Manufacturers may try to get all creative and show off their presumably-awesome Google TV UIs, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them. Most Google TV devices look completely different. Some are good, some not so much, but we can thank Google TV’s Android OS for being able to customize them. This is done with launchers, and my favorite Google TV one happens to be Open Launcher for Google TV.

Crafted by the creators of Able Remote, this third-party launcher follows a similar design route. Open Launcher’s UI is sleek, modern and simple, yet very flexible. It sure looks better than what some manufacturers have been doing lately. A great example is the ASUS Qube’s interface, which may look cool at first, but all those bells and whistles will probably get tiring very soon.

Open Launcher is a simple Holo bar at the bottom with pop-up boxes and stock menus. One can navigate through apps and press up and down to move through rows. This bar customizable and you can add as many rows as you want, then add your apps of preference to each row. This makes it easy to organize your apps and shortcuts in categories – it’s almost unnecessary to access your app list.

I happen to love this app and will keep it as my main launcher. My only issue with it is that it uses its own app drawer, which can be a bit obtrusive when watching live TV. It pops up in the middle of the screen and dims the sides. I did mention this Launcher negates the need to access the app drawer in most cases, but unless you have every app in your rows you will still need to go in there from time to time.

Check out the video to see what I mean. You really need to take a look at it to fully understand how sleek and helpful Open Launcher is. And don’t forget to hit the comment section questions and opinions on Open Launcher. Do you have a better alternative? Do you love it as much as I do? Let us know!

Google Play Store Links

Able Remote for Google TV
Able Remote for Android