1y ago

Does Android 13 non-root support gestures for custom launchers?

I'm considering flashing A13 on my phone, PixelOS in particular, but I want to make sure custom launchers (Lawnchair) are able to fully use gestures, including animations without flashing Magisk and installing the Quickswitch module.

15 comments

Keep in mind that Lawnchair is buggy and consistently 2 years behind the latest version of Android. I'm using their 12.1 beta, and it still crashes with null pointer exceptions about twice a week. And, on Android 13 and 14, integration you would expect between the recents screen and Lawnchair does not work. These are the gestures you're talking about.
And here we are on the launch of Android 14, with no development of Lawnchair for Android 13 in sight.
I should also point out, these gestures you're mentioning only work on the stock Pixel launcher, the AOSP launcher, and Lawnchair. This is because starting with Android 9, Google baked the recents switcher directly into the launcher app. And, it has to be a system-level app with a special system config that allows the launcher to perform this function.
This is why root is needed for the Quickswitch module. Lawnchair has the code to do this (at least on Android 12), but you have to overwrite a system config to allow Lawnchair's package name to be capable of serving the recents screen.
- Nova Launcher fully supports gestures, including animations, on android 13, since a recent update. That's why I'm asking about Lawnchair, which is the best open source alternative available
- Version 2.0 is stable. It's ancient but I prefer having a better customizable home screen rather than nicer animations. I actually hate that with pixel launcher you need to do a full screen swipe to access the recents screen instead of a shorter one like a regular app. I never want to open the app drawer with a swipe, so for me the bug becomes a feature

I just tried on two pixel 3 on A13 side by side and the only difference I can see between using pixel launcher (system) and lawnchair is:
When you go back home, pixel launcher adds an unnecessary animation that goes to where the app icon is saved on the home screen.
On the system Launcher a short swipe opens the app drawer and to open the recent apps you need a very long swipe
Both are winning points for the custom launcher.
- what version of Lawnchair did you try?
  
  The one on the play store because the newer one on fdroid is missing too many features for me.
  You need to download it first on an older version of Android otherwise Google hides it because "target android version is too old".
- shit, too bad, seems they didn't fix this since A10. thanks anyway

As far as I can tell Lawnchair game been updated in a while. So it's literally 50/50. And no idea if it's still being developed at all.

Has Google not fixed this yet? I'm in A10 and use Niagara launcher as my default with Navigation Buttons.
- I'm talking about gestures, not navigation buttons.
  
  I know. I'm asking about the same thing. The bug when opening the recent apps when using gestures with custom launchers.

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