End of an era: Nova Launcher's parent company lays off practically everyone
End of an era: Nova Launcher's parent company lays off practically everyone
Layoffs have reduced the Nova Launcher from twelve members to just a single one man team. What does this mean for the launcher's future?
So, anybody know a good launcher to use once Nova goes offline?
PSA: Nova Launcher's owning company sells their user data. It was a good launcher when it first came out, but it's been nothing but a downward spiral from there.
Edit for clarity: I don't mean the app itself. It is owned by an entity that exists to sell consumer data.
I've been using Nova for ages, probably back from the KitKat days on a Samsung phone running Touchwiz, i.e. when everything from the vendor side was crap.
I just switched back to my Moto G5's stock launcher. Honestly, it already does everything I did with Nova. It supports theming, adaptive icons, you can configure the density of its grid, etc. So I uninstalled Nova. Fuck it.
Realistically I think most stock launchers are probably perfectly adequate for everything normal users want to do these days.
I had the same experience when I recently had to get a new phone. Stock launchers have improved a lot.
But, but, they assured us that that wasn't going to happen? You mean they lied??
JFC, what a fall from grace for Nova. Sad to see.
I'm opted out of that in my settings, it'd be quite the scandal if they were ignoring GDPR?
I've amended my comment to make it more clear. I didn't mean to imply the app sends your data to third parties, only that the company who owns it profits off of third party information brokering. Where that information comes from is beside the point in my opinion.
Use an Open Source launcher, here my recommandations :
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Lawnchair, basic launcher to replace stock launcher
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Kvaesito, search based browser and a lot of customization
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Mlauncher, fork of Olauncher, minimalistic and text based
I've been using Kvaesito lately and I absolutely love it.
It's search based, meaning you can have an extremely minimal appearence while having lots of customization options and extremely quick access to apps (and app features, most importantly).
I strongly recommend using it if you like efficiency
Don't forget KISS launcher. It's excellent, albeit a little rough around the edges.
It's not my favorite and I think kvaesito can replace it
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I've been working on a launcher for a while now, do help me test it out!
Features include:
- Widget stacks (with auto scroll)
- Swipe up and swipe down to launch different apps
- Display app drawer icons as tiles or a list
- Individually resize home screen icons, for mixed-size icon layouts
- Freely position and resize a widget or icon
- Frosted glass background for widgets (experimental)
- App drawer folders
- Fade a widget
- Separate layouts for different screens for foldables
- Tap a folder to launch its first app (swipe to open folder)
- Assign a nickname to an app for instant app search and launch (e.g. searching "ff" launches Firefox instantly)
- Lots of custom animations and haptics
Planned features include:
- Profile switching with Tasker support
- Square tiles for app drawer
- Swipe to open a widget pop up
Not open source, a little disappointed. I'll give it a try when it is
Can you group the app drawer by letter so that I can immediately jump to 'S' to launch Sync for Lemmy? It's pretty much the entire reason I can't move away from Microsoft Launcher. I feel this is an essential feature, and I've tried basically every launcher I can find.
Do you mean the A-Z bar on the right of the drawer in Microsoft Launcher?
After getting a replacement phone, I had to redo everything. I decided to check out some new options. I have nova prime and have loved it.
I am now using Niagara Launcher. It's different. Very different. The team recommends using the app for at least a week to give it a true test run. I did have my doubts because it's so different but dang do I love it. I haven't switched back and I don't mean this to throw shade on nova. Nova is great, but I like this better.
Instead of thinking of ways to change the launcher, they created a whole new launcher as if they didn't take into consideration the current way we do things.
Give it a shot.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bitpit.launcher
I second that! Been using it for ~4 years now and I so much prefer it to the old launchers. After installing it I completely stopped testing new launchers.
Does anyone still remember the old (2010) launcher called slide it. Unfortunatly it was discontinued and I have always been searching for an adequate replacement. In Niagara I have found it.
Anyway, back to why i like Niagara so much. With every other launcher the workflow is like this:
- swipe up for menu
- swipe 2-5 pages left or right till you reach your app
- click your app icon
which takes ages and is tedious.
On Niagara I just swipe along the left or right edge until the letter my apps name is starting with appears and click the icon. That's it.
Having notifications beneath your favorite apps and an included media control app when audio is playing is superb. (I'm using the pro version). Calendar is aCalendar btw.
Best few bucks I have ever spend for some android app.
I keep hearing about Niagara and everyone says the same thing, it's different.
Could you describe how it's different? Just the setup, or is it different when you're using it?
The whole concept is different. I've just started trying it and the gist of it is that it's basically only the app drawer, but on steroids. There is no home screen to arrange, you simply set favorite apps that show up first. Anything else you select by scrolling through the alphabet, which seems quick enough if you know the app name you're looking for.
I can already tell that I would love it more if favorites were redesigned a bit to use the initial space better. But this would betray the simplicity they are trying to achieve.
