I hate being hinted and asked to click on the link, so I save you a click:
It’s the end of an era: the founder and original developer of Nova Launcher — Kevin Barry — has stepped away from the development of the iconic custom launcher. This essentially marks the end of the road for the launcher, as it is unlikely to receive updates or new features. For years now, Nova Launcher has been the go-to launcher for power Android users, standing out for its plethora of customization options and features.
Now that Nova is in literal limbo, if not allegedly in the hands of some data miner, there should be talk about substitutes.
- This app may share these data types with third parties
- This app may collect these data types
I hate clickbait too. Just downvote posts like this
That talk about substitutes happened when it was initially handed over to said data miner, and anybody concerned should have switched back then. I did, moving to Lawnchair, and never looked back. Oodles of other options are doubtlessly available.
Lawnchair was too bare bones for me. However, I was able to recreate 90%+ of my Nova setup with Neo.
Hasn’t had a release since 2023 🫤
Their other projects are in active development, so I wouldn’t consider it to be abandoned.
I haven’t had any issues besides the desktop being occasionally unresponsive. Same thing used to happen to me in Nova.
It’s FOSS and suits my needs. But I can see why others may want to stay away from it.
I’m quite satisfied with lawn chair too
I would be so happy if Kevin got accidentally ‘hacked’ and the source leaked, by now im so ingrained in nova that it just feels wrong switching.
if not allegedly in the hands of some data miner,
it’s android. what do you expect? It’s one giant data miner.
I might be misremembering but wasn’t it bought out by one of those data harvesting companies a while ago?
Yes
deleted by creator
gahdam…end of an era. This sucks.
God DAMMIT.
I don’t know why, but this is some proverbial straw for me today. Motherfuck.
Same. I loudly exclaimed “FUUUUUUCK” as I read the article, much to the confusion of my partner.
For those coming looking for alternatives, this mega comparison chart is what I used to select an alternative launcher when I switched.
I would strongly recommend checking this site for the trackers in an app if you’re at all concerned about privacy. Links to each app’s exodus privacy report is also at the end of the table linked above.
Help a brother out, which one is closest to Nova? I don’t mind paying for good work, I just want home screens and being able to place my icons where I want, also widgets!
There’s no direct replacement. The features I use are in Pear launcher so I use that. You have to look through launcher comparisons to find the features you need.
I’ve made a post about this and some people are giving recommendations. Check out comments here: https://europe.pub/post/4256799
So if Neo started updating again I think it is the closest open source match?
100%
I stuck with Neo for ages waiting for updates to fix the last few issues…and they never came. Neo would be perfect if someone forked it and continued development.
Nice list. I recently started using Fossify Launcher and have been pretty happy with it. It’s simple but does what I need. Thought I’d mention it as it’s absent from that list.
Fossify is a tad too basic for me. I use the dialler and calculator. Both have slight issues. The calculator always starts with zero so tapping 1416 will give you 14016.
Dialler doesnt seem to wake or respond as quick as others.
I take it as it is given I know it is private and open but still there are gaps in UI and UX with foss that I wish were a bigger priority.
Use Qalculate!, the only calculator app everyone needs.
Speaking of calculators on android, I recently found an old silver link cable on ebay, which connects TI calculators to a computer, allowing me to dump the ROM of my old TI89. Loading up that rom in the ‘graph89’ emulator app is an amazing addition to a phone. Blows the socks off any calculator app.
But yes, fossify apps are simple. They do seem to be under active development, so hopefully they shape up nicely in the future.
Niagara is my favorite by far, i have been paying for pro for years
Man, I’ve been using it for a long time. I was going to buy the forever sub a while ago and never did. When did it jump to $42. I could’ve sworn it was like 20.
Yup, switched to Niagara a few years ago and I don’t intend to ever switch again.
I don’t even know how to use Android without Nova…
Why does nothing good ever last?
