Hi everyone!
I’m happy to share my app, Octopi Launcher, which I’ve worked on for quite a while now.
Octopi Launcher is a launcher for Android, built with the latest trends in mind, which includes visual and haptic effects, and support for foldables.
Features:
- App drawer, dock and homescreen
- Different homescreen for different screen layout/ orientation/ size/ foldable position
- Widgets and (autoscrolling) widget stacks
- Blur for widget and dock background (experimental)
- Home screen and app drawer folders
- Fine/ free positioning of home screen apps and widgets
- Big home screen icons
- Swipe up/ down actions for icons
- Display drawer items as icons or tiles (or single list); sort by installed date or updated date
- App search + instant launch
- Assign a nickname to an app for instant app search and launch (e.g. searching “ff” launches Firefox instantly)
- Icon pack support
- Wallpaper blur when opening app drawer (on supported devices)
- Work profile support
- Fun animations, reflections and haptic effects
Screenshot album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8xiXqSABV7Rhad139
Firstly, join the Google Group to gain access: https://groups.google.com/g/octopi-launcher-alpha-testers
Then, use this link to download the closed beta: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.otp.octopilauncher
I’d love to hear your feedback below, and have a nice day!
Make it open source and don’t charge for a “premium” version when it’s fully released that will hamstring your capability if you don’t pay.
I plan to follow the model of Niagara and Nova launcher, but without recurring subscriptions and tracking. Closed beta testers will receive free codes to unlock the full version, so they get to enjoy all features they have now.
While I liked Niagara for what it tries to do, it’s price for a launcher was steep, and Nova IMHO is not a good company to emulate. May I ask why the need to join the Google group?
Quality often is, and it’s not terribly steep, in my opinion, if you consider that it’s the gateway into your phone and is used practically every time you unlock your phone. I personally opted for the lifetime subscription to not deal with any monthlys.
Because closed beta
It will be priced very competitively, as it’s a personal project and I do not need to pay anyone else ;) Nova’s model before it’s bought over was great. i still recall being part of those who paid $0.10 for it. The Google group is how Google currently handles closed beta sign-ups, not very intuitive, I agree.