mrddu3at2End of an era: Nova Launcher's parent company lays off practically everyone
PlutoniumAcidI 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:
Blaze (he/him)Bad news.
Still waiting for github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases to get out of beta
BeatTakeshiIt’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.
underscoresI’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.
Wait it’s in Beta? I’ve been using it for like over a year
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.
Which really sucks as it’s the only launcher to have QuickSwitch support AFAIK.
redfellowDevelopment 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.
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. f-droid.org/…/de.markusfisch.android.pielauncher/
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
MisterFrogTotalLauncher has been a great replacement for me. Jumped ship a number of months ago
limerodYeah, 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.
KokeshWhat 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…
shortwavesurferDiscreet 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.
solsangraalcommenting to watch for replies, because there’s about a million of them and i will probably never feel like doing research on launchers
CubitOomI’m pretty happy with total launcher in combination with app search since I didn’t like totals app drawerr.
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.
cm0002+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
DARbarianI've been using Neo Launcher for a while, no complaints
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.
I used Smart Launcher for a couple years. Functionally, it was on par, if not better, from my perspective
Kvaesitso has risen to the top as my favorite launcher after trying a ton of launchers.
Same here and I don’t even use the search that much. Love it
DeconceptualistI 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’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.
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.
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.
It’s very widget focused. You can have a few favourite apps ( either your own choice or most used)
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.
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.
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 other go for the search
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.
Blaze (he/him)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.
HaggunenonsI 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 like Action Launcher, it’s simple and close to Pixel.
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!
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
Square home!
There’s a bug on samsungs (I think) where the home screen interface freezes, and the only way to unfreeze it is to relaunch Nova. It’s super annoying. This probably means it will never be fixed.
grayhazeThe quickest way to fix it is to lock and unlock your phone by pressing the power button twice, but not too close together or you launch the camera.