Uninstalled within seconds. I’m trialling Hyperion launcher now, which seems pretty crisp.
Nova sold to shitheels, I switched to Lawn Chair a customizable FOSS Launcher
Lawn Chair is so good
I just tried Lawn Chair. Started building my home screen by adding two games to a folder. It dropped the second game right on my home page as well as adding it to a folder. Then, when I tried to remove the duplicate, it crashed.
I’m guessing this is not at all typical and this is a “me” problem, otherwise nobody would ever recommend it. :P
Uff I installed it last week but I haven’t had the time to customize it and add all my shortcuts so I’m still using Nova. I definitely need to change it tomorrow
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I’ve liked lawnchair better than Nova since it was in a pre-release state years ago. I admit I haven’t used either in at least 5 years, probably longer, so this opinion might be grossly out of date, but when I last tried it I was 90% convinced that it was just the KitKat aosp launcher with a material skin. It just felt clunky. Lawnchair actually felt native to newer android versions while still having all the customizations I needed.
Again, I haven’t used either launcher in forever, so take this whole thing with an agricultural block of salt
Lawn Chair looks ok, but unless they fix this issue I will not switch.
https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/issues/2683
Basically you can’t set the main “home page”, ie where you end up on home press. I like to have it set up so the home is in the middle and then you can swipe left to go to another screen(s), and swipe right to go to other screen(s).
Forcing the home screen to be the first means you can only swipe right, and have to go through many useless screens to get to the one you want.
Doubt they will fix it either, as it has been open since 2022. Without knowing their stack it sounds like a really simple fix, just storw which is the main screen. Normally it is [1], 2, 3, 4. But let the user choose to put it as [3] for example if they want.
Without knowing their stack it sounds like a really simple fix, just storw which is the main screen.
Soooo… if it’s simple… contribute then?
I’ve learned an app’s stack for far more mundane things. If you want others to build something you want, it helps to build things other’s want. Sounds like there would be a lot of interest if you took this on.
I’ve switched, but this really is my one major gripe. Good to see others see it as a priority too, but if it’s been a conversation for 4 years then I’m not optimistic
They recently started on wraparound homescreens (still a little buggy), so that might indicate they could soon add it. Still waiting on a way to remive widget paddings. In general lawnchair has so much more padding than nova, and not enough customizability to remove it.
and have to go through many useless screens to get to the one you want.
Two things.
Clean your shit up and prioritize. Everything I could ever dream of is on one screen.
Second, it’s foss. Contribute.
Classic “the product/UX doesn’t need fixing, you’re just using it wrong” mentality. Not exactly how you win users on your side.
Second, it’s foss. Contribute.
Agree on this point though
Or, hear me out, solve this trivial problem by reintroducing what has been a basic feature of launchers forever.
Has it though? I can’t say I’ve ever seen it, and I go out of my way to look at settings for everything
PR welcome. Either by you, or by paying a dev to do it.
nova was good many years ago. iirc they got bought by an advertising company, and that was the day i deleted it.
!
Plug for open source launchers like Lawnchair
I just checked out the website and I’m having a hard time understanding what the point of it is. I’ve never installed any sort of custom launcher, so maybe I’m missing out, but the application advertises itself on being very similar to the regular pixel launcher, not needing root access, and nothing else. Even in the FAQ I only see that it supports some plugin that upgrades some widget, unless you have root where it supports whatever you can do with the “recents api”. Neither of those seem remotely worth it. So what does it actually do?
So what does it actually do?
It replaces the launcher (“desktop”) of your phone with something else. Maybe something faster, or using less resources, or something you can customize to your taste.
I haven’t used the pixel launcher in ages, but last time I did, you could not remove the “search bar”. That alone justifies a different launcher to me.
I switched to Lawnchair when Google starting messing with the search bar. They added features right where my thumb would press to use the search bar, so I was constantly opening an AI search that I did not want. Lawnchair let me stick with a launcher I liked and was used to, but gave me the customizability to get rid of bullshit like that.
And I generally don’t like change, and I certainly don’t want to have to do any work to facilitate a change that I don’t like in the first place, but Lawnchair was incredibly easy to set up and go. Runs basically like an app, you change your default launcher to Lawnchair (and I assume this step is similar for any launcher you’d use), and bam, runs on top of everything and that’s that. Simplicity is key for a simple guy like me.
The main thing for me, it gets google out of the picture. No AI, no google search bar, etc.
It also allows me to manage apps in the app drawer. I can hide any stock apps, and put less commonly uses apps in to folders (I miss tabs on Nova). Instead of scrolling through pages of home screen, I swipe up and can see all my common apps at once, no scrolling. The home screen now has free space for widgets.
By default it does look similar. However it has customization options comparable to Nova, or at least I was able to easily replicate how I’d configured it.
