The First Android Launcher With Support For Material You Is Here: Lawnchair 12
It’s been a while since Material You made its debut in Android 12. This feature is undoubtedly one of the best things that Android has happened since Android 5.0, but one of my primary complaints is that the updated Pixel launcher (Launcher3) is still not feature-rich. Lawnchair 11 is my primary launcher on Android 11, and I was eagerly waiting for the next version to support Android 12, and it’s finally here.
Lawnchair 12: What’s New?
This Lawnchair build is based on Android 12’s Launcher3 and is, I believe, the non-Google app with support for dynamic colors using Material You.
The above Tweet is from after the release of Alpha 1. The Lawnchair team has also released Alpha 2, which comes with the following changes and features:
- Fixed Lawnchair crashes when tapping on the Home Screen widget.
- New feature to hide the App Drawer search bar .
- Fixed icons from disappearing from the dock after restarting Lawnchair.
- Fixed UI overlapping issues in short customization sheet.
- Fixed status bar icons’ color inaccuracy issues in the app drawer.
We tried out Lawnchair 12 Alpha 2, and it felt pretty snappy and good. Support for dynamic theming makes it better looks-wise compared to Lawnchair 11. Everything from the widgets, dynamic colors in the app drawer, and switching between dark and light modes works well.
However, there is a slight UI inconsistency where the “Work” button in the app drawer, which is used to switch to display work apps, appears washed out.
To install Lawnchair 12 Alpha 2, head over to this link and download the .apk file. Once the download’s done, tap on the apk and install it using the package installer.
Next, open Settings > Search for “Default home app” > Tap on the first search result > Select Lawnchair 12 as your default launcher.
If you don’t like Lawnchair, you can always go back to your previous launcher by following the same steps as above but setting your previous launcher as default. Or you might also want to check out our list of the best Android launchers.
If you have any questions or recommendations, you can ask them in the official Lawnchair Telegram group.
What are your thoughts about Lawnchair? Let us know in the comments section below.
