abandoned Android – From Nokia’s Z Launcher—built around scribble-to-search—to Evie, Aviate, Apex, and ADW Launcher 2, the Android home-screen scene has lost several products that tried genuinely different ideas. Here’s what they did, why they faded, and which details still make
The Android launcher space feels healthier than it has in years. with contenders like Nova Launcher no longer treated as the top prize and a wide range of apps now targeting very specific needs. But whenever the modern options start to blur together. my mind drifts backward—toward the home screen experiences that felt like they were doing something new. not just tweaking the same grid.
It’s a small kind of grief, really. Not a tragedy, not exactly. More like the quiet frustration of realizing certain ideas are gone—features that were clever, fast, or oddly human—and that today’s launchers never quite picked them up in the same shape.
Z Launcher
Z Launcher arrived with a piece of Nokia software history attached to it. Even after Nokia lost momentum in the mobile phone race by the mid-2010s, the company kept innovating on the software front. The payoff was the Android-powered N1 tablet, the first product to feature Z Launcher.
One of its biggest selling points was how it ordered icons on the home screen. Instead of sticking to the static icon arrangement common to stock Android home screens, it privileged icons that users selected most often—making the layout feel less like a template and more like it was learning.
Then there was the search trick: scribble search. If you couldn’t find the app you wanted, you could trace a letter on the home screen with your finger. Z Launcher would start a fuzzy search using that letter, pulling up contacts, apps, and other shortcuts containing it.
The clever part was what it removed from the workflow. Users didn’t have to tap a search bar or icon, wait for the keyboard, and then type a query. It was using wasted home-screen space for something genuinely useful.
But almost immediately after it arrived, Microsoft-owned Nokia pulled the launcher from shelves, leaving Z Launcher as one of those big what-ifs in the company’s software catalog.
Years later, the idea hasn’t entirely disappeared. Third-party ReZ Launcher is described as a spiritual successor, adopting the scribble search trick.
Evie Launcher
Evie Launcher sits in a different lane. When Nova Launcher pushed hard on feature depth, Evie tried to live in the middle—offering an experience that was simpler, yet still sleek.
Evie didn’t reinvent home screen layout the way Z Launcher did. Its UI was relatively mundane on the surface, but the underlying experience felt swift. The pitch was that it was great “out of the box.” If you wanted to customize it. you could make use of its expansive grid layout or its news feed. If you didn’t, it still worked without needing much tweaking.
What happened next is less clear. Evie Launcher was removed from the Play Store in the early 2020s. It’s hard to point to a single defining reason it “bit the dust,” and the story is described as murkier than Z Launcher’s. Still, the absence hasn’t been filled by any modern launcher.
Aviate Launcher
2014 was a big year for Android launchers, and Aviate Launcher seemed to catch attention quickly. Its core idea was a contextual home screen interface—something that adjusted what it showed based on factors including a user’s location and the time of day.
The description matters here: it was imagined as “Google Now” for your entire home screen, not just information cards. It didn’t just manage icons; it tried to manage your daily flow.
Aviate also organized apps by use case, a practical advantage for anyone drowning in apps. The same organizing principle has continued in launchers like Smart Launcher and AIO Launcher.
Support lasted for several years after Aviate was acquired by Yahoo in 2014. Eventually, though, it fell into disrepair, and the Google rival pulled the plug just four years later.
Apex Launcher
Apex Launcher has the look of something suspended between worlds—dead in one place, alive in another. It’s described as dead on the Play Store, alive via alternative sources, and reduced to a shell of its former self.
Functionally, it mirrored Evie in some ways. Apex offered a simple, straightforward home screen with an app drawer, a pinned bottom bar, and support for widgets. It was “snappy” and accommodating, the kind of launcher that doesn’t make you wait to get your work done.
Then version 4.0 arrived, and signs started to appear that the good days were ending. Posts on Reddit highlighted issues like shrunken icons and annoying ads baked into the app drawer—even for some premium users.
So a “Classic” version of the launcher was released. That version is now dead as well.
It can still be downloaded and enjoyed, but the golden hour has passed.
ADW Launcher 2
Including ADW Launcher 2 on a list of “abandoned” launchers feels slightly unfair—because it’s still available on the Play Store. It’s the only product on this list with that kind of continued storefront presence.
But the update trail tells another story. ADW Launcher 2 last saw an update in September 2018, and the expectation is that there won’t be a patch to bring it up to modern standards.
The launcher’s vibe is described as old-school. It looks best with Android’s three-button navigation beneath its pinned dock, and its prolific use of sharp corners evokes early Material Design. It also supports themes, making it easy to change the launcher’s look with a tap.
There are features that still feel ahead of their time in how they give users control. The template system lets users save home screen designs for later or share them with others. It also offers a custom widget editor.
ADW Launcher 2 is still “alive and twitching” on the Play Store, but newer devices can’t take advantage of it. The launcher doesn’t appear in Play Store searches even on seemingly compatible devices. The writer mentions reading reviews from people running Android 13 with the launcher installed. but they couldn’t test it even on an Android 10 P30 Pro.
The question hanging there is simple: maybe it’s time for an ADW Launcher 3 with modern device support.
Android launchers come and go. but these five are etched in memory because they each did something a little different in a competitive genre—whether it was icon ordering based on user picks. scribble-to-search on the home screen. a contextual interface that adjusted to time and location. or a launcher that stayed fast until ads and design issues pushed it out of its own momentum.
What abandoned Android launcher would readers want revived? The prompt is left hanging open, with an invitation to share it in the comments.
Android launchers Z Launcher scribble search Evie Launcher Aviate Launcher Apex Launcher ADW Launcher 2 mobile software home screen