Lawnchair FAQ

Welcome to the Lawnchair FAQ! This page provides answers to frequently asked questions about projects relating to Lawnchair, including Lawnicons.

Last updated: May 26, 2025

Getting started

What is Lawnchair?

Lawnchair is an Android launcher based on Launcher3 with the goal of replicating Pixel Launcher while providing many customizations to its features.

Where can I download Lawnchair?

There are several ways to download Lawnchair:

Official beta releases

These releases tend to be more stable and are recommended for the majority of users.

Nightly releases

These builds offer the latest features and bug fixes at a cost of potentially lower stability or new bugs. Recommended for testers and enthusiasts. Always back up your Lawnchair settings before installing a nightly build.

Lawnicons

Lawnicons is an icon pack that aims to recreate themed icons for many launchers.

What's the difference between the Play Store, Telegram/Discord, and GitHub releases?

What's the latest version of Lawnchair?

The latest official release is Lawnchair 14 Beta 3. We are also developing Lawnchair 15 in our nightly builds.

What happened to Lawnchair Legacy?

Lawnchair Legacy (previously known as Lawnchair v2) is an older stable release of Lawnchair that we no longer support. Due to limited resources, developers are focused on the latest versions of Lawnchair.

Is Lawnchair free? Is it open source?

Yes to both! You can view our repository on GitHub.

Common questions

How to use themed icons?

To use themed icons, download Lawnicons and enabled Themed Icons in Lawnchair (Home settings > General > Icon style > Themed icons). You can then enable it on either the home screen or app drawer.

How to use Smartspacer?

Smartspacer is an app that provides a widget similar to Google Pixel's At a Glance feature. It allows you to customize what is shown in there and add additional content.

To use Smartspacer on Lawnchair, go to Home settings > At a Glance > At a Glance provider, then select "Smartspacer".

How to enable the Google Feed?

First, turn on "Show feed" under Home settings > Home screen. The next steps depend on your downloaded version:

Google Feed still doesn't work!

If Google Feed still doesn't work, try the following steps:

If it still doesn't work after you tried the above steps, try waiting. The issue sometimes fixes itself over time.

How do I hide applications from my app drawer?

Long-press on the app you want to hide, tap on "Customize" or the pencil icon, then select "Hide from App Drawer"

What is QuickSwitch? (for rooted users only)

QuickSwitch is a Magisk module that enables third-party launchers (like Lawnchair) to access the Recents (QuickStep) APIs, therefore allowing support for Recents customization and more features. This allows for smoother animations and better integration with the system.

Currently, Lawnchair 14 Beta 3 supports QuickSwitch from Android 10 to Android 14 QPR 1.

The nightly builds support Android 10-15, but keep in mind that there will still be bugs regarding its implementation (which can cause crashes). Support for Android 15 QPR2 and newer OS preview/beta versions can vary and may not be immediately available.

Common issues

Restricted settings on Android 13+

Due to security reasons, Android 13+ disallows notifications access and accessibility services by default. To allow these functionality for Lawnchair, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that you have seen the "restricted settings" pop-up first, by either turning on notification access or the accessibility service.
  2. Go to Home settings > Three-dots at the top right > App info
  3. On the system settings screen, click the three dots at the top right, and tap "Allow restricted settings"
    • It is important that you seen the pop-up at least once for this menu to show up.
  4. Go back to the setting that you want to turn on. You should be able to turn these on.

See the support page on Google for more information.

Adding widgets does nothing or cause Lawnchair to crash.

This is a relatively common issue, especially when the widget has a set-up screen. This issue has been fixed on Android 14 and above, but for older Android versions (or if you are still having issues), follow these steps:

  1. Change the default launcher to your system launcher.
  2. Open Lawnchair.
  3. Add the widget you wish to add.
  4. Re-set Lawnchair as the default launcher.

Some parts of the UI look weird (i.e. themed icons) on dark mode

Disable force-dark on your phone's settings.

I'm having issues with gesture navigation

Smooth gesture navigation is a priority for a great launcher experience. However, its behavior with third-party launchers like Lawnchair can vary significantly based on your phone's manufacturer (OEM), their Android customization, and your Android version.

Android is designed so the original system launcher often has special privileges for handling gesture animations (like swiping home or accessing the Recents screen) most fluidly. When you switch to a third-party launcher, these integrations might not be as seamless.

  1. For rooted users (Best Experience): QuickSwitch
    • If your device is rooted, using the QuickSwitch Magisk module is highly recommended.
    • QuickSwitch allows Lawnchair to integrate deeply as the system's QuickStep (Recents) provider, resulting in the smoothest animations and access to more Recents features.
    • See our QuickSwitch FAQ section for more details.
  2. For non-rooted users: GestureNavContract API
    • Lawnchair implements Google's GestureNavContract API (Android 11+) for non-rooted devices. This API helps improve animation smoothness for actions like app open/close and returning home.
    • Note: The effectiveness of GestureNavContract depends heavily on how well your device manufacturer has implemented it. Devices with AOSP-like Android versions (such as Google Pixel, Nothing Phone, Fairphone, or custom ROMs based on AOSP) tend to have better results. Devices with heavily customized Android skins (e.g., MIUI, ColorOS, OneUI) may still exhibit more issues.

Even with Lawnchair's efforts, you might experience some of the following, especially on non-rooted devices or heavily customized Android versions:

This list might not include every possible issue, and you may experience some or none of the issues here.

Important

These types of gesture issues are typically limitations or behaviors of the Android system itself or your device manufacturer's specific customizations, rather than bugs within Lawnchair that we can directly fix without root access (which QuickSwitch provides). Lawnchair's own home screen gestures (configured in Home Settings > Gestures) are separate and fully controlled by us.

While we strive to offer the best gesture experience possible within Android's constraints, the most seamless gesture navigation is often found on devices running AOSP-like software or by using QuickSwitch on rooted devices.

Development and future

When is the next update?

Nobody knows, not even us developers. We have other hobbies and jobs, or even school, and cannot full-time code to meet a deadline. That's why we don't give ETAs. (In case you were wondering, ETA means Estimated Time of Arrival, which means "when is the next version").

What features are planned?

Our development is community-driven and based on volunteer availability, so priorities can shift. While we don't have specific plans on when to implement these features, we do wish to implement the following soon:

Is development still active?

Lawnchair is still being actively developed (see our nightly builds), but development can vary depending on volunteer availability. While there can be periods of stagnation, we do try our best to keep improving Lawnchair and bringing new features when time and resources allow.

Contributing and getting help

I want to report a bug

Create a bug report on GitHub.

I want to request a feature

Create a feature request on GitHub

I want to report a crash

Use the bug report form to report a crash. In the "Additional Information" section, please provide a crash log. Details on how to get one are listed below.

Lawnchair (versions 12 Alpha 3 and newer, including current releases) automatically sends a notification when Lawnchair crashes. tap "Upload file" to get a link to paste in the "Additional information" section of the issue.

On Android 14 and above, you will need to turn on notifications before you receive these crash logs.

I want to contribute code to Lawnchair

Thanks for your interest in contributing! Please visit our contributing guide for information about contributing to Lawnchair.

I want to donate to Lawnchair

You can donate to Lawnchair via Open Collective.

I want to help translate Lawnchair

Visit Crowdin for more information. Note that chats there are not being monitored actively; it's best to use Telegram or Discord if you have any questions or requests.

I need help regarding Lawnchair

You can visit our Telegram chat or Discord server for help regarding Lawnchair. Other community spaces might contain varying degrees of support.