I switched to Niagara a few years back because Nova didn’t have good support for foldables and tbh I haven’t looked back. It’s very different but once you get used to it it’s much faster than a traditional launcher.
I switched to Niagara a few years ago when Nova was sold. True game changer once you get used to it (which doesn’t take too long). It works great on phone or tablet. And there is still something SO satisfying about watching the alphabet and apps move with your thumb. It’s so smooth and the haptic feedback is perfect (running on Pixel 7, GrapheneOS, and a cheap old Samsung tablet A8).
Random video showing the UI within the first minute:
I’ve been using Niagara for about 6 months now and love it. Having the alphabet down the side of the home screen for immediate 2 tap access to any app is so slick.
I like Olauncher a lot but I can’t do like a feature comparison with Nova, I never used it. Hope you find something good to replace it with though!
Yep, have been using and currently using Nova for the last 8 years I think. Suuucks to see it go as I couldn’t find a viable search based launcher like Nova when it was sold.
I don’t understand the point of most of Android launchers, since they don’tcreally look that different from each other.
To feed you ads, or make you pay for nothing special. Nova - the launcher from the article - is great, very customizable, and lightweight.
That’s just not true, especially with Nova, the one this article is talking about. Nova lets you customise basically everything.
Dammit. I knew I should she already switched once they were bought but I couldn’t find anything that matched the features at the time.
I really like being able to set swipe actions on my icons. For example swiping up or down on an icon will open an alternative app, folder, or a specific functionality. It’s allowed me to keep a clean screen while keeping everything I need accessible.
This literally the only feature I care about. How has no other launcher done that?
I’m surprised too. It’s a killer feature. Any launcher that implements it would get a lot of us as new users.
That’s the one feature I am missing after switching to Lawnchair. This and the additional gestures it allowed to configure which I used extensively for like quickly opening my 2FA app. Man how I miss those features…
I just use the Fairphone 2 Launcher and it’s fine 🤷🏻
I used Nova on my last phone and it worked great, I paid for pro. So I know what I’m missing, not worth it to get back in the Google Play Store system though. I like being anon with no Google account, especially considering Nova sold to a company that data mines user data?
KISS has been the only reasonable launcher ever since Android ruined it’s overview system.
Mine for the last 3 years
KISS is so good. It’s 100% the fastest way to get to where you wanna be when you pull up your phone.
It’s sad to see it go, for people that want to try a minimalist launcher, ap15 is great.
Does anyone have recommendations to replace Nova?
I love my Niagara Launcher ! it’s a different concept than most launchers, and looks pretty spartan on first glance, but it’s sleek, efficient and can look absolutely fabulous. The Pro stuff is a bit pricey, but it has a good privacy policy, autodelete data older than a year, and are GDPR compliant.
autodelete data older than a year
okay, but why do they collect the data in the first place?
telemetry and crash reporting, and stuff like public statistics. Here’s the “Easy to read” privacy policy: https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/109-privacy-policy-summary
They explicitly state that they sell a launcher, not data.
There’s no direct replacement. The features I use are in Pear launcher so I use that. You have to look through launcher comparisons to find the features you need.
Also, I’m surprised purple are still using Nova. I thought most people abandoned it after it got sold.
I installed it on my HTC one and have used the exact same wallpaper and layout ever since. Change is scary and let’s be real.
Who the ACTUAL fuck pays attention to the launcher they are using. They find one they like and then unless something breaks they forget they are even using one.
It has been owned by a data mining company for a number of years.
Sure, but the duration of the ownership doesn’t matter a whole lot in this sort of situation. If you’ve missed the news about the selling when it happened, it’s relatively unlikely you’ll learn about it afterwards. I don’t periodically do a background check of all the devs and owners of my apps.
I’m using it without updates
because it is much more stable, plenty of customisation and ofc one time payment.
Have been using Neo Launcher since it had the features I needed from Nova (mostly hiding most apps from the app list while having them on the home screen in some folder so that it isn’t a mess when you want to find something specific). It hasn’t been updated in a while, but it works perfectly fine for me.
