Will you keep it Stock or run a Launcher (Nova, etc.)?

[mxmarcus]

Nova on the first day. Load settings from Nexus 6 backup
After a week or so, I will give stock a try for few days

 

[Eggmundo]

I'll try it stock first, but I'm certain the samey-looking icons alone will drive me back to Nova.

What do you mean by samey? Aren't the Pixel's icons all nice and uniform?

 

[jrodjrxbox]

going to try stock but I Love nova so we will see

 

[sacerdos]

will be doing Nova. I just wished it would automatically backup to Google, so that I don't have to do it manually.

 

[Large Hadron]

Um.... no.

Touchwiz and Sense are more than just launchers.

If you want to use Nova, or any other launcher, you are absolutely free to do so. that's one of the great things about Android.

But IMHO you're going to really miss out on the Pure Android experience.

Touchwiz and Sense are more than just launchers. But "Sense Home" and "Touchwiz home", which is what I actually said, are the launchers that are provided by the manufacturer. I use a HTC device with the Sense interface, and a Samsung device with the Touchwiz interface, but do not use the Sense Home or Touchwiz Home launchers, so I do understand the distinction.

And my point was that the Pixel Launcher is not "pure Android". It is not part of the AOSP, and it's not that HTC or Samsung are replacing this launcher with their own, they never get it in the first place. It's Google's current launcher for the Pixel phones, and as proprietary as any other manufacturer's launcher. So if you argue that someone who chooses not to use it is missing part of the "Google" experience you might have a point, but that's not the same thing as the "pure Android" experience.

Anyway, I'll try it, but a launcher that doesn't let me organise my desktops the way I want, either because it lacks features or because it has desktop elements I can't remove, has a very short life expectancy with me.

 

[ultravisitor]

Stock. I like the stock launcher and want as clean of an experience as possible with no extraneous apps.

 

[AustinIllini]

Stock, as Google intended for their device.

 

[nelamvr6]

Touchwiz and Sense are more than just launchers. But "Sense Home" and "Touchwiz home", which is what I actually said, are the launchers that are provided by the manufacturer. I use a HTC device with the Sense interface, and a Samsung device with the Touchwiz interface, but do not use the Sense Home or Touchwiz Home launchers, so I do understand the distinction.

And my point was that the Pixel Launcher is not "pure Android". It is not part of the AOSP, and it's not that HTC or Samsung are replacing this launcher with their own, they never get it in the first place. It's Google's current launcher for the Pixel phones, and as proprietary as any other manufacturer's launcher. So if you argue that someone who chooses not to use it is missing part of the "Google" experience you might have a point, but that's not the same thing as the "pure Android" experience.

Anyway, I'll try it, but a launcher that doesn't let me organise my desktops the way I want, either because it lacks features or because it has desktop elements I can't remove, has a very short life expectancy with me.

I understand now what you are saying. Excuse me for being a little obtuse, it's that old afternoon slump I guess.

I do use Nova on my cyrrent phone, a Samsung S6, so I am familiar with how nice it is.

So long as you're happy, that's all that matters. Cheers!

 

[Mike Dee]

I'm going to run stock if works

 

[paradroid]

It only makes sense to try stock for a while. If that works great for me, one less thing running on my phone.

 

[Aquila]

It only makes sense to try stock for a while. If that works great for me, one less thing running on my phone.

I did stock for the first 6 weeks then switched to Nova.

 

[Aquila]

It absolutely is Pure Android. What are you basing your claim on?

Pixels have Google's interpretation of what they think their customers want.

 

[Aquila]

What tweaks does Pixel 2 have beyond the base AOSP? And where have you learned about these tweaks? To the best of my knowledge there haven't been any in-depth reviews released of these phones.

I understand that the Camera software will be exclusive to the Pixel 2 phones, are you talking about tweaks beyond those?

I was not coining a term when I referred to the Pure Android experience, it's something that Android users have talked about since the introduction of the first Nexus.

I don't think that using a 3rd party launcher is anything more than just replacing the launcher, I was referring to the stock launcher as being the launcher the the creators of Android envisioned. Another poster in this thread referred to Touchwiz and Sense as nothing more than alternate launchers, and that's not true.

As I mentioned, if you want to use a different launcher, have at it. But how are you so sure that you won't like the stock launcher if you don't at least try it first?

Visually it's very close. Having used the 2 XL for an extended period, it feels a lot like the Nexus devices but with more quirks that we don't see in the other devices that try to stick close to stick, such as Moto devices.

 

[AustinTech]

I'll try it stock first, but I'm certain the samey-looking icons alone will drive me back to Nova.

This,

 

[Mike Dee]

Visually it's very close. Having used the 2 XL for an extended period, it feels a lot like the Nexus devices but with more quirks that we don't see in the other devices that try to stick close to stick, such as Moto devices.

Are you saying XL feels quirky?

 

[modifier]

As I mentioned, if you want to use a different launcher, have at it. But how are you so sure that you won't like the stock launcher if you don't at least try it first?

I'm sure the Pixel 2 Launcher is a fine piece of software. I use the BlackBerry Launcher because it's lightweight and offers the exact functionality and customization that I want. It's like the Pixel launcher minus the Now feed and persistent search bar, but it retains upward swipes on icons to launch their widgets and adds both icon size/grid and a dark theme for the app drawer. I'm sure Nova does the same but I'm already subscribed to BB apps. I also disable anything I'm not using so it's like the stock launcher isn't even there. The rest of the OS remains un-skinned and un-bloated.

Regarding your question about tweaks beyond AOSP, the Pixel and Nexus line have always had a few things that others didn't have with a truly pure AOSP build. The Pixel had Night Mode in Nougat yet the AOSP build didn't. AOD comes to mind as well since it was in some phones' Developer Mode (OP5 was one) but wasn't part of the OOB experience. I expect the Pixel 2 to be similar with small tweaks. My point wasn't about big stuff, just tweaks and random features.

I'm going to run stock if works

It won't work. It'll break.

j/k

 

[Chex313]

Nova...Just like in the other Launcher thread

As god intended...

 

[DroidDavi]

stock at 1st then I'll go back to action launcher

 

[thunderup]

I'm sure I'll try stock for an hour or two and then move on to Nova.

 

[Jeremiah Bonds]

Stock for awhile.. If I get bored I'll switch it up