This Android Launcher Helped Me Cut My Phone Use in Half

Need to attempt to scale back the period of time you spend utilizing your Android cellphone? Olauncher is a minimalist, different house app that guarantees that can assist you do precisely that. I have been utilizing it for some time, and it actually does work.

What Is Olauncher?

Olauncher is a free, open-source launcher for Android that is designed that can assist you scale back your display time. In contrast to the most popular Android launchers, which are usually constructed for fans and are filled with options, Olauncher takes a really minimalist method.

It provides you only a single house web page with no app icons, no grid, and no widgets. It asks for no permissions—in truth, there are so few options that it will not even allow you to manually change your wallpaper.

All you get is a column of between zero and eight app names on your private home display, and two app shortcuts you may entry by swiping left and proper. Every part else is hidden away in your app drawer. You launch these both by typing the primary few letters of the app title or by scrolling by way of the record to seek out what you need.

The concept is that it makes your cellphone more durable—and, frankly, much less satisfying—to make use of, which helps you narrow down in your senseless scrolling. It places apps out of sight and removes a lot of the attention sweet that pulls you in.

How you can Set Up Olauncher

When establishing Olauncher, you need to experiment to seek out what works greatest for you.

I began with 5 apps on my house display, however shortly determined I needed an much more austere setup so I reduce it to 4 and eliminated the browser—my most used app. I additionally averted placing apparent time-wasters like social media apps there.

For the sideswipe gestures, I selected purely useful instruments that I want fast entry to, the cellphone app and my 2FA app.

You may push it even additional if you have to scale back the temptation to make use of sure apps. You may conceal an app from the app drawer itself by lengthy urgent on its title and deciding on “Disguise.” This provides a couple of extra steps to seek out and launch it.

There are a handful of different settings you may play with to tailor Olauncher to your utilization patterns. Merely lengthy press on the house display to seek out them. You may go for a really strict method or loosen it up if you happen to do not wish to make your cellphone too exhausting to make use of.

How Olauncher Helped Slash My Display screen Time

So, does it work? For me, sure. Earlier than I started, my screen time was as much as 4 hours a day. Not the worst by any means, however sufficient to make me conscious of how a lot time I used to be losing in sure apps.

As soon as I began utilizing Olauncher, my display time dropped to round an hour or much less. It had actually reduce it by greater than half.

There are a couple of the explanation why it really works. The primary one, clearly, is the “out of sight, out of thoughts” method that comes from solely having 4 apps on the house display.

No icons and widgets additionally makes the cellphone much less engaging. And having set my standing bar to be hidden, the notification icons have been much less seen.

On high of that, the only house display and lack of a grid removes the muscle reminiscence that may lead you to faucet and swipe with out pondering. Having all of your apps in a text-only record forces you to be extra conscious about discovering and opening them.

And it really works along side app time limits and Android’s Focus Mode.

Is It a Lengthy-Time period Alternative for Your Regular Launcher?

Olauncher works, and with only some downsides.

By design, it makes your cellphone much less handy to make use of, which is usually factor and generally is not. I discovered it particularly tough when strolling in a crowded place, the place the additional faucets wanted to seek out and launch apps grew to become a distraction.

I additionally really feel like I sometimes do miss vital notifications as a result of the icons on the standing bar are hidden.

And if I am sincere, I may need offloaded a few of my cellphone display time onto different gadgets. I’ve positively reduce out issues like Reddit and X, however simply because I am watching YouTube less on my cellphone, it doesn’t suggest I am not utilizing it in any respect.

Perhaps I’ll swap again to my Pixel’s default launcher sooner or later and be extra disciplined about setting it up—one house display, minimal apps. However Olauncher is slicing my pointless cellphone use, so I am sticking with it for the foreseeable future.

If you wish to reduce your display time, Olauncher is effectively value making an attempt. It is free and safe, and the minimal design means it ought to run effectively on any cellphone. Attempt it for every week or two, wean your self off sure apps, then you may revert again to your authentic launcher once more if you wish to. Or you may go even additional and use it to turn your smartphone into a minimalist dumbphone.