So you can set up some options. I have mine set where I can swipe up or down on left or right side and it pulls up this like.. Rocket dock alphabet which you can find your apps. The whole thing, as another user posted, makes it so you don't need an app drawer or a home screen. The home screen is your favorite apps. You can view messages if you set messages as your favorite app. Same with emails or discord etc.
I switched to Niagara when Nova was bought out. I've tried other launchers in the meantime, but once I got used to Niagara I never wanted to go back to a "normal" launcher.
Is that the one with a sub? It better give daily dopamine for yet another sub.
It can either be sub or one-time. The one time is like $30 though which seemed crazy to me but... Idk the creators did work and there's no ads. I'm using the free version.
I used Nova for years. When they got bought out I switched to a bunch of different launchers. My favorite turned out to be Kvaesitso.
It was weird for me at first because having apps on the main screen was something I've grown acustomed to. You can have a row if you want though. There is an option. After using it for a few weeks, I realized their layout works best for me.
Let me know if there are other launchers you recommend. I appreciate it.
I tried to like Kvaezitso, and I loved some of the features, but it's too strict in others that I didn't like. I want Lawnchair and Kvaezitso to make love and have a perfect baby.
Its insane that custom launchers are even needed. I gave the base Samsung version a try and it wont even let me move the app drawer button, its glued to the bottom right. I'd expect an android to let me customize more than windows. Never understood the big tech companies need for this much control. Some brand manager will have a heartattack if I change an app icon, a basic feature in any version of Windows.
They keep things locked down for the 50% of the population with below average intelligence. It makes things easier to trouble shoot when you can't move the important stuff. Also that group is usually the loudest complainers when they can't find something, or something goes wrong.
I lament Nova's demise, too..
I think the reason that the tech companies won't allow us to have our devices our own way ( Microsoft was doing this decades ago ), is "religious"/ideological, not practical:
I think they "need" to keep everybody permanently in a headlock, with our heads all twisted, because only if we are all in permanent learned-helplessness, only then can they automatically get away with everything they intend to be getting away with, in our world.
IOW, our autonomy violates their totalitarian religion, see?
It's the same as how ANY spirituality grates on Dawkins' blood: he wants it all gutted/butchered/destroyed, & suicides of ones he destroyed are no problem for him, & no alternative ever can have any validity to him.
Totalitarianism, whether traditionally "religious", or in any other ideology/prejudice/religion, is the same: it HATES violation of its homogenous dominion.
( comically: homophobic-religions want a homogenous het humankind, with no violation of that homogeneity. The existence of homosexuals is too heterogenous for them )
Autonomy is something that totalitarian supremacism ideology "needs" to obliterate from the whole world.
Consistently.
It seems to be a damn-good diagnostic for it, even!
_ /\ _
OnePlus does it pretty well. I just love the ability to have separate actions for swiping an app icon so I use nova
My recommendation is Niagara Launcher. It's more minimal than other launchers. I like the reduction in clutter.
I've been using Niagra for a few months now and love it 👍
Looks nice, whats your icon pack?
I'm using icons from the Anycon pack. It's the Niagara Launcher's "collection of icon packs specifically developed for Niagara Launcher".
I switched to Lawnchair a while back (android 14 broke folders in nova for me). It's not got the same depth of customisation, but ive found it pretty good alternative. And so far seems quick and reliable.
Been using KISS over at F-droid for a few years now after moving on from Nova Launcher. It isn't for everyone but it isn't run by goons.
I used KISS for a while and found mlauncher, which is similar in concept, to work better for me. I had to force KISS to restart frequently enough where it became a problem.
Cool, with FOSS I'll give this a try and if I like it enough, I'll stick with it and toss a few bines towards the devs. Thanks!
Are there any launchers that have Nova's 2 best features?
- Swipe-to-open folders (with tap to open the first item in the folder)
- Set any icon you want as an app icon?
I've tried Lawnchair and it was missing these 2 features. I will switch to any launcher that supports these!
Action Launcher has this I think.
I've been using Neo Launcher for a while as a Nova replacement and it's pretty good. Both of those features are included as well as things like shortcut actions when you double tap or swipe on the home screen.
For me, it's the ability to add multiple apps to folders with a checklist.
Omg thanks for asking this, and thanks to the people that responded. I sincerely went through other alternatives around 5 years ago, and none of them were close to Nova in terms of folder customisation. I'm glad the landscape had changed quite a bit!
Total Launcher does both of those. It's massively customisable, although a bit daunting-looking in places. I love it though.
Novalauncher 6.2.19, before they added telemetry
I use Olauncher, pretty similar to Niagara and is FOSS. https://github.com/tanujnotes/Olauncher
I recently found this and it works great for my needs
I really like Fast Draw. I wanted the app pages like Nova has, and personally didn't really need any more than that. This one works like a charm!
https://github.com/peterfajdiga/FastDraw
When I found out how scummy they were with user data I moved to KISS launcher. It took a few days to get used to but I'm very happy with it now.
