Niagara Launcher is your best choice for a tall or folding phone

I didn't like it at first, but now I'm a convert

Launchers are a subject that can be downright tribal. You get so used to how your apps are presented that even the slightest change to the formula is deeply upsetting in some strange way. I’ve stuck with the same launcher formula for years, even as smartphones themselves have changed. My current homescreen layout can even trace a direct lineage back to 2011, and it’s not tradition at this point; it’s just a dumb habit. But folding phones have forced me to reassess all that, and the traditional launcher style just isn’t suited to an expanding or tall display — but Niagara Launcher is.

Some of you probably recognize that I’m late to this party, and even Android Police staff like Prasham Parikh have been enjoying it for basically the last year. But, like many of our readers, I just had a way of doing things that I liked, and I didn’t want to change it. Lawnchair Launcher duplicates the beautiful Pixel Launcher while also adding its own appreciated features on any device, and I have a layout that I essentially stuck to since long before my blogging days. And, on most phones, I maintain that it is the best among the traditional launcher styles. But trying to force myself to keep using my phone in the same way just hasn’t been working out. Sticking to that icons-on-a-grid formula just wasn’t really compatible with my Z Fold3.

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Samsung's built-in launcher on the cover display.

The issue here is two-fold (tee hee), and it bleeds over to some other phones as well. To start, Samsung’s “cover display” is so tall and narrow that normal icons don’t really work. Much as it’s hard to type on such a narrow screen, it can be a little annoying reaching up to the top of that tall-but-skinny display to hit a tiny target. Sure, you can physically fit a lot of stuff there, but reading the labels on those icons or actually tapping them becomes a little annoying. But Niagara fixes that issue handily: All your apps appear in a vertical list.

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You have a set of favorites that appear by default (nine works best on the Z Fold3’s cover display, but you can do more), and you can scroll easily through an alphabetized app drawer, accessible at any time on the edge of the screen. If you have an Artem-level list of apps installed, you can also hide the ones you don’t often use from that scrollable list — they’ll still appear in search, but they won’t bloat how long it takes to find things more quickly. A quick swipe brings you to search, and Niagara even has its own conceptual take on the At-a-glance widget, with the ability to show the time, date, weather, and even upcoming events, with an expanding agenda view.

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The style here isn’t quite Material, but it’s arbitrarily close and melds very well with most modern interfaces, including what you’ve got on Samsung’s phones. And, because it’s a single column view, you don’t run into the same issues sorting between incomprehensibly tiny icons on a field. It took me about a week of legitimately forcing myself to use it (and hating every minute) to come around, and now I can’t go back. On a very tall and narrow display, this is the best launcher you can use. And, weirdly, that also translates to a very wide screen.

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Because of that column-based approach, on the interior folding display you can easily fit two side-by-side columns. Yes, this means you have fewer apps in the home screen segment, but it’s far, far more usable. And it supports “basic” foldable features, like separate wallpapers for the cover display and interior display. It even has its own dynamic theming implementation so the app can pull colors from that wallpaper for its own accents. Your Galaxy Z Fold3 might not have access to that part of the Material You fun, but you can plug the gap a little and enjoy some of that experience without it.

The only real drawback I have is that your favorites list doesn’t translate well between the folded and unfolded experience, and your assigned favorites persist between the two layouts. Niagara recommends that you have just enough favorites set so the list doesn’t have to scroll, but there’s a lot more space available unfolded in the dual-column view than there is in the single column on the cover display. So, while 14 app favorites fits well while unfolded, if you actually set anything over nine, that means you have to scroll on the cover display. It’s not perfect, but I find it’s still better than that sea-of-icons alternative.

The traditional smartphone homescreen experience with a grid of icons dates all the way back to the iPhone — and before that, nearly time immemorial in desktop computing. It’s a tried and true, super-intuitive method, but it does break down when it comes to usability a little depending on screen size. Niagara Launcher brings a different approach. I’m not afraid to say: I don’t like it on a “normal” phone. But it’s perfect on foldables. And though there is a pretty rough acclimation period, It’s worth it if you can stick it out.

About The Author

Ryne Hager (2874 Articles Published)

Ostensibly a senior editor, in reality just some verbose dude who digs on tech, loves Android, and hates anticompetitive practices. His only regret is that he didn't buy a Nokia N9 in 2012. Email tips or corrections to ryne at androidpolice dot com.

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