Murine Launcher for Android

★★★★★

OK, now this is what I wanted in an alternate Android launch screen. It’s a fork of the stock Android launcher that lets you do a few things the stock one doesn’t, like removing the clock on the home screen, or removing that always-on search bar – or setting it to a different search engine than Google.

It’s more capable than /e/OS’s default Bliss Launcher, and a lot more stable and snappier than Fossify Launcher. Customize the grid size, enable/disable notification dots, put widgets wherever you want, save and restore your layout… The only thing it’s missing is an option to pause notifications for a specific app.

And of course no ads or tracking. There’s a reason I went looking on F-Droid first.

I’ve installed it on both the Fairphone 4 and newly revived Pixel 5 to replace Fossify (after replacing Bliss), and I have no regrets whatsoever.

One stumbling block: finding it. Murine hides itself from the app menu, and it appears in the system app settings as Launcher:3. But you can always access its settings by long-pressing on an empty space on the home screen.