Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Here's why third-party launchers work poorly on One UI
Published onFebruary 19, 2025
- Third-party launchers sometimes aren’t as smooth as the default launcher, especially regarding animations.
- The lead developer of the popular Niagara launcher explains that Samsung and Google don’t support third-party access to some functions related to animations.
- Of course, Samsung wants you to use its launcher and has no incentive to make other launchers work better.
If you’ve ever tried out a third-party launcher on a Samsung phone, you may have noticed that some things don’t work as expected. Certain animations, for example, aren’t as smooth — or sometimes not there at all.
Over on the r/Samsung subreddit, user “Amazing_Emergency_69” was curious about this. Specifically, they wondered why the One UI app launch/close animations don’t work on third-party launchers. They contacted Max Rumpf, the lead developer of the popular Niagara launcher. Rumpf’s explanation is not super surprising, but is still enlightening.
Rumpf explains that Android controls the animations related to an app opening, which means Google is the only one that can change it. When an app opens, it needs to draw part of the system UI, and Google limits this functionality to the system launcher. Google could fix this — it could open up access to non-system launchers or provide a workaround to enable developers to overlay their animations — but it hasn’t demonstrated any desire to do so.
As for app closing animations, Android does have an API for this. Essentially, the launcher calls on GestureNavContract and morphs the app into an icon, which then lands in its spot on your home screen. Rumpf says that Niagara calls on this API for this very function. Within One UI, though, Samsung doesn’t support this API for third-party launchers. This means Samsung is deliberately choosing not to allow third-party launchers to access the app closing animation, which is unfortunate.
Obviously, Samsung has zero incentive to make it better for users to stop using the One UI launcher and jump ship to something else, so this isn’t terribly surprising. However, it does give some fascinating insight into why all the third-party launcher animations you see are never quite as polished as the ones you’ll see with the default launcher.
It is possible — though unlikely — that enough negative feedback about these limitations could cause Google and Samsung to rectify the problems. If you feel passionate about this, hitting up social media and sending emails to Google and Samsung are your only real avenues.