Nova Launcher could soon introduce Nova AI, a built-in AI assistant complete with a chatbot, and a new Nova Plus subscription tier
The hell happened? First it was ads, now this bs. It was such a good launcher too.
The end began 4 years ago. Now they’re set up to grift anyone using the app.
damn i remember the good old days with Nova where everything was so smooth. Evie launcher too. And even we have many problems with them, Microsoft launcher was good in the beginning.
There were many good options. Now it’s just Niagara Launcher that doesn’t suck.
Edit: I see Octopi getting mentioned a lot. Might have to check that one out.
If anyone wants to switch to a more customisable launcher, look up total launcher. You can build the launcher in your own style from a blank template. The only thing that comes close is klwp.
A third party launcher for Android(homescreen). It was very beloved for being clean and lightweight while also having a bunch of customization.
It was bought up by an adware company not long ago.
If I didn’t found Octopi launcher a couple months back, and jumped ship from my overly customized Nova setup, this would definitely have made me switch now.
I had it since at least 2018. At least from then were the 5 stars reviews I had left, now replaced with 1 star ones…
You just solved one of my long-standing problems! I’ve been looking for a launcher that could replace Nova for me, but I hadn’t been able to find anything that really did the job. Octopi for the win!
I am in the process of moving over my highly-customized setup now. And I made the larger of the two donations, in support of the app.
Thanks for suggesting it and thanks to the developer who built it!
missed a chance with that headline " sucks off all your data"
You know some people beat this drum that more people should pay for good software and that it guarantees it’s longevity and independence, and so I did buy the pro version of Nova years ago and now we are here, I think when it comes to software unless it’s open source and you can have full control over it then it’s not worth anything, as it’s only matter of time before it either gets deleted or enshitified, that’s why I started shifting to open source alternatives for most things
What have they done to my boy
You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain.
It’s true even for apps.
Total enshittification. Practically conned then kicked out the original team so that they make their own intrusive changes.
Hell, any data they harvest will and can be sold to other parties. God knows how much fucking lunatic Peter could be offering them.
If anyone is stubborn enough and until someone makes a near 1:1 version – and Lawnchair is functionally close to what Nova does – do backup the existing settings, uninstall the app, roll back to the pre-2022 7.0.57b version, sideload install, then from GPlay disable auto-updating for the app. Yeah, and put restrictions on the app from trying to do telemetry.
I still got my Nova7 Pre-Branch .apk saved on my NAS. I really should try to find a replacement but so far it works as expected.
This is what I ended up doing. Keeps it in the older untarnished state, things still work fine. Telemetry hadn’t been added yet
I’m surprised people are still using this. I haven’t used Nova for almost a decade.
I’ve been quite happy with Niagara for the last few months.
+1 for Niagara, plus even though you don’t have to, pro features can be purchased outside of Google Play.
+2 for offering a lifetime purchase option (though it is kinda pricey)
Nova has a life time buy too. Fat fucking lot of good that did.
Far as I’m concerned if it ain’t a private company with no investors open source products and functions entirely offline. Even then I don’t fucking trust em.
Companies and their promises are worth less than the horse shit up in my barn.
Somebody please give me a lightweight alternative.
Had the pro version for years. I dont want niagra or lawnchair. The pixel launcher sucks.
KISS launcher. It’s the lightest weight option I know of. It also is the only one with a half decent dock. For some fucking reason every modern launcher has decided docks suck.
I have been enjoying octopi launcher. Has pretty much the same as nova for settings and shortcuts.
Oh wow. Octopi has free placement of widgets and icons. I’m sold.
It’s made some pretty significant additions lately that makes it a viable replacement for Nova.
Go foss to avoid further enshittification.
Smart launcher will let you import your nova backup and transition seamlessly. That’s my recommendation.
I hate this suggestion but it is the only one I’ve been able to stomach as something that operates like Nova: Microsoft Launcher
Its actually quite decent and mostly seems to be a forgotten piece of software so it hasn’t been enshitified.
I did come across it and it looked good but I cant instlall it. Its bad enough google are on my phone.
I did install Niagra and it seems better than before.
Lawnchair
Moved to action launcher after the sale. Enshittification was inevitable.
Other people are still rocking Action Launcher? I thought I was the only one left. Covers are my favourite feature.
What a great advertisement for almost any other launcher.
Lawnchair is my go to if anyone wants a pretty simple and customizable launcher that respects your privacy.
It sounded interesting so I gave it a look and realized that I’ve been using it for years now and it’s just so unobtrusive that I forgot about it.
+1. Just last week they added the ability to import Nova backups.
I second this. Lawnchair is great.
I’ve tested several popular ones and landed at Lawnchair as well. Plus point for being FOSS.
I downloaded the APK for the old version before they added the spyware and bloatware, but i turned off auto updates and Google Play keeps trying to get me to update Nova launcher to the newest version 🥱
Not going to happen and the best part is there was no forced update within the app so im going to keep using the old one till it breaks.
Switched about a year ago and it works perfectly!
Oh yay creepware. Anyone know a good launcher with support for tablets?
I switched from Nova to Smart Launcher.
Missing a few things I liked but still super capable
Lawnchair?
Neo Launcher is a near 1-1 clone of Nova Launcher imo, and it’s open source
Kvaesitso