Anyone ever removed stock launcher with ADB before?
Hiya, am thinking about removing the stock android launcher on my Pixel 7a, due to a bug causing one of the three navigation buttons to randomly not work, more about the bug here; https://lemmy.world/post/10555733. So was wondering if anyone had any experience regarding this? I know how to remove it, just want to know what the potential consequences would be. I thought of having 2 launchers available, should the main one I use not work (for whatever reason). Please let me know if you have done this before and how it went :)
Having two launchers is a good point but it doesn't have to be the stock launcher. You can install any random launcher for backup as long as it can show the app list.
Yes, I have done it multiple times but you will lose recents screen and gesture navigation. If you have root, you can get it back with lawnchair + quickswitch.
I don't think adb would let you remove it, unless you have root. But you can try it out in Android Studio's Emulator, it essentially provides you with with an Android VM on your PC. You can access it straight from adb, and it doesn't matter if you break something, as you can simply create a new virtual device.
I know that you said you know how to do it, but Universal Android Debloater can restore any removed apps in one click, which might be useful if you decide to try it.
Most likely you could have restored it by installing the launcher back with adb or worst case reset the device. That will bring back all apps as well. Unless you have a rooted phone and removed the apps that way.
Why though? I use lawnchair I think and there was a time when something went wrong and I think it crashed. Has never happened since though but it was nice to have a fallback.