for customer support, so no opinion there. If you want active displays for your clock/calendar icons, that's what widgets are for. The unread badge inaccuracy is an issue with Tesla, not Nova. And I don't consider a launcher using 117mb of RAM to be a memory hog.

 

[Jamez Avila]

....and I don't understand why. Customer support sucks. Calendar and clock are static. Badges seldom if ever work and certainly are far from accurate. It is a huge memory hog......No thanks Nova

Mine work fine. My calendar icons change by themselves. My badges work for email and Gmail and text. I don't use the Facebook one as that seems to drain my battery.
There's just no other launcher that works as well as Nova.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

 

[anon(9652351)]

I had terrible luck with Nova across the board. Maybe things have changed??