The answers here are too long: A launcher is your homescreen, i.e. the main page on your phone, and the first thing you see after booting your device and unlocking it.

It can be swapped out with a different one if you don’t like the one that came with your phone.

I bought the Nova launcher nearly 10 years ago. I love the customization that it offers. They used to be the most recommended launcher but I’m not sure if they’re still a great company.

The other comments explained what a launcher is so I won’t go into that.

Instead, I’m here to plug one of my favorite launchers, AIO Launcher, which is a very different kind of launcher compared to the others.

Here’s what it looks like, on my Galaxy Fold 4:

AIO stands for all-in-one, and as you can see from the screenshot above, it has a lot of things, which is handy because I don’t need to open a bunch of different apps to get my news, weather, emails, calendar events, notifications etc - all of it is on my home screen, which makes it very convenient and saves me a lot of time.

I use the Niagara launcher. Makes using my phone a lot easier. Finding installed apps is lots easier on it as well. The ones you don’t have favorited anyways.

Others have given a good description of what a launcher is.

But my reason for why I use a custom launcher is simple : I want a consistent UI experience, regardless of whether my current (or future) android phone is a Google, Samsung, OnePlus, ect.

For me a phone is tool, nothing more. I don’t have the time or interest to “explore” the difference in UI’s. In fact, Samsung’s Launcher (Bixby?) inferriates me the most as the default “back” and “apps” Buttons are inverted compared to many other launchers… so it messes with my muscle memory.

With a custom launcher (I use Nova), I can restore/import my settings on any device (or custom version of android like lineage) and I’ve got the same familiar interface. Actually, Nova is quiet nice as it’ll also show you greyed-out Icons for all the apps you has on your home screen. As the apps are installed, you can start to use them. This (for me) makes moving to a new phone much easier.

I use a launcher because I despise the Google search bar at the bottom of my screen, and my Nokia 5.4 had no way of easily removing it.

I’m currently using Olauncher. Never cared for widgets.

A launcher (I think it comes from app launcher) is usually the overview part where you have the apps and widgets and the wallpaper. Installing another launcher will let you change how it looks. The difference between most is how you can customize them. The default launcher only has basic customization, which can be more than enough for most people. Customization options can include icon size, icon shape, icon notification badge, app drawer, dock, icon themes, folders, gestures, and others.

This is just the traditional understanding, which a launcher doesn’t have to follow to be a launcher.

A clear benefit to using a different launcher is being able to change the experience you have.

I recommend you just search for launcher in the play store (or on f-droid if you’re feeling funky), and just give some a shot, just to get an idea of the differences.

The launcher I use and recommend is Nova Launcher.

Widgets don’t have much to do with a launcher because they’re supplied by the apps. I don’t use them much, but a calendar, weather, and search bar are the ones I have, all pretty useful.

Pear launcher

Launchers are the basic home screen/app drawer for your android device. Some people like the extensibility of something like the Nexus launcher, but for me the stock Pixel launcher is best.

For widgets, I don’t have much - mostly just a large radar widget from the MyRadar app.