My favorite home replacement app for Android used to be LauncherPro, mainly because it is fast and highly customizable. Even after trying out many other home replacement apps in the market (such as ADW Launcher, Zeamly, etc), I always find myself going back to LauncherPro, that is until I have found Go Launcher Ex.

Go Launcher Ex is functionally similar to LauncherPro, except that it comes with gesture support and custom theming.

There is an older version of this app – Go Launcher, which should not be confused with Go Launcher Ex. While they are created from the same developer, they are not compatible with each other. Go Launcher user who wish to migrate to Go Launcher Ex will have to first uninstall Go Launcher, then install Go Launcher Ex from the market.

Scrollable Dock with gesture support

The most noticeable difference of Go Launcher Ex is the scrollable dock. Like the homescreen, you can swipe left or right to display the next row of dock. It can display up to 3 docks. Each dock can accommodate 5 app shortcuts, so effectively you can place up to 15 apps in the dock.

The best part is, you can even assign gesture action to each dock space (touch the app and swipe up). For example, I have assigned the gesture for the app drawer to display preview. So whenever I touch the app drawer icon and swipe up, the homescreen preview window will appear.

With 15 gesture actions and 15 apps, you can configure up to 30 shortcuts just in the dock itself. I am sure this is sufficient to fulfill your daily needs.

Gesture support for Home Screen

Go Launcher Ex supports up to 7 home screen and supports up/down gesture actions as well.

Useful app drawer

To most people, the app drawer is only a place to find all your installed applications. Some comes with 3D effects, but nothing really special. Go Launcher Ex repackages the app drawer and includes two useful tabs: Recent and Running.

When you go into your app drawer, the first tab will show all your installed application. You can configure it to scroll horizontally or vertically. Now, when you tap on the Recent tab, you will see all the applications you have recently used. You can tap on the “Clear History” button to clear the list. On the Running tab is the list of applications that are currently running in the background. If your phone is running slowly, you can quick tap on the “Close All Programs” button to close everything all at once. This will save you from installing another task killer app from the market.

Note: We don’t encourage you to kill all your tasks unless they are really causing you problems. Regularly killing your background tasks will cause your battery to drain faster.

Custom theme

This is one part that LauncherPro is lacking – custom theme. Currently in the market, there are only few available themes, but that is because Go Launcher Ex is still new. I believe the number of themes will increase as the days go by. The theme library may not be impressive yet, but it is still better than not being able to change the theme.

Last, but not least, Go Launcher Ex also allows you to backup and restore your configuration. If you are using multiple Android phones (or you are always flashing new ROMs), you can easily backup your settings to the SD card.

Wrapping up

Fans of LauncherPro and ADW Launcher will be delighted with Go Launcher Ex since it is essentially the best of both World. Unless you are into the fancy widgets of LauncherPro, you won’t miss any bit with Go Launcher Ex. At a price of FREE, it is really the best you can ask for.

Download Go Launcher Ex

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

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