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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Octopi Launcher is one of the coolest on the market.
• This launcher takes over where Nova left off.
• There’s both a free and a pro version.

Last year, Nova Launcher, one of the most popular third-party Android launchers, shut down when Kevin Barry left the company that owned the app. Soon after, Nova was resurrected by Sweden-based Instabridge, which decided to integrate third-party tracking software into Nova Launcher to collect and monetize user data. What was once a trusted and beloved home screen launcher became a data mining scheme.

It was a sad day for Nova Launcher fans, who knew it was the best launcher on the market. It was sleek, efficient, and highly flexible. It was one of the first Android apps I ever paid for and would have continued paying for it, had the new company not pulled it into the quicksand of doom.

Fast forward to now, and there are tons of Android launchers to choose from. One of those options easily slides into the space Nova Launcher occupied. That launcher is Octopi Launcher, and it’s every bit as cool as Nova Launcher was.

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If you have a foldable phone, Octopi Launcher will be of particular interest because it seamlessly switches layouts between single- and double-display modes. You can also set different layouts for different screens, so if your foldable also includes a smaller back-of-phone display, you can customize that as well.

Since I don’t have a foldable phone, I wasn’t able to test this feature. I did, however, test Octopi Launcher on a tablet and found it to be just as awesome on the larger screen.

Octopi also has different actions for different gestures, such as:

• Swipe up with one finger to access the App Drawer.
• Swipe down with one finger to access the Notification Shade.
• Swipe down with two fingers to search.
• Double-tap to turn off the screen.
• Long-press to access Octopi Launcher settings.

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The Octopi Launcher layout reminds me of a traditional desktop layout, with a dock, launchers, and a button to access the App drawer. This layout looks really good on a tablet.

By default, the layout uses app launcher icons that are a bit large for a phone display, but you can adjust them in settings.

You can also add launchers to folders, add pages and widgets, enable/disable auto-rotate, add shortcuts, edit pages, change the wallpaper, lock the home page, and access Octopi Settings by long-pressing the home screen.

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Within the launcher settings, you can change options for the home screen, the Drawer, the Theme, and general settings. Within the Drawer tab, you can even change the App Drawer scrolling to horizontal (a feature I really like). You can also drag your finger along the alphabetized listing (either on the right side for vertical scrolling or the bottom for horizontal scrolling) to more easily find the app you want.

There are plenty of customizations found in Octopi Launcher — so many that you could spend a lot of time making your Android home screen look exactly how you want. I found the animations in Octopi Launcher were smooth and well done.

You can also customize the panel to add more rows, change the opacity, give it more rounded corners, and more. You can also change the icon size, which is great because it keeps the panel even smaller. (I enjoy a clean look on my phone’s home screen.)

In other words, Octopi Launcher has a lot to offer.

It only took me about five minutes of playing around with Octopi Launcher before I’d made it my default home screen launcher. I’ve been a fan of the Pixel Launcher for a long time, but Octopi just offers more features that speak to me and let me customize the home screen of my Pixel 9 Pro to my exact liking.

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Anyone who wants to get really granular with their Android home screen customization will truly enjoy Octopi Launcher. You can install it for free from the Google Play Store.

If you want even more customizations, you can pay for the Pro version, which allows you to scroll widgets in a loop, change the page transition effects, apply tint to frosted windows, add drop shadows to App Drawer icons, get even more gestures, add nested App Drawer folders, quickly position or resize widgets, and support the developer. The Pro version is a donation of either $1.99 or $2.99. 

Trust me, the Pro version is worth the $2.99. I didn’t hesitate to make the purchase, and I found the added features to be some rather tasty icing on an already delicious cake.

Just get Octopi Launcher; it’s cool, it’s refreshing, and it will stick to you like, well, an octopus.