KISS launcher is exactly what I was looking for in a launcher. 5 always used apps at the bottom calendar and weather widgets on the home screen, search for everything else. It seems like it used to have a lot of problems with custom icons but lately it's been pretty much perfect.
I've been using KISS for a couple years now very successfully and I love it.
Should you decide to stick with it, here's two tiny tips:
- Should the custom icons ever actually give you trouble, most issues can be fixed by going to the KISS Launcher options → Advanced → Restart KISS. It will reload all items from scratch.
- You can actually have a couple more 'quick access' apps set by going to KISS Launcher options → User experience → Gestures and defining 'Launch...' actions. For example, I launch my messaging app with a right swipe, my e-mails with a left swipe and note-taking with a long hold anywhere on the launcher.
I tried a bunch. The only one I really love is Niagara. It's simple and awesome.
Dammit lol that's the one I picked to use
Maybe it will keep working unchanged for a while
Man I am really struggling to find a replacement launcher that works for foldables. Neo and Total have scaling issues that make icons giant
I've been using Niagara launcher and it works great. It's a different launcher "workflow" though.
Do give my work on progress launcher a try
Microsoft launcher is super underrated IMO. Lots of customization. I use it for my foldable, but it's a bit hit or miss sometimes (scaling of folders sometimes gets messed up going from open to closed).
I use Hyperion and like it a lot
I now use Hyperion also - thanks!
NP, I'm surprised it's so rarely mentioned in this type of post. I used Lawnchair for a while after Nova was bought out, but I think I prefer Hyperion...
I still use version 7 of Nova, it's the only launcher in the market that knows how to handle icons. Any other is frankly a disaster, they can't make them look good at all.
Noe launcher. used nova on my pixel 6, now neo on my pixel 8
This hasn't been updated for almost two years, at least on f droid. And I had massive issues with my pixel 8 pro
There hasn't been a release in some time but work is still being done.
https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Launcher/commits/main/
Sure looks like he's claiming that the team has been reduced from 4 to 1, not the 11 to 1 claimed above, and one was for customer support? Not to say it's insignificant, but doesn't sound like the train-smash originally portrayed.
NOOOOO
Does anyone know of a good open-source launcher? I know there's FastDraw and Olauncher, but I wouldn't mind having some more alternatives to try out just to find one that truly works best for me.
KISS is great if you want something really simple that works well.
Been using smart launcher for a while. I like that the pro version offers blur.
I always come back to Smart Launcher. I grew up with category-based application menus on on PC, I can't stand having a giant unorganized app drawer. It's so cluttered and messy. I'm always surprised at how little mention it gets and instead everybody talks about these "minimalist" launchers that are literally just unorganized app drawers.
Just wondering, but why isn't it possible to just use something like the RethinkDNS app and block all internet access Nova has? That's what I've done at least. Haven't found a launcher I like as much, and don't see why a launcher would need internet access constantly. I already use RethinkDNS to block other apps too, like Gboard
I have tried Kvaesito, Niagara, Nova, Kiss and Lawnchair(and forks), personally I prefer Lawnchair because it it the most standard regarding workflow and has all if not most features one would want in a launcher. Plus the fact it is fully FOSS and supports Arcticons. If you have a small number of apps you typically launch then Kiss or Niagara(Paid Pro version recommended) would work nicely.
Where is Lawnchair? It's not on F-droid and the Google Play store says Lawnchair 2 is for an older os (I'm on 14).
I use LawnchairRelease, a fork of one of the devs from Lawnchair. You can also use the original Lawnchair Launcher
Add Izzy's on Droid Repo to Fdroid. It is there. Or download it directly from Github, the latest release(v14) are the Beta 1, Beta 2 and the Nightly Version.
1+ for Lawnchair! It's virtually the only launcher that supports gesture navigation without a weird delay or issues
Been using Action Launcher for the past 2 years. Grouping of apps, theming, option to have multiple slideable docks ❤, shutters... I adore it.
Lawnchair.
Yeah I just tried it out and I'm not a fan it's far too simple. I love Nova for being able to swipe up or down on icons for separate actions. I have a foldable so I use that to trigger multi-app groups
Neo Launcher is pretty nice!
After I switched to gesture based navigation, I haven't found a third party launcher that works seamlessly with it.
I'm using Samsung OneUI launcher now. It does most of what I needed Nova to do anyway.
I use Hyperion and like it a lot.
I use default oneui launcher i think it looks good
OneUI is much much better than Touchwiz was. It has been nice to see Samsung actually putting effort into their main launcher and having the options to add things (and that they can augment stuff while using other launchers). I was using Nova on both my phone and my old Tab S2, but found OneUI to "feel" more correct on my Tab S8+ than Nova. Though Nova has seemed better for my phones over the years.
True
Why do you need a new launcher? You're good to go for several years until (if) Android implements some completely new feature. Right now Nova has pretty much everything.
Yeah, just use an older version, don't update, and it'll function fine for a while.