I’ve been using KISS for I don’t know how many years at this point. I can’t imagine using anything else at this point. I’m sure that there’s plenty of other great FOSS launchers out there!
mostly yes but it will depend how you block your Internet connection, with exception GrapheneOS approach all the other ways to “block” internet on Android devices may leak some data.
The chances of some data being leaked is always possible but I’ll roll the dice if it means getting to keep using a launcher that’s not god awful or pixel-based until some other launchers become more mature.
If we’re were talking financial information or something, sure, the chance of leaks is a huge problem, but some usage analytics leaking is more annoying than anything else.
Saved for the launcher recommendations, although all of my experiences with them have been bad because of the broken animations since A12 I think… Some look slightly better, like kvaesitso.
Lawnchair is a fork of the original pixel launcher that gives some quality of life upgrades to an already good piece of software, like being able to remove the search bar, resizable / reshapable icons and fonts usw. Its also open source, so feel free to check out the github.
There is no app store release right now but they are working on it. I’ve used the alpha versions for two years now and it has worked fine so far.
Yeah I tried it too and that’s a major no go right there. The fact it’s based off pixel launcher is killing my interest out of the gate, but I at least hoped that it would provide the same degree of customization options and tools as Nova. Doesn’t look like it, and no ability to call the app drawer without swiping.
Frankly any app that pushes gestures as the default navigation method without respecting people that just want to use buttons and taps, I can’t say I’m interested.
Guess I’m sticking with Nova 7 until it just stops working.
The choice gesture vs. nav button is usually part of android itself. In my case (pixel with therefor nearly stock android) its in settings -> system -> navigation mode (or something similar since its in german in my case). If you can’t find it, search for “navigation button your phone model”.
Edit: sorry, i just realized you meant the app drawer, not the overview of currently opened apps. I don’t know the answer to that.
Edit edit: ok i found something in lawnchairs settings. The last setting is called gestures. If you have navigation buttons enabled instead of nav gestures (see above) you could bind the home button to open the app drawer.
The last setting is called gestures. If you have navigation buttons enabled instead of nav gestures (see above) you could bind the home button to open the app drawer.
That would mean unbinding it from another feature. It feels kind of ridiculous that I have to devote my home button to something that should just be tappable on screen if three button navigation is being used.
Switched back to action launcher when this happened
Main feature I love, which to my knowledge action did first anyway, is to have a folder of app icons where one is the most frequent. You tap on it to open the frequent option or swipe it to open the folder.
Basically means you almost never need the app deserter l drawer
You can stay on Nova 7, it’s not going to stop working. Nova 8 is what you want to avoid, so you just can’t let it update to a new version that will have all of the bullshit put in.
Obviously that’s not a permanent solution but there’s no reason to throw away Nova 7 right now if it’s works for you.
The last clean version was Nova 7.0.57
Install that APK, redownload the Nova prime app from Play store, they work together fine.
Ok so I just started digging for alternatives, thanks to your question.
I had previously simply deactivated network access for Nova (Settings -> Apps -> App Management -> Select Nova -> Data Usage -> Disable Mobile Data, Disable Wi-Fi, and flick the switch for Background Data for good measure.
Now, that will result in a toast on the main screen every time you unlock the phone “Data for Nova7 is disabled, you can activate it in the settings”. This might however be a OnePlus specific error, since searching for it only gives me a result in their product forum.
Nevertheless, I dug around with LogCat Reader and found that the message is displayed by com.android.systemui. Not really surprising, but I wasn’t sure which exact system resource is responsible. So then I went ahead with AppOps and set the “Display Toast” permission to “Ignore”, and voila.
Caveats:
You need root to use AppOps
You won’t get any toast now (I don’t actually remember seeing any useful ones in over a decade, but there might be something out there)
Check out TrackerControl on the F-Droid app store. It lets you block Internet access to individual apps and selectively block trackers and other analytics. It does this by acting as a VPN in the android OS so it won’t work while on another VPN but that’s good enough for my needs.
The only caveat is that it’s setting itself up as a local VPN for the block/allow list, so you can’t use it in parallel with an actual VPN. My workaround is to have my actual VPN installed directly on the router both at home and at work, which covers 98% of my use cases.
I haven’t found anything yet, Nova has always been the best. I’ve been using Nova since the early years like version 2 or something like that. When I heard they were going to be bought and uninstall went to vanilla Google launcher, and searched high and low for another launcher. I tried dozens over a few months and literally nothing was close to Nova. So here I am, typing this to you in an app that was launched through Nova…
Please, please, please someone make a good launcher.
I’ll probably try lawnchair again, but it isn’t nearly as good.
I switched to Lawnchair 2. It’s free, open source and quite versatile. Probably not as much as Nova, though it’s been a few years since I last used it.
Lawnchair 2 is no longer under development. The development team always starts to develop a new launcher based on the latest stock launcher every time a new Android version is released (so basically every year). This way the app usually never gets past the alpha or beta builds till they already move on to start from scratch. I don’t understand their strategy.
It is significantly less than Nova. People keep suggesting it but it’s not a true replacement for those that were actually using Nova to its full potential. They’re frankly isn’t a replacement right now that goes all out on providing users customization options. That’s not in vogue anymore, apparently.
