I was running a 3rd party launcher since 2019, on (up to) android 10, with zero issues. That's 5 years, every day.
Now, on android 14, all 3rd party launchers freeze.
I'm saying android 14, and not GOS, because there are similar reports by non-GOS users around. Since years. And there was a related upstream fix by the end of 2023.
If there was an API change, means all 3rd party launchers should be adapted. If that is the case, why such a breaking change by G without keeping compatibility?
Why has no 3rd party launchers dev adopted to such a breaking change?
I really don't get that, I think there's an unknown (or not handled) open issue, that shouldn't be there.
The launcher is the central point on a phone, like the steering wheel and shifter, and highly subject to everyone's own personal requirements. How come 3rd parties seem to be all broken on android 14?
My phone running android 14 has a broken "steering wheel" and Launcher3 isn't an option, last update since ages, zero settings, and a complete waste of space on big screens nowadays. The most private and secure phone in the world, but with either a broken, or a steering wheel from the stone age. D'oh.
I've zero experience with android dev so I totally depend on others knowledge and willingness on this matter.

11 days later

Since about 10 days, the lags/freezes in recents are gone, that's a big step forward on being able to properly use the phone. Thank you very much on this. Sadly, 3rd party launchers are still not working flawlessly, at least on my phone :-(
I'd guess in 30% of times leaving the recents screen tapping on the home screen (to actually get to see the home screen), I see a black screen only. Have to swipe up from bottom several times to get that "unstuck" and get to the home screen. D'oh

    I've tried them all and all had issues. IMO was never worth the privacy/functionality always came back to stock.

    spiral didnt mean to sound like a dick its a great launcher but hard to trust Branch Analytics and Google with that. Imo shouldn't he recommended anymore.

        TRInvictus
        I use nova free on P6a as well for over a year now with gestures and it works fine (Its worked the same regardless of android version), except one caveat.

        I too started experiencing navigation issues. The swipe for home screen pages sometimes would start to jump erratically and incorrectly, and things would get worse pretty quickly. The swipe up would stop working and eventually the phone interface would be mostly frozen and i wouldn't be able to reach the app drawer or click on any home page icons, app switching not working, couldn't reach settings to restart apps.

        At first i though phone had crashed, so I'd restart it and it got fixed. But eventually I realized the phone is still working and the notification swipe down is working fine. Then from the notification bar i found the settings icon and entered settings which worked just fine and decides to force stop "nova" app and restart it. Voila, the problem solved.

        It was only the nova app that was crashing not anything else. Restarting it fixed the issue temporarily.

        This issue doesn't happen too often. It either doesn't happen at all or when it happens it quickly escalates to a full freeze. This may happen for me once or twice a month.

        Interestingly enough in the first 5-6 months this never happened. And i don't think I've seen it since the android 14 update. But who knows it might come around.

        My nova free version is 7.0.58. From aurora.

        Try restart the launcher see what happens. It's not a cure, but it might be a good enough temp fix for you.

        I wouldn't switch back to the default launcher despite this hickup. I don't like the default icon colors and shape and size at all. Nova experience is faaaar better, esthetically.

            UndercoverBozo
            I have it internet blocked on a profile without google play. I dont see how it could spy, its quarantined.

            Though only reason i use nova and not Lawnchair is cuz i can get rid of the bottom bar entirely on nova. Which is what i want. Cant do that on Lawnchair.

            Otherwise i see no reason to use nova over Lawnchair. I think they are identical otherwise. In fact Lawnchair offers a few more features compared to nova free. Though nova is more stable.

              User2288

              Nova Privacy

              The services contained in this section enable the Owner to monitor and analyze web traffic and can be used to keep track of User behavior.

              Matomo (this Application)

              Matomo is an analytics software used by this Application to analyze data directly without the help of third parties.

              Bugsnag (Bugsnag Inc.)
              Bugsnag is a monitoring service provided by Bugsnag Inc.

              There is 0 reason to support this application, hopefully people will see that sooner than later.

                  TRInvictus

                  I posted this possible solution in a two other threads with similar third party launcher issues. It works for third party launchers using 3 button navigation and experiencing issues with the recent button, it's worth trying for your issue as well:

                  Go into Developer Options and try different "Animator duration scale" settings (try "off," try "0.5x," etc). If that doesn't fix your issue, try playing with other animation settings in Developer Options.

                      • [deleted]

                      • Post #17

                      UndercoverBozo I don't see how is enabling Developer options insecure (if you don't change things you don't have a clue about). But you can remove animations also by going to Settings > Accessibility > Colour and motion > Remove animations

                        Thank you all for your comments on this, very much appreciated!

