End of an era: Nova Launcher's parent company lays off practically everyone

Bad news.

Still waiting for https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases to get out of beta

Immediately switches to google play to turn off auto update for Nova Launcher

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.

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.

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?

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...

Fucking hell.

I've been using Nova for years, it's nice there are replacement recommendations on this thread.

This basically means I'll ditch Samsung, because frankly their stock launcher sucks donkey balls.

People, calm down https://novalauncher.com/nova-aug-2024

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

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.

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'd heartily recommend Niagara Launcher to anyone that wants something a little different.

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 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.

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.

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

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?

I switched to KISS launcher after I knew the company had bought the project. Never came back.

trebuchet is good enough for me

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.

Crap, I recently migrated to Nova because I was fed up with Action Launcher bugs and lack of development... If I knew I would not have bought a paid license

Missun Faiuled, we'll giet 'm neaxut tiume

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.

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.

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...

Goodnight, sweet prince.

I mean I'm still gonna use nova launcher