Branch Metrics sucks. They fired almost of all people working for Nova.
Missun Faiuled, we’ll giet 'm neaxut tiume
Fucking hell.
I’ve been using Nova for years, it’s nice there are replacement recommendations on this thread.
It’s a major switch in style but I’ve really been enjoying Niagara
Used to use Niagara, but now moved to Kvaesitso
trebuchet is good enough for me
Goodnight, sweet prince.
I just reset my phone (because reasons) and while I was happy to use Nova for so many years, I decided to switch - trying ADW Launcher now.
Looks like it was a smart move.
Isn’t ADW already dead for years? Last update on f-droid was 13 years ago.
😲 13 years?? I had no idea! Wild. Okay maybe I need to find a modern alternative - but haven’t found anything yet that’s so nice as Nova was.
The play store Version is only 6 years old. Still not great.
You could try lawnchair 14 which is currently in beta on github. The version you can load in the play store is very old.
Wow, there’s a name I haven’t heard for years, not since my Bionic!
I have a copy hanging around. I need a software indexing tool to keep track!
Nova just worked so well for me. Have looked into other launchers and they just aren’t the bee’s knees. ADW might not be the best either.
To me the whole home screen paradigm just doesn’t work, at all. I don’t keep anything on the home screen, I find it clumsy and disorganized, with things hard to find - just like with the desktop paradigm on Windows.
It seems like a good idea, it just doesn’t work for me. I can’t find anything on my computer desktop - the inability to organize it other than giant icons of stuff just makes it overwhelming, and it’s the same problem on a phone.
I use a combination of folders (Folder Organizer) and Notification Shortcuts (Notification Toggle), because that makes so much more sense to me.
It seems a different paradigm for phones would be more effective than reproducing a desktop.
than reproducing a desktop
Oh you sweet summer child 😊
I get what you mean, I really do, but the mobile launcher is very different from desktop.
Let me find an image of what a mobile desktop used to look like. It was literally the original Windows95 desktop, complete with recycle bin and start menu and task bar. Now that does not work on a mobile device, and modern phone launchers are light years ahead of those olden days.
I hope this link works:
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
You’re posting this brief message a lot, so I googled it, and, no releases since October 2022? Only on f droid and is there really no way to pay other than PayPal donations? Am I looking at the right neo launcher?
Development isn’t dead, but the lack of releases and fees (one time purchase, please) don’t give me confidence.
One time purchase?
It’s a open source project, you can install it for free, but you could still donate.
As far as I can tell they are working on a new release.
Don’t use it now, but you can follow their GitHub/ F-Droid to see when they get a new release.
I moved to lawnchair 2 beta (or whatever it is.) I liked neo but the promised release just never came. I kept having it crash and it always took a few seconds to restart.
Lawnchair has been reliable though even for a beta.
And looks like alpha 1 hit the release page.
It’s FOSS. It’s pretty normal for it to be a passion project or a community effort.
Dev seems close to next release, I put in a bug on searching with SearXNG and it was fixed the next day.
Huh. I didn’t really need it on my Pixel but I remember using Nova on my old Sony tablet. I’m surprised it lived that long, since most mobile apps typically die within a few years.
Now that is a name I haven’t heard in a long time, last time I tried different launcher was maybe in 2015… I didn’t know custom launcher were still popular. I try to use vanilla android
Aw man! I’ve used nova launcher for probably about a decade at this point :(
There’s no way in hell I’m going back to SMASNUG’s crusty launcher. What’s the next best thing that isn’t a beta test?
Stock Android with GrapheneOS :D
I like Lawnchair. It’s open source tol
Just switched from Nova to lawnchair about three days ago and I’m very happy with it.
Bad news.
Still waiting for https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases to get out of beta
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
It’s pretty much already very usable. I have been on version 12 alpha for a long time and now on 14 beta 2, all in all since nearly a year.
I’ve had it freeze up on me several times, where I had to reset the app to get it working again. It works most of the time, but I wouldn’t recommend it yet for general use.
Seems like it is missing a lot of the conveniences that I was once used to with Nova, though. No ability to reposition the search bar or keep it in place on other pages, no docked apps, no button to open the app drawer, the home screen grid has fixed padding and so on.
I’ve since switched to Niagara which has been okay, but I’ve never found anything else like Nova since.
Fun fact: the original Lawnchair’s founding developer is the TSA nofly list hacker
Dont go selling me harder on it.
I mean it is a fine launcher. Personally I use Pie Launcher cause I’m a bit insane. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.markusfisch.android.pielauncher/
Lol development on it halts and resumes almost randomly, I’ve given up hope long ago.
Which really sucks as it’s the only launcher to have QuickSwitch support AFAIK.Development has been steady. 8 beta has been available with about monthly updates for a few years or some such, in official Nova Discord.
They launched the beta in play store recently as well. Been using the beta since they shared the first apk.
I’ve been using the 14 nightlies for months now, 0 issues. It’s very nice and responsive.
Wait it’s in Beta? I’ve been using it for like over a year
TotalLauncher has been a great replacement for me. Jumped ship a number of months ago
Until Nova Launcher is removed from the Internet, I’ll continue to use it. The original dev will continue to develop but at a slower pace…
What is the best replacement? I’ll hold on to Nova as long as possible, but if for some reason they screw it in some way…
I like Action Launcher, it’s simple and close to Pixel.
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
Discreet Launcher from F-Droid
This,kvaesito and lawnchair are the only true alternwtives, but they are pretty different from nova and conventional launchers. lawnchair is the closest to those.
commenting to watch for replies, because there’s about a million of them and i will probably never feel like doing research on launchers
LawnChair is the best option I’ve tried that has a similar design to Nova.
