Earlier this month, Talk Android’s Justin Herrick reported on app developer Jack Thackar’s complete remake of his original SF Launcher, which you can view here. The new launcher, SF Launcher 2, features an amazing imitation of the Google Now app, but instead of notifications, you can customize your home-screen with apps and widgets inside of the notification cards.
This custom launcher doesn’t just stop there, though. Fully implementing Google’s new Material Design elements, colors and actions are present to satisfy your thirst for all things Lollipop.
Thanks to Justin’s tip on the new launcher, I decided to give it a test drive for a couple of weeks. Here are my thoughts on Thackar’s work.
The first thing you notice is that this launcher handles almost exactly like Google Now. Your home-screen is now a single-column of card customization, allowing you to vertically scroll through all the notification cards you create. (I frequently will say notification cards, but they’re not dismissible notification cards like you see in Google Now, however their style and behavior in this launcher is identical to those you see in that app. From here on out, I will just say cards.)
Creating cards that contain app icons is as simple as dragging and dropping apps from the app side panel onto the background of home-screen.
You heard right, so far as I know, there is no app drawer with this launcher. Your apps appear in a pop-out side drawer on the left side of the screen. You can access this panel by clicking the “hamburger” symbol in the top left of the screen or by clicking the Back button while at the home-screen. While you’re clicking the hamburger, notice the smooth Lollipop animation that accompanies it!
The apps in the panel remind me of Aviate Launcher’s app drawer. They can be sorted alphabetically (an option in SF Launcher 2’s settings), which creates an alphanumeric vertical bar on the side allowing you to quickly jump to the app you’re looking for.
To add a widget to the home-screen, click the three vertical-dots in the top right of the screen and select “Add Widget”. This will create a pop-up of all your widgets available to be added.
Unlike with the app icons, which you can manually place anywhere creating a card, the widget card automatically gets dropped to the bottom and it will be in a minimal size. To adjust its size and re-position it, swipe the card from the right edge of the screen. This will give you your options to scale the widget plus move it above or below its fellow cards on your home-screen.
This swipe-from-right ability works on all cards. You’ll notice that one of these options allows you to customize the appearance of the background of the card. The Card Background color features all of Google’s specific Material Design colors in an easy to use color palette interface.
Thackar didn’t stop there in customization. The banner at the top is also modifiable with all of the locations Google has created for Google Now available for your selection. He even has the banner set to change versions based on the time of the day, just like what you would see in Google Now.
Are you wondering if all of those icon packs you’ve purchased over the years are compatible with SF Launcher 2? They are!
The icons in both the cards and in your app panel will change according to the pack you select. As far as I know, though, this is a launcher-wide change and does not allow you to alter app icons on an individual level, unlike with other launchers like Nova.
There are many other nice additions inside of SF Launcher 2. I put together a YouTube video walking you through the app, which you can view below.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The launcher comes in two varieties: a free version and a paid version. Giving some love to owners of the paid version of SF Launcher, Thackar has made it to where if you purchased the premium version of the predecessor app, you own the premium version of SF Launcher 2. Alternatively, if you want to see what SF Launcher is all about, your premium key for SF Launcher 2 also unlocks all the features in that app. The combined key costs $3.99 USD.
Overall, I love this launcher. I had been oscillating between Nova Launcher and Flow Home (Beta) Launcher, but I was getting a little tired of being bogged down by social media cards. I like Flow Home and don’t get me wrong, Flow Home is a fantastic launcher even in beta form. I even wrote a favorable review on it here. What I especially like is its Google-Now-meets-Windows-Metro design; however, I just found myself really wanting to know what was on my calendar vs what “my good friend” Wil Wheaton is up to. This launcher solves that issue, brings wonderful style to my home-screen, and let’s me customize it a great deal. Besides, I have my Twitter app for Wil Wheaton news.
Google Play Download Link
Come comment on this article: SF Launcher 2 review: the launcher that brings Google Now style straight to your home-screen
Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more!
