End of an era: Nova Launcher's parent company lays off practically everyone
Layoffs have reduced the Nova Launcher from twelve members to just a single one man team. What does this mean for the launcher's future?
Branch Metrics sucks. They fired almost of all people working for Nova.
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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.
Does the new beta have the same features as the old one yet? Last time I tried it, I couldn't get it to work quite the same way.
Do you remember which features specifically were missing? It might be something I haven't used. For me it was a pretty straightforward upgrade from version 12.
The only problem I ran into was that adding widgets was a little funky when changing the grid size. I think I had to add the widgets before changing the grid size (I use a 5x10 grid) or they didn't align correctly. I encountered similar problems with many of the launchers I tried.
The folders in drawers are something I miss from the previous version. I can live without it, but that would be nice
Ah, I don't see a way to do that. Not sure how it used to work.
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.
I've never heard of Kvaesitso in particular, but I like simple, search focused launchers as they force you to specify what you want to do on your phone instead of letting you mindlessly open e.g. a distracting social media app.
If you have 100+ apps you're going to need either a ton of organization or a search tool. Some people will meticulously organize their apps into folders, while others go for the search
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?
It just means you have the option to do both. Kvaesitsio has the app drawer one would expect, and a persistent search bar.
Oh ok, thanks. Does it do homescreen icons and widgets? Last I tried it there was something I didn't like but I can't remember what.
It's very widget focused. You can have a few favourite apps ( either your own choice or most used)
Can do homescreen icons. It has a widgets "pane". You don't place them on the home screen but put all widgets together than swipe to widgets. You can configure kvaesitso so it's not too different from stock android experience.
I have 5 "favorite" apps at bottom of screen, above the search bar, similar to stock android.
I swipe left for my app drawer, which allows for more pinned favorites above full list.
I swipe up for all my widgets.
Swipe down for notifications, like stock.
Swipe right for my camera app.
There's also a shortcut option to use the search. I use Total launcher with a swipe up gesture shortcut to open kvaesito's search and app drawer.
Gesundheit.
Same here and I don't even use the search that much. Love it
I've been using Neo Launcher for a while, no complaints
+1 for neo launcher
I've also been using it for a while but I do have complaints. They introduced a few minor bugs when it went from omega to neo and despite them being reported over a year ago they've not made any fixes since. I use it because it's alright and not spying on me, but I'm always on the lookout for an improvement.
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 use total launcher also.
It's cumbersome. It's pain in the ass. But it works great with my pixel fold. I love it.
+1 for total launcher, it's customization is unmatched, paired with TREK: Total Interface (best 4 bucks I ever spent) and some tweaks you can end up with a slick Star Trek LCARS launcher
I used Smart Launcher for a couple years. Functionally, it was on par, if not better, from my perspective
commenting to watch for replies, because there's about a million of them and i will probably never feel like doing research on launchers
I loved Nova, but a couple of years ago, I found AIO, and it just blew nova out of the water for me. I look around to see if anything better comes along, but so far, I've not seen anything that gets close to AIO for me. It is so customizable, everything on one vertical scrollable screen, email, notifications, calendar, apps, weather. I absolutely love it!
I like Action Launcher, it's simple and close to Pixel.
Discreet Launcher from F-Droid
This,kvaesito and lawnchair are the only true alternwtives, but they are pretty different from nova and conventional launchers. lawnchair is the closest to those.
Square home!
This is what mine looks like:
I've been using Microsoft launcher for about a year now. It's surprisingly very customizable.
I like that one, but I hate everything going through Bing/MS services
I use Firefox with duck duck go. Even the launcher's default search bar lets you choose the engine.
Is Branch better than Microsoft?
Touche
Haha, it was a genuine question not a gotcha!
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