I’ve tried at least a couple dozen launchers since Nova got bought. Most of them are either half-baked or have a very different design (e.g. based on radial menus or text-only lists). If you’re into minimalism, there are a lot of good options. If you want a full-featured icon grid that behaves more or less like Nova, LawnChair is it.
I’m running LawnChair 14 Beta now. You can get it off the GitHub. Last I checked, the version on Google Play was very old.
Does the new beta have the same features as the old one yet? Last time I tried it, I couldn’t get it to work quite the same way.
Do you remember which features specifically were missing? It might be something I haven’t used. For me it was a pretty straightforward upgrade from version 12.
The only problem I ran into was that adding widgets was a little funky when changing the grid size. I think I had to add the widgets before changing the grid size (I use a 5x10 grid) or they didn’t align correctly. I encountered similar problems with many of the launchers I tried.
The folders in drawers are something I miss from the previous version. I can live without it, but that would be nice
Ah, I don’t see a way to do that. Not sure how it used to work.
I used Smart Launcher for a couple years. Functionally, it was on par, if not better, from my perspective
I’ve been using Microsoft launcher for about a year now. It’s surprisingly very customizable.
I like that one, but I hate everything going through Bing/MS services
I use Firefox with duck duck go. Even the launcher’s default search bar lets you choose the engine.
Is Branch better than Microsoft?
Touche
Haha, it was a genuine question not a gotcha!
I’ve been using Neo Launcher for a while, no complaints
+1 for neo launcher
I’ve also been using it for a while but I do have complaints. They introduced a few minor bugs when it went from omega to neo and despite them being reported over a year ago they’ve not made any fixes since. I use it because it’s alright and not spying on me, but I’m always on the lookout for an improvement.
Kvaesitso has risen to the top as my favorite launcher after trying a ton of launchers.
I don’t understand why someone would want a “search-focused” launcher. You mean I have to bring up the on-screen keyboard and type out the name of an app instead of just scrolling & tapping an icon with 1-2 simple motions? Yuck. What am I missing?
I too would be put off if it had to be used that way. But it can be used as a regular icon tapping launcher - it has a regular app drawer - which is how i use it. I don’t think it should market itself as a “search-focused” launcher.
You mean I have to bring up the on-screen keyboard and type out the name of an app instead of just scrolling & tapping an icon with 1-2 simple motions?
It just means you have the option to do both. Kvaesitsio has the app drawer one would expect, and a persistent search bar.
Oh ok, thanks. Does it do homescreen icons and widgets? Last I tried it there was something I didn’t like but I can’t remember what.
There’s also a shortcut option to use the search. I use Total launcher with a swipe up gesture shortcut to open kvaesito’s search and app drawer.
It’s very widget focused. You can have a few favourite apps ( either your own choice or most used)
Can do homescreen icons. It has a widgets “pane”. You don’t place them on the home screen but put all widgets together than swipe to widgets. You can configure kvaesitso so it’s not too different from stock android experience.
I have 5 “favorite” apps at bottom of screen, above the search bar, similar to stock android.
I swipe left for my app drawer, which allows for more pinned favorites above full list.
I swipe up for all my widgets.
Swipe down for notifications, like stock.
Swipe right for my camera app.
If you have 100+ apps you’re going to need either a ton of organization or a search tool. Some people will meticulously organize their apps into folders, while others go for the search
I’ve never heard of Kvaesitso in particular, but I like simple, search focused launchers as they force you to specify what you want to do on your phone instead of letting you mindlessly open e.g. a distracting social media app.
Same here and I don’t even use the search that much. Love it
Gesundheit.
I loved Nova, but a couple of years ago, I found AIO, and it just blew nova out of the water for me. I look around to see if anything better comes along, but so far, I’ve not seen anything that gets close to AIO for me. It is so customizable, everything on one vertical scrollable screen, email, notifications, calendar, apps, weather. I absolutely love it!
I’m pretty happy with total launcher in combination with app search since I didn’t like totals app drawer.
Edit: I just found OpenLauncher and I’m going to test that out.
I use total launcher also.
It’s cumbersome. It’s pain in the ass. But it works great with my pixel fold. I love it.
+1 for total launcher, it’s customization is unmatched, paired with TREK: Total Interface (best 4 bucks I ever spent) and some tweaks you can end up with a slick Star Trek LCARS launcher
Square home!
This is what mine looks like:
Nova is still my primary.
I just disable all its network and data permissions. It all still works just fine, and doesn’t have any way to send any data home.I’ve tried most all the others, and always come back to Nova
You can’t truly forbid it from accessing the network on Android.
What’s this do?
That disable the app itself from accessing the internet, but it does not forbid it from tunneling it’s network access through other apps.
I don’t remember the article, but I remember that I read years ago that a group of apps were tunneling their network activity through Facebook app and YouTube.
If I remember the article , I will post the link here.
weird. who could have predicted a rug pull from an analytics and spyware company… lol.
if you get in bed with adtech vipers and don’t anticipate problems, you’re gullible as hell. if you don’t stop them (or worse, if you let them) ad people will sell you, your soul, and your passion to the devil for a single penny.
It could be worse, like zipoapps that immediately ruined the simple mobile tools with ads and scammy weekly subscriptions
At least, for now, it looks like they acquired it for philanthropic reasons
Yeah, I read about this on the Nova launcher discord community. I had already moved to Smart launcher in 2022, seeing the slow development speed and the branch buyout.
Still, seeing so many people being laid off was sad.
It sucks that people are laid off but I’m not shocked. I can’t imagine the launcher raking in tons of cash. Maybe it does, but I wouldn’t expect it to. Honestly I’m surprised that nova wasn’t just a passion project by someone.
