UR Mood Launcher for Android

Has the basics, but also security risks

If you don't like the stock launcher on your phone, you can change it. Android lets you customize a lot of its interface. All you have to do is install a new launcher. UR Mood Launcher is a replacement launcher that groups apps based on your "mood," but it's based off your location for work and home and provides selectable moods when you're in your car or outside.

UR Mood is everywhere

UR Mood Launcher has seven default categories like UR Home, UR Work, UR Fitness, and UR Night Out. You can also create custom categories for a specified set of apps like "UR Secret Apps." Each mood has different customizations like a preset ringer volume or toggling Bluetooth.

The launcher sets eight apps that are defined by the different moods. At home you would get more social apps and UR Car will display music and navigation apps. UR Mood will auto-select apps, but you can customize the apps that you want displayed. There is an eight app limit so there's no scrolling through more apps.

UR Mood Launcher has a persistent recommended apps menu that displays new apps it would like you to install. It's placed right above the app launcher so you may press it on accident a lot. The app launcher is also changed with two sorting options: A-Z or Categories along with widgets.

There's also a persistent slideout menu that shows recent apps and provides quick access to UR Preferences, UR customization, and UR Store. UR Store is a curated app list. When you select an app you want, it loads a webpage before asking to open the Google Play Store.

UR Mood Launcher also replaces the stock Google search bar with its own. The search bar still searches within the device for apps or contacts, but the internet searches are run through a separate engine instead of Google.

You can also use UR Mood Launcher's built-in customization options for wallpapers or icon pack downloads.

Note that UR Mood Launcher only replaces the primary homescreen. You can add apps, folders, or widgets on other pages.

Locations-specific apps are nice but

UR Mood Launcher's idea of location-specific or interest-based app bundles isn't anything new. Aviate, Cover, and Everything.Me all have similar functionality. Limiting each mood to eight apps is smart because they are all visible, but the option to add more would be nice.

The recommended apps are very annoying. It's persistent until you disable it in the preferences. Having the launcher link to an associated website before it loads Google Play is a poor user experience.

The UR Store is also pointless except for link tracking. There's way to read about an app when tapping, UR Store immediately loads a URL that leads to "tracking.taptica.com" before loading the Google Play Store. Apps that you select on UR Store might not even be available in your country, but you won't know until the link fully loads.

The most disconcerting thing is the UR Mood search bar. Instead of running Google's standard search bar, it uses Iminent's search. This means your search queries are going to a third party company. While this may not concern some people, you don't know how integrated the search is inside your phone.

The core mood features are nice, but the store and search bar are security concerns.

Better alternatives available

If you want a new launcher, there are better options available. Nova Launcher is still the gold standard for customizations. It lets you customize the appearance of your Android device without changing the core features of the operating system.

But if you want location or context based launchers, try Aviate or Cover. These launchers use your location and context information to provide relevant apps.

UR Mood Launcher has the basics, but the way is completes search and app discovery are risks to your data.