I switched to Lawnchair a while back (android 14 broke folders in nova for me). It’s not got the same depth of customisation, but ive found it pretty good alternative. And so far seems quick and reliable.
Can you group the app drawer by letter so that I can immediately jump to ‘S’ to launch Sync for Lemmy? It’s pretty much the entire reason I can’t move away from Microsoft Launcher. I feel this is an essential feature, and I’ve tried basically every launcher I can find.
I still use version 7 of Nova, it’s the only launcher in the market that knows how to handle icons. Any other is frankly a disaster, they can’t make them look good at all.
Why do you need a new launcher? You’re good to go for several years until (if) Android implements some completely new feature. Right now Nova has pretty much everything.
I’m not used to it, if I need something in the middle/end, I have to scroll to the bottom. I know it has letters but I’m not used to it so I keep forgetting
I used KISS for a while and found mlauncher, which is similar in concept, to work better for me. I had to force KISS to restart frequently enough where it became a problem.
I used Nova for years. When they got bought out I switched to a bunch of different launchers. My favorite turned out to be Kvaesitso.
It was weird for me at first because having apps on the main screen was something I’ve grown acustomed to. You can have a row if you want though. There is an option. After using it for a few weeks, I realized their layout works best for me.
Let me know if there are other launchers you recommend. I appreciate it.
I tried to like Kvaezitso, and I loved some of the features, but it’s too strict in others that I didn’t like. I want Lawnchair and Kvaezitso to make love and have a perfect baby.
KISS launcher is exactly what I was looking for in a launcher. 5 always used apps at the bottom calendar and weather widgets on the home screen, search for everything else. It seems like it used to have a lot of problems with custom icons but lately it’s been pretty much perfect.
I’ve been using KISS for a couple years now very successfully and I love it.
Should you decide to stick with it, here’s two tiny tips:
Should the custom icons ever actually give you trouble, most issues can be fixed by going to the KISS Launcher options → Advanced → Restart KISS. It will reload all items from scratch.
You can actually have a couple more ‘quick access’ apps set by going to KISS Launcher options → User experience → Gestures and defining ‘Launch…’ actions. For example, I launch my messaging app with a right swipe, my e-mails with a left swipe and note-taking with a long hold anywhere on the launcher.
I’ve been using Neo Launcher for a while as a Nova replacement and it’s pretty good. Both of those features are included as well as things like shortcut actions when you double tap or swipe on the home screen.
Omg thanks for asking this, and thanks to the people that responded. I sincerely went through other alternatives around 5 years ago, and none of them were close to Nova in terms of folder customisation. I’m glad the landscape had changed quite a bit!
Does anyone know of a good open-source launcher? I know there’s FastDraw and Olauncher, but I wouldn’t mind having some more alternatives to try out just to find one that truly works best for me.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
I switched to Lawnchair a while back (android 14 broke folders in nova for me). It’s not got the same depth of customisation, but ive found it pretty good alternative. And so far seems quick and reliable.
I’ve been working on a launcher for a while now, do help me test it out!
Features include:
Planned features include:
https://lemmy.world/post/14530643
Can you group the app drawer by letter so that I can immediately jump to ‘S’ to launch Sync for Lemmy? It’s pretty much the entire reason I can’t move away from Microsoft Launcher. I feel this is an essential feature, and I’ve tried basically every launcher I can find.
Do you mean the A-Z bar on the right of the drawer in Microsoft Launcher?
Not open source, a little disappointed. I’ll give it a try when it is
Novalauncher 6.2.19, before they added telemetry
removed by mod
I still use version 7 of Nova, it’s the only launcher in the market that knows how to handle icons. Any other is frankly a disaster, they can’t make them look good at all.
Why do you need a new launcher? You’re good to go for several years until (if) Android implements some completely new feature. Right now Nova has pretty much everything.
Yeah, just use an older version, don’t update, and it’ll function fine for a while.
Been using KISS over at F-droid for a few years now after moving on from Nova Launcher. It isn’t for everyone but it isn’t run by goons.
Tried it but it has a few things I don’t like, minor things but the most important is the apps drawer as list
Fair, it has a drawer that’s a list but i realize it is slightly different than expectation.
I’m not used to it, if I need something in the middle/end, I have to scroll to the bottom. I know it has letters but I’m not used to it so I keep forgetting
Yeah takes a little bit to get used to.
I used KISS for a while and found mlauncher, which is similar in concept, to work better for me. I had to force KISS to restart frequently enough where it became a problem.
Cool, with FOSS I’ll give this a try and if I like it enough, I’ll stick with it and toss a few bines towards the devs. Thanks!
I used Nova for years. When they got bought out I switched to a bunch of different launchers. My favorite turned out to be Kvaesitso.
It was weird for me at first because having apps on the main screen was something I’ve grown acustomed to. You can have a row if you want though. There is an option. After using it for a few weeks, I realized their layout works best for me.
Let me know if there are other launchers you recommend. I appreciate it.
I tried to like Kvaezitso, and I loved some of the features, but it’s too strict in others that I didn’t like. I want Lawnchair and Kvaezitso to make love and have a perfect baby.
When I found out how scummy they were with user data I moved to KISS launcher. It took a few days to get used to but I’m very happy with it now.
KISS launcher is exactly what I was looking for in a launcher. 5 always used apps at the bottom calendar and weather widgets on the home screen, search for everything else. It seems like it used to have a lot of problems with custom icons but lately it’s been pretty much perfect.
I’ve been using KISS for a couple years now very successfully and I love it.
Should you decide to stick with it, here’s two tiny tips:
I’ve actually been using it for years but I’ve never messed with the launch gestures before. That’s a super useful feature.
Dammit lol that’s the one I picked to use
Maybe it will keep working unchanged for a while
Noe launcher. used nova on my pixel 6, now neo on my pixel 8
This hasn’t been updated for almost two years, at least on f droid. And I had massive issues with my pixel 8 pro
interesting. why would pro have issues when the base 8 doesn’t. 🤷
Initially I thought I fucked up my imported config from my OnePlus, but even after setting it up freshly it just wasn’t stable.
There hasn’t been a release in some time but work is still being done.
https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Launcher/commits/main/
Interesting to see, but I’m waiting for a release 😞
Are there any launchers that have Nova’s 2 best features?
I’ve tried Lawnchair and it was missing these 2 features. I will switch to any launcher that supports these!
Action Launcher has this I think.
I’ve been using Neo Launcher for a while as a Nova replacement and it’s pretty good. Both of those features are included as well as things like shortcut actions when you double tap or swipe on the home screen.
Total Launcher does both of those. It’s massively customisable, although a bit daunting-looking in places. I love it though.
For me, it’s the ability to add multiple apps to folders with a checklist.
Omg thanks for asking this, and thanks to the people that responded. I sincerely went through other alternatives around 5 years ago, and none of them were close to Nova in terms of folder customisation. I’m glad the landscape had changed quite a bit!
Been using smart launcher for a while. I like that the pro version offers blur.
It was the “end of an era” when they were sold off to a data-mining company years ago.
Does anyone know of a good open-source launcher? I know there’s FastDraw and Olauncher, but I wouldn’t mind having some more alternatives to try out just to find one that truly works best for me.
KISS is great if you want something really simple that works well.