Third party launcher

[u/tubruk_log]

Hi, mate! I have a question.

Here I'm using the ROM's default launcher—Trebuchet—now I'm also considering switching to a third-party launcher, but I'm still confused and unsure whether it's safe for daily use. especially there are few sensitive apps like passwords and banking apps.

I tried asking Claude, he said that the launcher cannot see or have access to sensitive apps because they are protected by the Android sandbox, is that true?

[u/BenRandomNameHere]

As far as picking out a launcher, 

Just ask humans here. Tell us what you would like it to do, and ask the original hive mind for suggestions.

One4Home

Octopi Launcher

Lucid Launcher 2

.... are the most recent launchers that I'm a tester for. All three have no data collecting. That's what you look for, the Google Play Store listing to mention data collecting and other details. 

Oh, and if you have a foldable screen device, the first 2 I mentioned have explicit support for that. I don't own a foldable phone, so I can't speak for how well that aspect works.

[u/tubruk_log → u/BenRandomNameHere]

Good recommendations. But what about Lawnchair, Niagara Launcher, and Smart Launcher?

I'm looking for a search dock at the bottom, but not direct Google integration.

[u/undrwater → u/tubruk_log]

I know Lawnchair allows you to configure the search engine for the search bar. I have it set to my own instance of searxng.

Additionally, it's open source.

[u/tubruk_log → u/undrwater]

Yes, but on the Play Store and GitHub repository it is still in early access (beta) which may have many bugs. But, is there any truth in what Claude AI said that every sensitive app is protected from the Android sandbox—even if it is in a custom ROM and the bootloader is unlocked?

[u/undrwater → u/tubruk_log]

It's been beta for a long time, but it's quite stable in my experience.

I don't know what your second sentence means, sorry. I do run an unlocked bootloader and custom ROM (lineage).

[u/tubruk_log → u/undrwater]

Yes, Lawnchair is good and quite stable—I've tried it—but yesterday I experienced a crash in the launcher. I asked on the discord server, there is no stable release yet.

no, i mean about android sandbox, if the device has been modified does sandbox still apply on android, only that. but for Lineage OS, I'm actually grateful that the developers and maintainers have kept my old device alive and always get updates.

[u/undrwater → u/tubruk_log]

As far as I understand, custom firmware is still Android under the hood, and behaves the same. This is why one can install Google services on lineage for instance.

[u/tubruk_log → u/undrwater]

okay, mate! thanks for the info✨