Branch Metrics sucks. They fired almost of all people working for Nova.
Bad news.
Still waiting for https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases to get out of beta
Fun fact: the original Lawnchair’s founding developer is the TSA nofly list hacker
Dont go selling me harder on it.
I mean it is a fine launcher. Personally I use Pie Launcher cause I’m a bit insane. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.markusfisch.android.pielauncher/
Lol development on it halts and resumes almost randomly, I’ve given up hope long ago.
Which really sucks as it’s the only launcher to have QuickSwitch support AFAIK.Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
It’s pretty much already very usable. I have been on version 12 alpha for a long time and now on 14 beta 2, all in all since nearly a year.
Seems like it is missing a lot of the conveniences that I was once used to with Nova, though. No ability to reposition the search bar or keep it in place on other pages, no docked apps, no button to open the app drawer, the home screen grid has fixed padding and so on.
I’ve since switched to Niagara which has been okay, but I’ve never found anything else like Nova since.
I’ve had it freeze up on me several times, where I had to reset the app to get it working again. It works most of the time, but I wouldn’t recommend it yet for general use.
Immediately switches to google play to turn off auto update for Nova Launcher
Thanks for neminding me!
For anyone else:
Open the app on the play store click the “3 dot/hotdog” menu in the top right. You should be able to disable updates there.
And same for Prime add on
Implies it’s been getting any updates since the purchase :(
Google play reports an update with a few fixes a couple of months ago.
Yeah that’s really all it’s gotten since sold. Small bug fixes
You are better served by switching to a different launcher.
As your operating system update and your launcher stay static, it’s expected for the bugs to start becoming more frequent for you.
Here is some other launchers that you can switch to:
Open source:
Closed Source:
*shrugs*
The current state of Nova Launcher will take my four year old phone with Android 13 to the end of its life.
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?
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?
Stock Android with GrapheneOS :D
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.
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…
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’m currently on it because Neo Launcher stopped working one day, but is there a way to have app icons on the home screen without them being in the dock? It fills up quickly if you use PWA’s
Did a recent update really break it for you? I’ve had to move over to square home at the moment.
Neo Launcher is the way. FOSS with all the same features as Nova.
I switched to KISS launcher after I knew the company had bought the project. Never came back.
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.
trebuchet is good enough for me
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
On the plus side, #5 can relax at last.
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.
Same! I refuse to update it and got a little annoyed at a post I saw where the dev (at least I think it was him) said “hey it’s 1 year later and the world hasn’t exploded”. Found that a little annoying.
Let’s hope he gets control of the app back and can do nova again, without this shit baked in.
Edit: guess I should have RTFA first. Gross
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.