Customization is the heart and soul of Android that distinguishes it from other mobile alternatives. Not only can you personalize through apps, but through new ROMs, new skins, and new launchers that extend functionality beyond the typical. Home screen customization is one of the best ways to make your Android feel like your Android, and finding a beautiful home screen setup has never been easier with Buzz Launcher [No Longer Available].

I've explored lots of powerful Android launchers in the past but Buzz Launcher is the first one to truly blow me away with its delicate balance of flexibility and ease of use, and it does this without adhering to the usual conventions you find in other launchers. Buzz Launcher is a whole new way of looking at home screen personalization, and it adds a social twist in the fact that you can share your setup for others to download - which means, of course, that you can download their setups as well.

As far as I know, there's never been a launcher like Buzz Launcher. It's new, it's sleek, and it's revolutionary in all the right ways. How, you ask? Keep reading to find out.

First Impressions

android-buzz-launcher-first

When I ran Buzz Launcher for the first time, I immediately got the feeling that this is a user-friendly app. The very first screen that showed up was an introduction to Buzz Launcher, letting me know what it's all about and how I would benefit from using said launcher: by being able to, within minutes, switch my home screen to a style that fits my needs.

Honestly, I'm blown away by how quickly I can alter my home screen layouts, and these aren't just simple changes like rearranging icons. Buzz Launcher uses the term "Homescreen" as a unit that you can download and apply to your phone, where each Homescreen is a unique mixture of colors, layouts, and icons to provide a brand new experience.

How many Homescreens are there? Over 60,000 and counting. This is because users can create their own Homescreens and share them on the database, and that means everyone gets to benefit from a massive collection of new home screen packages. Browsing, downloading, and applying different Homescreens never requires more than a few screen taps. That's Buzz Launcher in a nutshell: easy to use with lots of room for customization.

Core Features

android-buzz-launcher-basic

So, great. Buzz Launcher has thousands of wonderful Homescreens for you to play around with, but does it offer the core launcher features that you've come to expect from the latest and greatest Android launchers? Yes, I believe it does.

  • Multiple screens. Like most launchers, Buzz gives you the freedom to organize multiple screens. What may surprise you, though, is that Buzz also allows you have a custom grid on each of those screens, where each grid can be sized up to 12x12 cells. If you want a packed home screen and a spacious side screen, you can do it with Buzz.
  • Easy screen edits. As if the 60,000+ available Homescreens didn't already offer enough variety, you can take any of those and make personal edits to them yourself. Do you like a particular Homescreen but prefer to replace one of the widgets with a row of icons? You can do that, no problem.
  • Screen edit variety. Not only is screen editing easy, but you can edit many different elements, including the wallpaper, the margin sizes, the transition effects, and the appearance of things like the status bar, the dock bar, the page indicator, and more.
  • Folder organization. For those of you with busy home screens, Buzz supports folder-based organization so you can minimize a lot of that clutter. Folders can also be used to organize your app drawer, which is extremely nice when you have a ton of apps installed.
  • Gestures support. Buzz Launcher supports 8 different gestures (home key tap, swipe up, swipe down, double tap, menu long press, two finger swipe up, two finger swipe down, and two finger swipe) and these gestures can be mapped to dozens of actions or they can be used as app shortcuts.

Advanced Features

android-buzz-launcher-advanced

Buzz Launcher has a few advanced features that won't be super useful to everyone, but it's nice to know that they exist and will be available in case you ever need them.

  • Easy app management. In addition to the regular app drawer that lists all of your available apps, Buzz Launcher provides you with a "Most Frequently Used" list as well as a "Recently Installed" list. Plus, you can hide certain apps from your app drawer. All of this makes app management a simple task.
  • Follow the Buzz. When browsing the available Homescreens, you can set yourself to follow a specific Homescreen or a specific designer, thus allowing you to keep up with updates and news.
  • Buzz custom widgets. Just as Buzz Launcher is all about users creating and sharing their Homescreens with one another, Buzz Custom Widget is a related app that allows for even more customization. With it, you can create your own Buzz widgets that you can share with others OR you can download the ones that others have made.

Conclusion

I have found my new preferred Android launcher. Buzz Launcher doesn't offer the same kind of raw power that you might find in Nova Launcher Prime or the level of innovation found in Chameleon Launcher, but it does set out to do one thing - easy to use with lots of flexibility - and it does it incredibly well. I haven't been this excited about an Android launcher in a while.

Have you used Buzz Launcher? What do you think of it? Give it a try if you haven't and let us know your thoughts in the comments!