So, anybody know a good launcher to use once Nova goes offline?
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.
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
Don’t forget KISS launcher. It’s excellent, albeit a little rough around the edges.
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Lawnchair
I thought that’s in perceptual pre release.
Idk, it is what it is, I’ve used it ever since Nova got kinda dumb like 5-6 years ago. Put it on every phone. It hides apps, keeps my phone looking clean. It’s excellent.
Yea that’s what i switched to after nova sold out, its alright gets the job done. Fuck Nova
I use Lawnchair as well because I require my launcher to be open source. The only thing is it is not on F-Droid or Playstore so it must be installed and updated manually. I have found it to be stable enough for my purposes.
EDIT: And after making the comment below I just noticed the date on the version is 2022? I’m going need to try out the latest version from their Git.
I use droidify because I like the look of it better. It comes with another repo enabled by default called IzzyOnDroid which has the Alpha versions of lawnchair.
I’ve been using it for years. It’s great.
Oh nice, I’ll check out droidify and IzzyOnDroid. To help me remember to update Lawnchair, I added the github release notes atom feed to my RSS reader and turned on notifications so I know every time a new release is ready to install and updating is just a few taps away. https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases.atom
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
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.
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.
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.
It was the “end of an era” when they were sold off to a data-mining company years ago.
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.
Removed by mod
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
Lawnchair.
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.
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.
Novalauncher 6.2.19, before they added telemetry
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.
