Android home screen launcher that uses a dynamic pie menu instead of tables of icons.
Once you get used to it, you can launch your most frequently used apps using muscle memory without even looking at the screen.
Apps you don't use regularly are quickly available with just one tap and by typing the first one or two letters of the app name.
Tap and hold to open the pie menu. Then swipe to choose an app to start.
Tap once to open the list. Then type the name of an app you want to start. Usually one or two letters are enough, even if you mistyped a letter. If the app in the top left is the one you want, you can hit the Search key on your keyboard to start it.
Swipe down to close the app list.
Long press an app in the listing of apps to enter the editor for the pie menu. Use 4, 6 or 8 icons in the pie menu to make the most out of it.
This is an Android bug that Google needs to fix. All 3rd party launchers suffer from this bug. See:
- Homescreen interaction delay with gesture navigation?
- What is up with home gesture animations with 3rd party launchers.
- Nova Launcher Tweet
A possible workaround is to use the back gesture instead of the home gesture wherever possible (this may not be desirable in a browser app, as it also closes the open tab).
The back gesture works immediately and without any delay.
This is an issue of your keyboard app that may do too much work. Unfortunately, GBoard is not the best choice on all devices.
I recommend using a lighter alternative like OpenBoard which is fast even on low end devices.
Please set Pie Launcher as your default home screen launcher.
You can either do this manually from your phones Settings → Apps → Default apps. Or from the settings within Pie Launcher (enter the editor and tap on the settings icon) where there should be an item "Make default launcher".