Kiss Launcher – fast launcher for Android(kisslauncher.com)
46 pointsby ifh-hn8 hours ago16 comments
  • geekuillaume34 minutes ago
    I also been using it for 5+ years, it's been really great! And Neamar, the creator, is a really nice guy who goes the extra mile to make sure it works great, doesn't need any permission that are not absolutely required and stays up-to-date with the last changes of the Android API.
  • pax2 hours ago
    I'm a bit confused on how this works, besides using the search each time I need to launch an app. Could I have more shortcuts in the home screen, or just what I pin as favourite apps?

    And am I limited to only one space/desktop, normally if I swipe right, I get to the next desktop where I have other apps. So I can launch an app from the 3rd desktop with 2 swipes and a press. Now, swiping right I get the full list of apps where I'd need to search.

    I couldn't find answers to this in the documentation

    • skulkan hour ago
      IMO the whole point of KISS is to _not_ have desktops and access all of your apps via search. If I want to open my Hacker News app, I open the search, press "h" and click the first app. All apps I use frequently naturally float to the top of my history list and can be accessed with 1, or at most 2 characters in search.

      Where this really shines is chat apps -- all of your chats get their own "activities" which can be searched as well, so if I want to open Discord DMs for someone, I can search their username and one of the options is the Discord DM activity for them.

      Yes, this is a couple more taps than having desktops but it's 100% dynamic (never have to manage layout) and almost eliminates the chance of getting distracted when opening my home screen.

  • kykat35 minutes ago
    It's great. Been using it for years, also installed it for my mom, and she really prefers it because "things no longer move around by themselves".

    You learn that usually you are really only using a handful of apps, you barely use the search box at all after two days.

  • rjzzleep2 hours ago
    I REALLY like Niagara launcher. I have an old OnePlus and it works really well, is aesthetically pleasing and has just the right amount of features.

    [1] https://niagaralauncher.com/

    • rpdillonan hour ago
      Wow, I hadn't seen a launcher with an annual subscription before. $14/year.

      https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/104-price-of-niagar...

      • Valodim16 minutes ago
        You mean one with a business model where the user isn't the product? I happily paid for a (fairly expensive) lifetime license of Niagara, hoping that I will never read an "after the acquisition, all developers were fired and all ad frameworks were added" article about it.
  • jadbox28 minutes ago
    Thanks for sharing, going to give this a spin as the default Android Launcher can be laggy at times. Now if only we can get an open-source keyboard that has the same clean usability as Gboard [I've tried all the alts without success].
  • JaggedJaxan hour ago
    KISS looks nice and I'll give it a try. This reminds me a lot of Kvaesitso launcher also on F-Droid, although KISS looks a little more minimal. They seem to have a similar focus though. If KISS is a little too bare-bones, but you want something still fairly minimal, I found Kvaesitso to be a good balance.

    The main purpose of these launchers for me is to avoid using my phone mindlessly. I won't just see an app and open it for no reason. I need to make a decision that I want to use an app on my phone.

  • aquir2 hours ago
    When I was using Android a few years ago I was using a launcher where every app was a text only "word cloud" and the text got bigger with the frequency of app launches. I don't remember the name...is has also got a good search feature, you can exclude apps, change the colour of the text etc.
    • stavrosan hour ago
      Probably Niagara.
  • al_borland4 hours ago
    > Keep it Simple and Stupid

    I’ve never seen the KISS principle stated like this. I’ve see “Keep it simple stupid”, and people who try to make it less insulting with, “keep it stupid simple”.

    However that “and” changes things a lot. “Keep it simple” and “keep it stupid”. Do we want to “keep it stupid”?

    Semantics aside, I do like seeing minimal launchers. I’m not an Android user, but an happy to know projects like this exist.

    • chasil2 hours ago
      "The second system effect" is another perspective on the motivation here.

      This... "is the tendency of small, elegant, and successful systems to be succeeded by over-engineered, bloated systems, due to inflated expectations and overconfidence."

      The wiki is not very extensive.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect

    • JamesTRexx2 hours ago
      I alway say, keep it stupid, simpleton.
    • schaum2 hours ago
      german wikipedia got you covered with more alternatives https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS-Prinzip#Varianten although "smart" ist listed there which kinda misses the point ..
    • BoredPositron3 hours ago
      In this regard, I think stupid is meant to stand in contrast to complex, implying something is straightforward and foolproof.
  • JamesTRexx2 hours ago
    In that regard, I'd say Olancher is more kiss (kisser, kissiest?) with a text-only interface. I like it as much as my featureless openbox desktop. Used Atom for a decade or longer or so, keeping a copy of the apk safe because it was abandoned, but with the new phone I had to find something to replace it.
  • rdmuser2 hours ago
    The dev has an active hn account: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=neamar
  • phito3 hours ago
    Nice. I've been using Niagara for years and years, it's looks similar in terms of UX, but this one maybe runs better on older devices.
  • ChrisArchitectan hour ago
    Related:

    Nova Launcher added Facebook and Google Ads tracking

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46686655

  • skulk3 hours ago
    I have been using this launcher for longer than I can remember, perhaps 10 years now. I don't really remember using anything else (hazy memories of the KitKat AOSP launcher).

    The only thing that annoys me a little bit is if I typo an app name (or Google search query) it brings up a random distant fuzzy matched contact. I wish there was a way to set a threshold for the fuzzy matching thing for certain kinds of items. Probably trivial to implement but I haven't gotten around to it.

  • ifh-hn8 hours ago
    Thought I'd leave this here due to the Nova Launcher thread on the front page.

    Second only to fdroid this is my first install on all new Android devices.

    • Imustaskforhelp4 hours ago
      I had a really shit ass redmi phone once which was cheap.

      The launcher was so slow and ass and had me wait for >10 minutes at times or be completely black which ate my god damn mind

      Tried kiss launcher and it was beautiful and mostly worked like a charm on what it controlled

      That being said, to manage wallpapers from kiss iirc atleast on redmi required me to do some crazy shenanigans which probably weren't worth it but none of them being kiss's fault.

      I used to use nova launcher prior to kiss too and used to love nova launcher. Shame it went this path as I was seeing some kickstarter or change petition iirc to open source nova launcher which could've been so good.

      On my other device I also use foss launcher which is a fork of simple-tools after it got accquired and all the issues which followed it (added ad tracking etc.)

      Kisslauncher is so minimal like 300kb or something I forgot but extremely small iirc, it was wild to me to imagine an application this small. Might be smallest app I saw ever.

  • broke3034 hours ago
    using it since 2022, it's the best.
  • GuinansEyebrows2 hours ago
    tangential, but as a longtime iphone user, i think just about the only thing that could get me interested in android again is a revival of slidescreen (http://slidescreenhome.com). i really prefer a services-based home screen to an apps-based home screen.