Third-party launchers are fantastic tools. Whether you want to mess around with custom icon packs, home screen grid sizes, or anything else in between, they typically allow for much greater control compared to the stock launcher devices ship with.
That said, first-party launchers have gotten much better over the years. From Google's Pixel phones to Samsung handsets running One UI, lots of progress has been made on that front.
Some of our AC forum members recently started talking about some of the quirks when using a third-party launcher with Pixel phones these days, saying:
Anyone else using Nova notice whenever you close an app there is a second where your homescreen is blank before Nova refreshes the icons etc? This has never happened on any other phone I've had. I have the developer animations etc set to 0.5, like I always do. I'm typing this on a Samsung tab s6 also running Nova and same settings. Icons are there immediately when closing an app. But on my p5...
Nodnerb
That's the way it is with any custom launcher and navigation gestures after Android 10. Blame Google for the changes they made with the Recent apps feature. Some brands managed to make those transitions a bit better and others still don't allow navigation gestures while using a custom launcher.
Javier P
I see that on my Pixel 3 XL as well. Very slight delay -- small price to pay for the great versatility of a 3rd party launcher.
B. Diddy
I just started using Nova, myself, and have now noticed a very small delay, as well. I'm liking my experience so far.
Morty2264
This got us wondering — Do you use third-party launchers on Pixel phones?