                        I've given up using Lawnchair and Neo Launcher, as they're both having pretty nasty bugs (home screen layout is completely messed when changing settings, folder backgrounds and other UI elements not being rendered on screen, etc.). They're definitively out.

                        @User2288 what you describe is exactly the same issue I'm having too. To me the launcher/home screen has to work flawlessly, no lags and hickups tolerating at all, I'd have to force stop and restart it constantly, that's no option.

                        UndercoverBozo There is 0 reason to support this application, hopefully people will see that sooner than later.

                        That's my opinion on actual Nova too.

                        @graphie Thanks for the advice with the animation settings. I've animations generally off, so that didn't help. I'll try the animation duration scaling, would be great if it helps...!

                        UndercoverBozo This is not good advice and insecure.

                        Dev options can be set individually with adb, isn't it? So no need to enable dev options permanently...?

                              TRInvictus To me the launcher/home screen has to work flawlessly, no lags and hickups tolerating at all, I'd have to force stop and restart it constantly, that's no option.

                              I'd say before you move on at least give it a try. Like I said for me this is not constant, its a rare and occasional issue. Given that no good alternatives exist I'd say give it a try first. But if its too much trouble then go back to default launcher. The thing is we are living in a world of varying degrees of discomfort. Find out which option gives you less discomfort, and don't eliminate your options too soon. You don't have many.

                              Ultimately your call friend 😊. Just helpin.

                                  User2288 Any help, or comments, always very much appreciated my friend 😃

                                  Rate of discomfort is actually very high on any option, the home screen and recents is where everything starts and happens while using the phone from A to the Z, its not just a tool one randomly uses, its the phone actually.

                                    @ GOS
                                    Is there a way we can help nailing issues down with 3rd party launchers, if you plan on doing investigations? It seems to be a persistent issue to quite some users.

                                    2 months later

                                    Ok guys, I think I have found something. Logs of Launcher3, yes the stock launcher, not the 3rd party launcher, throws the following exception when I swipe up to the recents screen and getting a blank black screen instead. (I assume the stock launcher is still running in the background due to "quickstep" or something similar...?)

                                    `type: logcat
                                    osVersion: google/husky/husky:14/AP1A.240505.005/2024050700:user/release-keys
                                    packageName: com.android.launcher3:34
                                    buffers: main,system,crash,events,kernel
                                    level: error

                                    --------- beginning of main
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: RecentsView destination page is invalid
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: java.lang.IllegalStateException
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.AbsSwipeUpHandler.handleNormalGestureEnd(AbsSwipeUpHandler.java:1381)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.AbsSwipeUpHandler.lambda$onGestureEnded$14(AbsSwipeUpHandler.java:1108)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.AbsSwipeUpHandler.$r8$lambda$GUlUNPxlN5wUIt1E4ajyapS2w5Y(Unknown Source:0)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.AbsSwipeUpHandler$$ExternalSyntheticLambda58.run(D8$$SyntheticClass:0)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.launcher3.PagedView.onPageScrollsInitialized(PagedView.java:715)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.launcher3.PagedView.runOnPageScrollsInitialized(PagedView.java:709)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.AbsSwipeUpHandler.onGestureEnded(AbsSwipeUpHandler.java:1111)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.inputconsumers.OtherActivityInputConsumer.finishTouchTracking(OtherActivityInputConsumer.java:444)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.inputconsumers.OtherActivityInputConsumer.onMotionEvent(OtherActivityInputConsumer.java:376)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.inputconsumers.NavHandleLongPressInputConsumer.onMotionEvent(NavHandleLongPressInputConsumer.java:92)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.inputconsumers.OneHandedModeInputConsumer.onMotionEvent(OneHandedModeInputConsumer.java:138)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.TouchInteractionService.onInputEvent(TouchInteractionService.java:840)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.TouchInteractionService.$r8$lambda$JDK2db7a_ZtzI6D1EJ5hYukunXo(Unknown Source:0)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.quickstep.TouchInteractionService$$ExternalSyntheticLambda5.onInputEvent(D8$$SyntheticClass:0)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.systemui.shared.system.InputChannelCompat$InputEventReceiver$1.onInputEvent(InputChannelCompat.java:74)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at android.view.InputEventReceiver.dispatchInputEvent(InputEventReceiver.java:267)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at android.os.MessageQueue.nativePollOnce(Native Method)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at android.os.MessageQueue.next(MessageQueue.java:344)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:189)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:317)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:8532)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:552)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.internal.os.ExecInit.main(ExecInit.java:50)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.nativeFinishInit(Native Method)
                                    05-17 09:24:41.674 2490 2490 E AbsSwipeUpHandler: at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.main(RuntimeInit.java:359)
                                    `