Oh, nice to see KISS showcased here :) I actually started the project 13 years ago... Seems like a lifetime ago! A big thank you to all the devs that contributed and still contribute over time :)

I also been using it for 5+ years, it's been really great! And Neamar, the creator, is a really nice guy who goes the extra mile to make sure it works great, doesn't need any permission that are not absolutely required and stays up-to-date with the last changes of the Android API.

I REALLY like Niagara launcher. I have an old OnePlus and it works really well, is aesthetically pleasing and has just the right amount of features.

[1] https://niagaralauncher.com/

KISS is probably my favorite "app" on Android. I don't need to remember where an icon is located, just a few taps (sometimes even just one) of its name in the search bar and it'll show up immediately. It's amazingly fast and does just what I need it to.

Thank you for posting it. It's the launcher I didn't know I need! My usage pattern is literally: use first desktop for often used apps and search for everything else. Samsung launcher search is quite shitty and slow and takes considerable amount of gestures to reach.

Installed and toyed with KISS for 30min and yes. It's perfect for me!

KISS looks nice and I'll give it a try. This reminds me a lot of Kvaesitso launcher also on F-Droid, although KISS looks a little more minimal. They seem to have a similar focus though. If KISS is a little too bare-bones, but you want something still fairly minimal, I found Kvaesitso to be a good balance.

The main purpose of these launchers for me is to avoid using my phone mindlessly. I won't just see an app and open it for no reason. I need to make a decision that I want to use an app on my phone.

I'm a bit confused on how this works, besides using the search each time I need to launch an app. Could I have more shortcuts in the home screen, or just what I pin as favourite apps?

And am I limited to only one space/desktop, normally if I swipe right, I get to the next desktop where I have other apps. So I can launch an app from the 3rd desktop with 2 swipes and a press. Now, swiping right I get the full list of apps where I'd need to search.

I couldn't find answers to this in the documentation

It's great. Been using it for years, also installed it for my mom, and she really prefers it because "things no longer move around by themselves".

You learn that usually you are really only using a handful of apps, you barely use the search box at all after two days.

What is Kiss Launcher doing with all of my data it can search?

https://kisslauncher.com/privacy

    > Your data is your data.
    > KISS does not, and will never, have access to Internet.

Refreshing. Sold!

> Keep it Simple and Stupid

I’ve never seen the KISS principle stated like this. I’ve see “Keep it simple stupid”, and people who try to make it less insulting with, “keep it stupid simple”.

However that “and” changes things a lot. “Keep it simple” and “keep it stupid”. Do we want to “keep it stupid”?

Semantics aside, I do like seeing minimal launchers. I’m not an Android user, but an happy to know projects like this exist.

The dev has an active hn account: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=neamar

When I was using Android a few years ago I was using a launcher where every app was a text only "word cloud" and the text got bigger with the frequency of app launches. I don't remember the name...is has also got a good search feature, you can exclude apps, change the colour of the text etc.

I highly recommend ulauncher, I can't find a web page for it but it's available from the accrescent app store for android. Rather than launching with a click, you map a selection gestures to your apps. Without a wall of brightly coloured icons on my home screen I've found myself behaving far more intentionally with my phone time. As a bonus, gestures are a far quicker means of telling the device what you want.

Thanks for sharing, going to give this a spin as the default Android Launcher can be laggy at times. Now if only we can get an open-source keyboard that has the same clean usability as Gboard [I've tried all the alts without success].

In that regard, I'd say Olancher is more kiss (kisser, kissiest?) with a text-only interface. I like it as much as my featureless openbox desktop. Used Atom for a decade or longer or so, keeping a copy of the apk safe because it was abandoned, but with the new phone I had to find something to replace it.

I miss Android Holo design, IMHO it was peak for simplicity and usability on Android.

Nice. I've been using Niagara for years and years, it's looks similar in terms of UX, but this one maybe runs better on older devices.

Thought I'd leave this here due to the Nova Launcher thread on the front page.

Second only to fdroid this is my first install on all new Android devices.

Related:

Nova Launcher added Facebook and Google Ads tracking

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46686655

I used it for some time as a secondary launcher and loved it

At a certain point though (more than a year ago) it stopped loading the list of apps instantly, I imagine because it stopped caching it; I never managed to take some time to figure out what caused it, but it's become much less useful for me, since.

I have been using this launcher for longer than I can remember, perhaps 10 years now. I don't really remember using anything else (hazy memories of the KitKat AOSP launcher).

The only thing that annoys me a little bit is if I typo an app name (or Google search query) it brings up a random distant fuzzy matched contact. I wish there was a way to set a threshold for the fuzzy matching thing for certain kinds of items. Probably trivial to implement but I haven't gotten around to it.

using it since 2022, it's the best.

tangential, but as a longtime iphone user, i think just about the only thing that could get me interested in android again is a revival of slidescreen (http://slidescreenhome.com). i really prefer a services-based home screen to an apps-based home screen.