Action launcher is a good replacement that I don’t see recommended. Still updated, stuffed with features. The main one I miss on other launchers is “covers” which let you promote one app as the default for a folder, you can swipe it instead of tapping to open the folder or tap to open the default. I only really use about 10 or so apps super regularly, so it’s great as I just have a single home screen that I rarely need to leave
I actually switched from Action Laucnher to Nova because the former kept crashing.
I used it exclusively from Nexus and Pixel and now on the Fairphone 6. Probably works better on more stock android? Idk it is pretty solid for me and I recommend it
Trebuchet seems good…?
It’s very much not a classic launcher and takes some getting used to, but Kvaesitso is nice.
I’m using Kvaesitso as well. But just looked at the permissions and I am shocked. Don’t know when the permissions changed, but I’m switching right now.
There is no way to use the built in features without those permissions I think. Like weather (location), search contacts and calendars, …
I think they have been there a long time. It also needs pretty deep access if you want it to open notifications bar and more…
Someone correct me if I’m wrong
Is it not open source and on F-Droid? I used it before switching to Niagara.
Pretty sure that just has to do with how widgets are integrated
Those are for widgets that you choose to enable. Hard to access search features without permission to search, if you don’t want them, all you have to do is … not enable them / disable them if you flipped the on …
Kvaesitso is awesome, updates regularly, and was the best launcher I found that worked for my use case transition from Nova.
Granted I avoided trying a lot of the Freemium ones, or others.that were corporate controlled. Not interested in a forced migration 2.0, open source is nice cause it can always be forked if something happens.
It’s a launcher, it can do a heck of a lot of things, and needs permissions to be able to do so.
But you don’t actually have to allow any of them in modern Androids if you don’t need those features. Nova Launcher also has quite a list, but I haven’t actually enabled any of them, it has never asked to, and everything works fine.
It took me two tries to get used to Kvaesitso but now I love it. I was using Nova until the Branch acquisition, then briefly tried lawnchair but had to move on as it wasn’t very stable. Once I realised I could start apps by pressing enter after searching I found it much quicker than scrolling through an app drawer. Unless you can’t remember the name of the app that is.
Octopi Launcher seems quite promising.
I’ve been using Hyperion for a few years. I mostly wanted something with app drawer folders like nova offered and this was the best I could find
if you are asking about combinations of customisations, flexibility and stability. none atm.
Have you tried total launcher? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ss.launcher2 I used it in the past and the amount of customization was huge.
But then I got old and wanted something simpler. Been using Kvaesitso for the last years https://kvaesitso.mm20.de/
I use Total. I keep trying other launchers, but none come close to the level of customisation.
I have created such specific layout and navigation that anything else is annoying and slow to use.
I switched from Nova to Smart Launcher and haven’t looked back.
I’ve been using smart launcher for years it’s automatic categorization is amazing. Though, wanting change, I recently started using Niagara, and like the minimalist approach too.
I switched to Niagara after Nova added the shitload of trackers, and i love it. At first i thought: what, i should only place 7 elements on my homescreen? But it really works and it didn’t even take a day of active use that i knew i had to get the Pro version. Was the first time i ever put down money on a launcher, but i’ve been using it for years now and hope i will never need to replace it, because there’s nothing that comes close.
Edit: damn, i read like a goddamn adbot. No, i am really human and like it lol.
Bot Disproval: Xi Pooh Bear Tienanmen Square Gaza Uyghur GenocideI put more. But the ones I use less are on the bottom. So it’s there for quick use, but I don’t have it there all the time.
I’ve been using Lightning Launcher for over a decade now.
It’s no longer on play store, but a version is available at https://github.com/TrianguloY/LightningLauncher
Lots of customization options.
I have used and enjoyed lawnchair for the past year. It’s quite minimal and I’ve found it very stable.
