Before's primary home screen panel is a plain-as-can-be text-based list of your most frequently accessed apps, with not a single icon or eye-catching flourish to be found. If you need to get to something else, you can find a complete list of installed programs one panel over to the right. And to the left sits a filtered notification drawer that can hide low-priority notifications and make 'em available only when you actively opt to seek 'em out.
JR Raphael/IDG
From the plain-text primary home screen to the built-in notification filtering system, less really is more with the understated Before Launcher.
Before has some simple options for customizing the appearance of your home screen and creating a couple of custom gestures, but it's all pretty barebones and basic by design. The launcher also offers an optional $6 Pro upgrade that adds in a handful of more advanced features, including a custom folder and label system for apps and the ability to hide apps entirely out of view.
In short: If you want the utmost in simplicity and a setup that keeps distractions almost entirely out of sight, Before Launcher is just what the minimalist ordered.
Nova Launcher: Extreme customization
From minimalism to maximalism, the last launcher in our list is a longtime Android power-user favorite that provides you with every option under the sun. Nova Launcher starts you off with a simple blank slate and lets you set things up in any way you want, down to the tiniest of details.
It's no exaggeration: Once you add whatever series of shortcuts, folders, and widgets you like to your home screen panels, you can peruse Nova's settings to find intricate customizations for almost anything imaginable — ranging from the precise size of the font used for app names to the amount of padding between items, the level of transparency of the app drawer background, and even the style and speed of every animation and transition you see.
Beyond just the customization stuff, Nova has some seriously powerful possibilities for optimizing your home screen to any set of specifications. You can create a custom dark theme that makes various areas of your home screen easier on the eyes as soon as the sun goes down, you can create a variety of custom gestures for quickly accessing any apps or actions you need, and you can add in helpful shortcuts like one-tap commands for tasks like uninstalling or restarting apps on demand.
JR Raphael/IDG
Nova Launcher's extensive series of options gives you an extraordinary amount of freedom to make your home screen look and work exactly how you want.
Nova is also known for fast and frequent updates that add in features from new and sometimes even still-under-development Android versions — often with even greater flexibility than they have in Android itself — on any phone immediately. And the launcher has a well-earned reputation for fast, effective support.
Nova Launcher is free with an optional $5 upgrade for certain advanced features.
In short: If you want complete control over every element of your home screen environment — and you know exactly what kind of effect you're after — Nova Launcher's got your name written all over it.
This article was originally published in June 2019 and most recently updated in June 2023.
