Hiya, am thinking about removing the stock android launcher on my Pixel 7a, due to a bug causing one of the three navigation buttons to randomly not work, more about the bug here; https://lemmy.world/post/10555733. So was wondering if anyone had any experience regarding this? I know how to remove it, just want to know what the potential consequences would be. I thought of having 2 launchers available, should the main one I use not work (for whatever reason). Please let me know if you have done this before and how it went :)
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Having two launchers is a good point but it doesn’t have to be the stock launcher. You can install any random launcher for backup as long as it can show the app list.
Yes, I have done it multiple times but you will lose recents screen and gesture navigation. If you have root, you can get it back with lawnchair + quickswitch.
I don’t think adb would let you remove it, unless you have root. But you can try it out in Android Studio’s Emulator, it essentially provides you with with an Android VM on your PC. You can access it straight from adb, and it doesn’t matter if you break something, as you can simply create a new virtual device.
And if they have root it would be safer to just freeze it with Titanium to prevent the bug.
Is that what people use to freeze Apps nowadays? I’m curious, because the last time I used a rooted Android device was like 7 years ago.
If you have root than Titanium is still the best around for things like app backup and restore, and if you have Titanium you might as well freeze apps with it because it’s very easy.
But what Titanium calls freeze is actually a native function of Android (“disabling” an app), it just takes more steps. Normally it’s available in the app’s system info screen but preinstalled apps will bitch about it and may ask you to uninstall updates before allowing you to disable them. Some preinstalled apps won’t let you disable them at all and you have to resort to terminal commands. It’s just easier to use Titanium.
I think there’s other apps around that specialize in disabling stuff and may or may not require root. I don’t know, I’ve always used Titanium and never looked back.
I use Graphene OS, I’m assuming that doesn’t count?
You can use Titanium on anything if you can get root in a normal fashion (standard superuser) and if it has a decent BusyBox installed.
But you might also be able to freeze (disable) an app from terminal, the command IIRC is
pm disable-user+ parameters.You can’t and shouldn’t root GrapheneOS.
I know that you said you know how to do it, but Universal Android Debloater can restore any removed apps in one click, which might be useful if you decide to try it.
Yeah this is what I use, thanks anyway 🌻
Why though? I use lawnchair I think and there was a time when something went wrong and I think it crashed. Has never happened since though but it was nice to have a fallback.
Reason for why is in the addtional link. No matter which launcher i use, also lawnchair, i get this bug.
Yes I have! It was a terrible idea and I had to flash the ROM again. Good learning experience, not great for daily drivers. 5/7.
On modern Android, part of the launcher is also in control of the recents menu/app switcher. I found this out when my current ROM had a bugged out Pixel launcher that was easily replaced by Nova… except the recents and home gestures just didn’t work.
Yeah thanks for letting me know! Would have been a pain to go through that hah
Most likely you could have restored it by installing the launcher back with adb or worst case reset the device. That will bring back all apps as well. Unless you have a rooted phone and removed the apps that way.
