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Bad news.
Still waiting for https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases to get out of beta
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.
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.
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.
Fun fact: the original Lawnchair's founding developer is the TSA nofly list hacker
Immediately switches to google play to turn off auto update for Nova Launcher
Thanks for neminding me!
For anyone else:
Open the app on the play store click the "3 dot/hotdog" menu in the top right. You should be able to disable updates there.
Meh. Nova is the best launcher in my opinion but I've already been version locked to the last release before this company bought it. I've basically given up in anyone else replicating the features I want. So I'll be using this version of Nova until Google finally breaks it.
Same! I refuse to update it and got a little annoyed at a post I saw where the dev (at least I think it was him) said "hey it's 1 year later and the world hasn't exploded". Found that a little annoying.
Let's hope he gets control of the app back and can do nova again, without this shit baked in.
Edit: guess I should have RTFA first. Gross
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
we were all scared that they would do data mining or introduce ads on the launcher. They promised that they wouldn't. Surprisingly, they kept the promise.
I'm surprised that could feed a team of 12 devs with a free app with small one time payment to unlock power features.
Isn't the app mature enough to have a just full time dev behind to keep it updated with api changes?
Branch is apparently a $4B Silicon Valley startup, that raised $300M just two years ago. They can afford Nova's team of twelve, or at least more than one fucking dev. They even fired Cliff, the one guy doing support (social, Discord, email, etc).
That said, I wish they wouldn't have sold out. Nova is one of the few things I want to subscribe to, very well earned. Nobody can reasonably complain about $10-20 per year for "Prime Ultra" or something. I don't even see a donate button in settings.
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...
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.
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.
Gesundheit.
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 used Smart Launcher for a couple years. Functionally, it was on par, if not better, from my perspective
Fucking hell.
I've been using Nova for years, it's nice there are replacement recommendations on this thread.
People, calm down https://novalauncher.com/nova-aug-2024
For people who did not click the link:
The original Nova team, for many years, was just me. Eventually I added Cliff to handle customer support, and when Branch acquired Nova, Cliff continued with this role. I also had contracted Rob for some dev work prior to the Branch acquisition and some time after the acquisition closed we were able to bring him onboard as a contractor at Branch.
However, I've always been the lead and primary contributor to Nova Launcher and that hasn't changed. I will continue to control the direction and development of Nova Launcher.
Nice catch! Thanks for calming things down
I'm still looking for a launcher similar to nova. The two big things I want are the swipe action on homescreen icons. For example I set the swipe up on my phone app to directly call someone. And I have the swipe up on other apps open a separate app instead. Other thing is being able to create folders of apps in the app drawer.
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?
I stopped using it after it switched owner anyway
i'm still using nova (was a premium subscriber from before the sale) does anyone have anything compariable? mostly the ability to use legacy icons, scale the grid size, have multiple tabs and folders, hide icons, assign icons to multiple folders (and hopefully import nova launcher backups into a new place)?
i'm fine with google play though i'd love it if it was on fdroid or neo store.
I replaced Nova with Kvaesitso and honestly its pretty awesome.
Its more limited than Nova was but it meets my use cases. The biggest adjustment was using labels to filter things instead of using folders, which I've actually come to like better.
But plenty of customizations for everything else you mentioned and more.
I'd heartily recommend Niagara Launcher to anyone that wants something a little different.
It's good if that's what you want, but it is completely different from nova
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.
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.
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!
Btw i recommend kvaesitso. Idk what nova is like but kvaesitso is open source, has updates and is a very nice launcher in general. Its a bit hard to set-up at first because it uses widgets but after you figure it out its really nice.
I've been using Nova for a very long time. It has saved me all kinds of annoyance as I've switched phone brands and OS versions, since my basic UI has remained consistent.
Unless it actually takes a dive in quality, I will continue to use it, but this is disappointing news.
I looked for a new launcher when the sale was anounced a year ago and was sad to find no launvhers I can customize that much.
I went for Kvaesitso (https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso also on F-Droid) and stuck with it since. I really like the concept althought it might not be for everyone.
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.
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