These features would make me fall in love with Pixel Launcher

I love the versatility and ingenuity of third-party Android launchers. I often ditch the default home screen on new phones as soon as possible, but in the case of Pixel Launcher commanding my Pixel 8, I’m growing rather fond of Google’s default home app. It’s swift, smooth, and easy to set up, even if it is often highly restrictive. I’ve learned to work within the confines of Google’s launcher limitations, but I admit that it could be made even better with just a few nips and tucks.

Pixel Launcher’s feature kit is lacking compared to the high level set by third-party and other OEM launchers. More importantly, many of these gaps are simple, quality-of-life improvements that Google could quickly implement at the snap of a finger. To give the company a jolt in the right direction, I’ve detailed some core additions that would make Pixel Launcher my absolute favorite home experience.

The At a Glance widget received lots of love from Google over the years, but it’s still nowhere near as powerful as it could be. It’s designed as a live information ticker of sorts, displaying useful information when relevant, like boarding pass details at flight time or weather insights in the morning. However, after I installed Smartspacer, I quickly realized that Google issn’t making the most of the prime cut of my home screen.

Smartspacer allows a plethora of third-party apps and other Google services to display information through this widget. It offers smarter weather forecast details, package tracking, Digital Wellbeing information, soccer scores, financial tickers, and even a cute greeting overlay that makes my phone feel more personal. Smartspacer isn’t an immediate win, though. It requires some setup via ADB and Shizuku, putting it out of reach for inexperienced users — all the more reason why Google should concentrate on improving the default At a Glance offering.

Perhaps I’d be willing to let At a Glance’s shortcomings go if Google would let me hide it. Like Google’s other Pixel Launcher furniture, it cannot be disabled entirely. Instead, disabling the feature still leaves me with a chunk of unusable space that another widget could occupy. The same goes for the search bar at the bottom of the screen. As I can easily launch a search by swiping up, so I don’t necessarily require a dedicated search bar.

It’s clear that Google wants to funnel me through its products and services, but forcing me to acknowledge its constant presence only makes me want a flexible third-party launcher even more. So, Google, please let us hide your silly UI elements on Pixel Launcher.

I use dozens of apps to get me through the day, and it’s important that I can view as many of those within a single screen as possible. On third-party launchers, I can extend the apps list grid to my liking to keep swipes and touches to a minimum. However, Pixel Launcher has other ideas. Google arbitrarily limits me to just five options, three of which are practically unusable on today’s large-screen Android phones. Even the most extensive option, a paltry 5×5 grid, isn’t nearly enough for my liking.

Needless to say, Pixel Launcher would benefit from more fixed and user-defined options, perhaps extending as far as Nova Launcher’s free-select 12×12 grid. This flexibility would be hugely welcome, especially for phones with larger displays like the Pixel 9 Pro XL and 9 Pro Fold.

Most third-party launchers let me easily hide apps from the master apps list, preventing them from occupying valuable space. Some apps include separate premium unlock apps that are installed as additional apps. Apps like Tasker also include an unnecessary secondary icon. However, hiding these from view isn’t an option on Pixel Launcher. If there’s an app I’d rather keep from my apps list, I must either grin and bear it or use a sledgehammer solution like Private Space.

I don’t believe Private Space is equivalent to simply hiding an app. The Android 15 privacy feature is a separate virtual smartphone with its own Google account and credentials. I want a far simpler option to hide app icons from the master apps list.

Going a step further, Pixel Launcher needs an option to rename apps. If you’ve ever installed multiple gallery or weather apps, you would understand this gripe. Picking one of five apps, all named “Weather” or “Gallery,” is a game of whack-a-mole I don’t want to play at every unlock. Renaming apps is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. I’ve also detailed how I use this feature on Kvaesitso to enhance my personal app security on my device, and it would be a useful addition to Pixel devices.

Custom icon packs offer more than exciting flourishes of style or color; they’re essential for casting a consistent visual identity across all apps. As Android doesn’t have icon guidelines that dictate the aesthetic elements of an app, these slight differences between them can often be distracting.

While Google tries to fix this with its Themed icons feature, its implementation remains buggy and unreliable. It often disregards common app icons, leaving me with a confused app list of default and themed squircles. With third-party icon pack support, Pixel Launcher would allow me to more consistently mask icons on my device.

Widget stacks are incredibly useful, especially for users like me who tend to plaster their home screens with all sorts of info boxes. Placing multiple widgets on top of one another not only reduces their overall space requirements but also lets me hide essential widgets that don’t match my device theme aesthetic. Hosting all essential widgets in the same piece of screen also makes it easy to flick through all of them with a swipe.

Several launchers, including Samsung’s One UI Home and Niagara Launcher, offer widget stacking support to great effect. Pixel Launcher does not.

I’ve enjoyed using Pixel Launcher since I received my Pixel 8; however, it has the potential to be so much better. With these minor changes, Google could transform the launcher into a powerful launchpad for Pixel users and quell my desire to use a third-party alternative once and for all.