Sure, but what are those? Maybe I’m the issue, but the website seems to be made for people who are already intimately familiar with the possibilities of a custom launcher, because they’re hardly listed anywhere, there’s no list of features or anything.
Well, there is one list, but it’s
- “Pixel design, but more customizable somehow” How? Dunno, isn’t explained
- “The latest android features” which is cool but also something I have on my stock launcher
- “QuickSwitch support” which is not explained (some research makes me believe it’s API access to the default launcher that’s needed to show recent applications, which is also a feature my native launcher has) and needs root according to the FAQ. So can I not access my recent applications if my phone isn’t rooted?
And the wiki is just from the dev side, which is interesting, but doesn’t provide the proper info. I’m sure it’s cool if so many people here like it, but the website’s doing a poor job at showing that off.
Edit: Basically it seems to me like the selling points of most Android forks, which are generally “We’re slightly worse in some areas, but generally have feature-parity, possibly slightly better customization/settings, and you’re free of Google spyware” which is admittedly a selling point, but here you don’t even get rid of spyware if you’re on regular Android, and if you are already on a fork, then why bother?
I would suggest simply installing it to see if you like it, or remove it if you don’t. Customization is not something easy to describe without listing menu items
how did you end up in this thread if you don’t already know what a launcher is?
Let’s try a metaphor. Say I have a bike. Someone’s trying to sell me another bike, based on it having two wheels, both compatible with standard tubes, and optionally having a luggage rack, if I bring my own and attach it. Then I would also be asking them what their bike actually does and why I should bother swapping mine out for theirs, because it just looks like an extremely standard bike. It doesn’t mean I do not know what a bike is.
The question about lawnchair specifically has mostly been answered by comments now, but the website still does a very poor job explaining what it does over any other launcher, especially compared to the stock one.
I switched over to Lawnchair leaving Nova Launcher just last week. All the Lemmy articles about the new owners forced my hand. Perfect timing!
Moved in the last couple of days to Lawnchair. Very happy with it. You can set the icon size very small to fit everything on the HomeScreen.
WTF is going on? I’ve never seen an ad in my Nova Launcher. I’ll switch immediately if I ever see one. Did they add them to widgets? Does this only apply to the free version?
I would recommend switching already. Even if you don’t get ads, Nova Launcher is tracking you and sharing your information with Facebook and other sketchy companies.
And that license is now in the pile of licenses that used to be worth something, but are now junk.
Little sad trumpet player eulogizing this mess.
oh damn :( I used to use it but that was several years ago and it seems quite a bit has changed…
I’m in the same boat; Nova was the first non-stock launcher I ever used. RIP to the memories
you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain
They asked for ad permissions so I uninstalled and now giving Niagara a go. Have a try, it’s different.
It pops up just like a gravestone. Bye bye Nova launcher. I guess apps don’t die, they rot from enshitification.
I used Nova for as long as it’s been a thing. Paid for pro. Abandoned it immediately after they released the news a few weeks ago about the tracking and ads.
I switched to Octopi Launcher. It’s really good, and in active development. Author listens to his users and is always adding fun new features.
+1 for Octopi launcher. Very nice.
Ive been using the FOSS launcher Kvaesitso for about a year now due to annoyances with Nova. It’s a different setup entirely, but I always preferred the app drawer over having scattered icons on the homescreen so its worked great for me. Anyone interested in trying something new should check it out. :)
That’s what I’ve been using, but I still prefer Nova’s ability to create folders, I could open most apps I needed in an instant by sliding to the correct screen, opening the folder and tapping the app. With Kvaesitso even with categories and such it’s much more of a hassle, the fastest way is typing the first letters of the name, not the same.
I made pseudo folders by applying tags to apps I wanted to group, gave that tag an emoji, added a few app boxes to the widget page, and added the tags I wanted quick access to into those app boxes. Result looks like this.
Used Nova for almost a decade. Switched a few weeks ago when the news broke of them adding ad tracking.
I like Kvaesitso so far.
No easy way to put icons on home the screen… wow why are these developers obsessed with getting rid of the icons, I need those damned things.
Finally settled on FOOS Launcher on Fdroid, does everything I need, but still buggy as hell.
I mean, that was a feature not a bug for me. After using Nova for so long I actually liked the way Kvaesitso shook it up, almost felt like a whole new phone. I honestly already did minimum icons on home using Nova anyway, grouping as much as possible into minimum folders, smallest size.
Of course, it won’t be for everyone. If you really like icons on home, I also tried Lawnchair and Octopi and they were pretty solid.
Enshittification
I’m enjoying a lot using Dragon Launcher, it’s a bit more complex with a bit of a learning curve but really nice once you get used to it. It’s less known so I’m trying to increase its visibility because it deserve all the love it can get.
Can you elaborate a bit on what makes it hard to learn and what is so nice about it once you do? I didn’t see much for details on the linked page.
