In this guide, we will show you the steps to uninstall or disable the Pixel Launcher app on your Pixel devices. If there’s one category of apps that has been saturated with tons of offerings from various publishers, then it has to be launchers. A plethora of them have already occupied a permanent abode in the Play Store and a slew of ones are making their way every other week. However, in spite of this, it’s the offering from Google that has managed to attract the attention of the masses.
The de-facto launcher app on Pixel devices, it has been the go-to choice for non-Pixel users as well. While the Google-owned devices are enjoying the goodies of this launcher for ages, users of other OEMs have also ditched their stock launcher for this by sideloading it onto their device. for the sideload. But in spite of this, it isn’t free from its fair share of issues either. When these issues pop up in non-Pixel devices, then they could easily be rectified by disabling/re-enabling the app or uninstalling/reinstalling it.
However, both these tweaks aren’t possible in Pixel devices. This is because Pixel treats this launcher as a system launcher and you can’t just uninstall or disable it from the Settings menu. So what’s the way out? Well, you could easily carry out the said task using ADB Commands. And in this guide, we will show you how to do just that. Given hereby are the detailed steps to uninstall or disable the Pixel Launcher app on your Pixel devices. Follow along.
Table of Contents
How to Uninstall or Disable Pixel Launcher on Pixel Devices
Before carrying out the below steps, we would suggest you install an additional launcher app on your device as well. This is because when you would disable or uninstall the Pixel Launcher, then your device at least will have an option to fall back to the second launcher. Likewise, you should also temporarily set that launcher as the default one. Here’s how:
- Head over to the Settings menu on your device.
- Then go to Apps > Default App > Home App.
- Then select any other launcher app from the list.
Instruction Steps
- To begin with, download and extract Android SDK Platform Tools on your PC.
- Then enable USB Debugging on your device [it will be used to execute ADB commands].
- Now connect your device to the PC via USB cable.
- Then head over to the platform-tools folder, type in CMD in the address bar, and hit Enter. This will launch the Command Prompt.
- Now in the following command to verify the ADB connection:
adb devices
- Then type in the below command to open the Shell environment:
adb shell
STEP 4A: Disable/Re-Enable Pixel Launcher via ADB Command
- Execute the below command to disable the Pixel Launcher on your Pixel device:
pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher
- If you wish to re-enable it, then use the following command:
pm enable -–user 0 com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher
- Or, you may also enable it via Settings > Apps > See All Apps > Pixel Launcher > Enable.
STEP 4B: Uninstall/Reinstall Pixel Launcher via ADB Command
- To uninstall Pixel Launcher from your Pixel device, execute the below command:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher
- On the other hand, execute the below command to reinstall it:
cmd package install-existing com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher
- You could also reinstall it from the Play Store [direct link].
That’s it. These were the steps to uninstall or disable the Pixel Launcher on your Pixel device. If you have any queries, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution as soon as possible.
Michael
This was very helpful. Thank you.
spookymyo
If you disable the pixel launcher on pixel phones it messes up the navigation bar functions.