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Android started off as an advanced operating system for digital cameras. But over the course of almost two decades, it has evolved into something much more versatile. You can now find Android running on a variety of devices with different screen sizes, ranging from smartphones to household appliances. And for pretty much all devices that run Android, you’ll find an optimized launcher app. However, that’s not the case when it comes to smartwatches. Most parts of Wear OS aren’t open source, so non-Wear OS smartwatches that run Android often don’t have decent launchers. Thankfully, developer LineR aims to address that with L-Launcher.

L-Launcher is a free launcher app for non-Wear OS smartwatches that run Android. It’s been in development for well over two years, and its latest release (pre-alpha v0.0.3) offers a Wear OS 3-style tray-based navigation system. As you can see in the attached video, the launcher app offers a familiar interface with configurable tiles that you can add to the left or right of the main watch face.

The launcher supports a couple of useful tiles, including an app drawer, a weather tile, and notifications. You also get the option to move these tiles around as per your preference. In addition, the launcher offers support for a bunch of different watch faces. However, watch face selection is not enabled in the current release. L-Launcher works with both square and round smartwatches with an ARM/ARM64 chipset.

For more details about L-Launcher, check out the original support thread. The launcher’s developer also offers a bunch of different watch faces that you can find on the project’s GitHub page.

Thanks to Mishaal Rahman for the tip!

XDA » News Brief » L-Launcher is a free launcher app for non-Wear OS Android smartwatches

A Literature and Linguistics graduate with a keen interest in everything Android. When not writing about tech, Pranob spends most of his time either playing League of Legends or lurking on Reddit.

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