I introduced Nova Launcher’s finest characteristic to my new launcher

Saying that Nova Launcher had a profound influence on the Android we all know and love as we speak can be an understatement. The launcher endured over a dozen working system variations and opened up a universe of customization to customers. Not solely that, it additionally made app search and discovery an enormous a part of its performance, forcing competing launchers to up their recreation. These smarts are largely because of Sesame Shortcuts.

Though Nova Launcher’s demise knell has already sounded, my current ideas have turned to Sesame Shortcuts’ dim future. However, for now at the very least, you may nonetheless combine the highly effective search app in your new Android launcher. Right here’s learn how to do it, why you may need to suppose twice about it, and what you must contemplate earlier than doing it.

So, what precisely is Sesame Shortcuts? Constructed initially as a separate common search app, it was finally built-in into Nova Launcher, first as an add-on and finally as a core a part of its search expertise. It additionally has a lesser-known however equally tight partnership with Hyperion Launcher. Regardless of these collabs, Sesame stays downloadable and usable as a standalone product.

Sesame Shortcuts’ huge promoting level is its deep API integration with the apps put in in your telephone. This enables searches by way of Sesame to succeed in deeper than conventional launcher search. In apply, this implies leaping into a particular Spotify playlist, Slack channels, subreddits, Twitch channels, and Tasker recipes immediately from the search bar.

This performance is customizable, too. For instance, Sesame doesn’t detect any shortcuts for Arc Search or Banana Browser, however I can create a customized shortcut with a searchable and launchable URL by way of Sesame. I may level this shortcut to YouTube, giving me a fast option to watch content material utilizing the browser’s superior video participant. It’s also possible to cover shortcuts you by no means use, or disable an app’s total shortcut providing to eradicate its look on the search bar.

The app additionally learns from my opens and actions. If it detects that I continuously entry a particular Slack channel, maybe the one we use right here to share footage of our pets, it’ll proceed to advocate it on the prime of the outcomes web page. Finally, Sesame is a massively highly effective search instrument that reaches into nooks and crannies that different apps can’t. It makes your Android launcher far simpler — at the very least that is the idea.

How one can use Sesame Shortcuts with a contemporary Android launcher

As talked about, Sesame Shortcuts is on the market as a standalone app. You don’t want to put in and use Nova Launcher or Hyperion Launcher to reap its rewards. It’ll work with virtually any launcher, together with extra fashionable merchandise and legacy Android house display screen apps.

So, how do you do that? Nicely, there are a number of strategies relying in your gadget and software program setting.

The primary is through direct integration. Sesame helps a handful of launchers proper off the bat, together with Nova, Hyperion, Lawnchair Launcher, and Niagara Launcher. As a person of the latter for a number of months, I used to be fairly excited to see if it nonetheless supported it. Nonetheless, merely toggling on assist in Sesame’s settings web page didn’t fairly work for me. Niagara continued to make use of its personal search perform.

The second possibility is a workaround for my points above. The Niagara Button — the launcher’s multifunctional house display screen button — is editable, and helps customizable faucet and swipe up actions. To interchange Niagara’s default search with Sesame, I set the faucet motion to set off the latter as a substitute. This takes me proper into Sesame Search’s search web page, giving me seamless entry to its smarts. This works with any launcher with customizable gestures or buttons, and is a much more private option to combine Sesame.

The ultimate possibility is thru a widget. I’ve been testing AIO Launcher just lately, and whereas Sesame acknowledged that it was set as my default house display screen, it doesn’t supply Nova-like deep integration. On this case, Sesame “advisable” that I add its widget to the house display screen. This can be a little clunky, particularly since AIO has a particular aesthetic that I’d quite not spoil with a mismatched widget. Nonetheless, it is a good possibility for launchers with a built-in search bar; merely change it with Sesame’s.

Sesame has two different accessibility choices, however the app doesn’t counsel you utilize both. They could nonetheless work on older variations of Android, although. The primary is a Display edge characteristic, which prompts Sesame through a sizzling edge faucet. The second is a Lock display screen characteristic for even faster Sesame entry.

Even when the Nova Launcher venture is lifeless, Sesame Shortcuts nonetheless has loads of worth, however the app isn’t with out its points or challenges.

Maybe the most important concern is its standing as abandonware. Based on statements made in a Reddit thread after Department’s July 2022 acquisition of Nova, Sesame’s builders confirmed that up to date variations of Sesame will solely be out there inside Nova Launcher. They’d now not work on Sesame’s standalone codebase, therefore the shortage of updates for the previous three years. If you happen to actually need to really feel outdated and significantly unhappy, learn by way of the posts on this subreddit.

Putting in and utilizing Sesame Shortcuts additionally means onboarding out-of-date and unsupported software program onto your telephone. On condition that this app has entry to any app you permit it to, it will not be probably the most safe or privacy-minded transfer. I do know this, however I wished to trial Sesame in 2025 regardless. It’s price noting that Sesame’s remaining model doesn’t embody a single tracker, which suggests it gained’t be tattling on you to corporations behind your again. That at the very least brings some peace of thoughts.

Naturally, that three-year hole has allowed loads of bugs and issues to wriggle in and start decay. Consequently, Sesame doesn’t fairly really feel as easy, seamless, or far-reaching because it as soon as did. A number of customers on the (by some means nonetheless alive) Sesame subreddit converse of rising issues, primarily with newer Android telephones. Shortcuts are going lacking, some APIs have modified, leading to degraded efficiency, and newer options that rolled out with Android haven’t been adopted.

In a phrase, no, however my full reply is a bit more nuanced than that.

I imagine there’s area within the Android world for an app like Sesame, nevertheless it’s clear that the world it as soon as supported has moved on. By some means, within the years following its launch, no different app has come near delivering what it presents. It might now not be on the prime of its life, however Sesame nonetheless outperforms a number of built-in search options I’ve used on numerous Android launchers.

Finally, given all of its issues, which at the moment are decidedly insurmountable, I’m undecided I can advocate that you just run to the Play Retailer and set up Sesame Shortcuts. In case you are intrigued by its options, you should contemplate the doable ramifications of putting in an deserted piece of software program. Nonetheless, I may say the identical about Nova Launcher; it nonetheless has a cohort of dedicated customers.

Sesame nonetheless has an infinite trial, so you may attempt it on a secondary gadget and discover it for so long as you want. I loved it a lot that I bought it, though this was years in the past and properly earlier than its improvement droop. After utilizing it with Niagara Launcher in 2025, I can actually say that it was cash properly spent then; it positively isn’t now.

Nonetheless, maybe the true motive I write this characteristic is to name on builders to take inspiration from Sesame and construct one thing higher. Like Nova did for house screens, Sesame laid the groundwork for common gadget search. It’s only a disgrace it’s slowly eroding.