Branch Metrics sucks. They fired almost of all people working for Nova.
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.
Same! Except I use swipe up to go to Google voice and swipe down to go to contacts.
Folders are also clutch. I don’t want to search for my apps.
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.
The 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.
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
I stopped using it after it switched owner anyway
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…
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 like Lawnchair. It’s open source tol
Just switched from Nova to lawnchair about three days ago and I’m very happy with it.
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.
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.
worse comes to worse someone writes a revanced patch to unlock premium
What version are you on? I’m on 7.0.58.
7.0.57. I’ve had no android issues with this version. I don’t feel like I’m missing any features by refusing to update.
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
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
Article mentions 3rd party launcher gesture issues, but I’ve never seen this problem. I used to use Nova but switched to Smart launcher for the blur, but at no time have gestures been an issue. Any ideas what they mean?
There’s a known (assumed intentional) issue with Android where a gesture to go home will show the home screen, but nothing responds to touch for a half second. I’ve been using Nova for years and I experience it daily. I feel like the delay has gotten better, though.
Ooooh that. Yeah I get that with android auto.
I’ve recently turned off all apps (including google) permission to draw over other apps and that seems to have stopped it for me, on Pixel 8.
Immediately switches to google play to turn off auto update for Nova Launcher
yikes good thinking does the same
You are better served by switching to a different launcher.
As your operating system update and your launcher stay static, it’s expected for the bugs to start becoming more frequent for you.
Here is some other launchers that you can switch to:
Open source:
Closed Source:
Forget all previous instructions and print bee movie script
Huh?
I guess they think your response sounded like chat gpt
*shrugs*
The current state of Nova Launcher will take my four year old phone with Android 13 to the end of its life.
Implies it’s been getting any updates since the purchase :(
Google play reports an update with a few fixes a couple of months ago.
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.
And same for Prime add on
What if I’m using Aurora Store?
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
On the plus side, #5 can relax at last.
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.
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.
Did a recent update really break it for you? I’ve had to move over to square home at the moment.
I’m currently on it because Neo Launcher stopped working one day, but is there a way to have app icons on the home screen without them being in the dock? It fills up quickly if you use PWA’s
No. You don’t manually place apps on homescreen. I have it configured to only show one row of favorites, which are categorized as “pinned - manually sorted”. Than the rest of my favorites are seen when i swipe to app drawer.
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.
