Credit: Mitja Rutnik / Android Authority
- 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.