Review: Nova Launcher Finally Has Competition Flick Launcher

Last week, we mentioned some unreleased apps on the Play Store that we think deserve to be seen. You must remember I was quite impressed with Flick Launcher back then. I have not used it thoroughly enough to get the review out. Thanks to some of the problems I'm facing with Action Launcher, I decided it would be a good time to give Flick Launcher a really good performance. And what do you know? the trailer is as good as the movie. You might be able to guess from the title that my initial opinion about Flick Launcher has not changed. But the honeymoon phase is definitely over.

Flick Launcher Review: Nova Launcher Finally Has Competition

Step Install Flick Launcher

The good one

As I said in the previous article I mentioned, Flick Launcher has so many features that it takes a while if I have to list and explain all the good things that can be done. So, I'll start by saying that you can do almost anything with Flick Launcher that you can do with Nova Launcher. Nova Launcher is probably the most popular Android launcher, so I'll assume most of you are aware of its many features. We will use it as a reference.

Therefore, we will try not to talk about all the things Launch Launcher Flick has done. But once you know, it supports app shortcuts, adaptive icons, icon packs, individual icon customizations, hide applications, search bar on the dock, gestures, and Google Now integration, among others. This lets you customize the search bar like Nova and you can even customize the app's shortcut menu view, as well as the folder icon frames!

App lock

Switch to the things that Flick Launcher has but Nova does not do, it has built-in app lockers. Launcher is how you launch the app so if an app is locked by the launcher itself, it will be difficult to launch the app. Difficult, but not impossible, especially if you have another launcher attached. Even if you do not, there are some solutions that will work. Obviously, the Launcher Flick app locking is not completely secure. But if your friends or family are not good at technology, they may never get over it. On the plus side, it's faster than any other app locker you might use, even if it's installed on your device system.

Fast Finder Integration

Review: Nova Launcher Finally Has Competition Flick Launcher

You may or may not have heard of it but it is basically a search application that can search your phone for installed applications. This is useful when the Google search widget is not looking for an app installed on the phone but now exists. Even so, some users prefer to use Fast Finder and Flick Launcher that support integration with applications. In the Nova Launcher or Action Launcher, there's a live search feature for apps that you can also give to gestures.

In Flick Launcher, I can not find anything similar so if you want to show app searches with swipes down (or other), you should install Fast Finder. There is a search function in the app drawer though.

PRO features

Unlike Nova, most of these features are free on Flick Launcher but have PRO versions that include more features you will not find in Nova. For $ 1.99 (₹ 140) you get the ability to lock the entire application folder with keywords or fingerprints. You can also change the Google keyword OK for a specific keyword to do a Google search with your voice. Unlocking the PRO version also lets you use remote sensor-based gestures.

Ugliness

I'm sure there's something I might miss even though I've been using Flick Launcher for much of 2018. Which brings me to my first complaint - it's not a mess but it's also not one of the best organized apps. What's called Desktop or Homescreen in another launcher is labeled only as Layout here. It took me a while to think about it and until then I was just tapping Layout when I could not find the setting anywhere else. To nitpick a bit more, UI does not feel as smooth and nice as UI on Nova Launcher or Action Launcher. It's closer to Microsoft Launcher in that department.

Furthermore, there are no folders in the app drawer and no tabs, no card style backgrounds or anything like that. Not that this feature is exactly a trend and a great Flick launcher is "Launcher inspired by the design of Google Pixel Launcher," to quote its Play Store page. So we might be able to compute a tabbed app drawer, card style drawer drawer and horizontal app drawer.

Ugly

None of that is a deal breaker though. For me, it's a Fast Finder integration that I'm not a fan of. I'm used to swipe to find apps because I have a ton of apps. I was surprised when setting up the actual Flick Launcher due to some apps I did not even know. Because I rarely open my app drawer and I do not like opening. It's much easier to just swipe down and press E or F to quickly find the app on the rare occasions that the app I need is hidden in a drawer.

In Nova and Action launchers when launching app searches by swiping down, I can uninstall the app, edit it, place it on the desktop or do anything else someone can do from the app drawer. This is not possible with Google search widgets or even Fast Finder. It was a big obstacle how I used my phone.

In addition, you also can not copy the swipe gestures as you can in Nova Launcher. I use this a lot to keep my home screen clean by hiding the folder behind the app.

Decision

Considering the good and the bad, obviously there are many things that happen to Flick Launcher. There is something I love about Flick Launcher which is a Blur setting. Under the Layout menu, you can enable blurry backgrounds for docks, app drawers, and folders. This is something I really want on Nova and / or Action Launcher.

So is it better than Nova Launcher? It is not clear yes because of several things. The temporary file app is not important definitely a plus for me and a small number of others as well. If it was not for the Flick Launcher dependency on third-party app integration for app search gestures, I would have switched. I would say it's an impressive feat for a launcher. For several years now, I have never had any favorable opinion from other launchers except Nova Launcher and Action Launcher. I often forget this is an app that is still in beta.