I see, I installed it through Aurora on my device. But you can just download the apk from their Github or https://lawnchair.app/ instead. Only Google PlayStore seems to have disabled the download even though the app still works perfectly fine.
I got bored but then I noticed almost immediately how I spend so much extra time just navigating my phone on other launchers. So I switched back and then they released a wallpaper that has a fun cat in it and now he’s my home screen homey and I’m good
Edit: how do you find the interface? I looked at the photos and it looks very interesting, kind of has some Sesame type system wide search functionality?
Niagara’s free version is still pretty great too. I usually pay for apps but don’t want a subscription for my launcher, so I use it in free mode. Despite the limitations it’s methodology of getting you to the app you’re looking for as quickly as possible is a game changer. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to icons and folders + app drawer launchers haha
This will be down voted, but I also tried a bunch of launchers and never found one I liked better than Nova. I ended up installing TrackerControl and Nova has its internet connection fully disabled. It doesn’t need Internet for any features I use, so I felt like this was a good compromise, personally. I ended up starting to block trackers in all my apps now because of it, so I see it as a net win.
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Dang this is my favorite. I might look into a good alternative later on. I’m not on my phone that much anymore.
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I’ve been using KISS for I don’t know how many years at this point. I can’t imagine using anything else at this point. I’m sure that there’s plenty of other great FOSS launchers out there!
can’t analyze my data if I dont let you connect to the internet
mostly yes but it will depend how you block your Internet connection, with exception GrapheneOS approach all the other ways to “block” internet on Android devices may leak some data.
The chances of some data being leaked is always possible but I’ll roll the dice if it means getting to keep using a launcher that’s not god awful or pixel-based until some other launchers become more mature.
If we’re were talking financial information or something, sure, the chance of leaks is a huge problem, but some usage analytics leaking is more annoying than anything else.
What about CalyxOS’s firewall? What puts GrapheneOS apart?
With xposed you can do everything, which is not graphene exclusive.
Saved for the launcher recommendations, although all of my experiences with them have been bad because of the broken animations since A12 I think… Some look slightly better, like kvaesitso.
Lawnchair is a fork of the original pixel launcher that gives some quality of life upgrades to an already good piece of software, like being able to remove the search bar, resizable / reshapable icons and fonts usw. Its also open source, so feel free to check out the github.
There is no app store release right now but they are working on it. I’ve used the alpha versions for two years now and it has worked fine so far.
https://lawnchair.app/downloads/
They released a beta about a month ago.
https://lemmy.world/post/13864258
Edit: which your download link has. Just wanted to make sure you and others don’t use a 2 year old alpha instead.
I just made the switch after seeing this article.
Is there a way to get an icon to open the app drawer? Or am i forced to live with a gesture?
Yeah I tried it too and that’s a major no go right there. The fact it’s based off pixel launcher is killing my interest out of the gate, but I at least hoped that it would provide the same degree of customization options and tools as Nova. Doesn’t look like it, and no ability to call the app drawer without swiping.
Frankly any app that pushes gestures as the default navigation method without respecting people that just want to use buttons and taps, I can’t say I’m interested.
Guess I’m sticking with Nova 7 until it just stops working.
The choice gesture vs. nav button is usually part of android itself. In my case (pixel with therefor nearly stock android) its in settings -> system -> navigation mode (or something similar since its in german in my case). If you can’t find it, search for “navigation button your phone model”.
Edit: sorry, i just realized you meant the app drawer, not the overview of currently opened apps. I don’t know the answer to that.
Edit edit: ok i found something in lawnchairs settings. The last setting is called gestures. If you have navigation buttons enabled instead of nav gestures (see above) you could bind the home button to open the app drawer.
That would mean unbinding it from another feature. It feels kind of ridiculous that I have to devote my home button to something that should just be tappable on screen if three button navigation is being used.
By default the home button tap is bound to “do nothing”, so you’re not really losing anything
Switched back to action launcher when this happened
Main feature I love, which to my knowledge action did first anyway, is to have a folder of app icons where one is the most frequent. You tap on it to open the frequent option or swipe it to open the folder.
Basically means you almost never need the app deserter l drawer
Well damn. I’ve been on Nova launcher for years. Even bought prime and all that.
Damn, me too. This sucks, time to change.
You can stay on Nova 7, it’s not going to stop working. Nova 8 is what you want to avoid, so you just can’t let it update to a new version that will have all of the bullshit put in.
Obviously that’s not a permanent solution but there’s no reason to throw away Nova 7 right now if it’s works for you.
The last clean version was Nova 7.0.57
Install that APK, redownload the Nova prime app from Play store, they work together fine.
Oh man, I’m on 7.0.58…
Doesn’t matter, as long as you restrict internet access for it.
Since there are no alternatives coming even close, I refuse to switch just because.
How are you restricting internet access for it?
Adguard can firewall it. Now I’ll wait for somebody to reply to me saying how horrible adguard is for privacy haha
Ok so I just started digging for alternatives, thanks to your question.
I had previously simply deactivated network access for Nova (Settings -> Apps -> App Management -> Select Nova -> Data Usage -> Disable Mobile Data, Disable Wi-Fi, and flick the switch for Background Data for good measure.
Now, that will result in a toast on the main screen every time you unlock the phone “Data for Nova7 is disabled, you can activate it in the settings”. This might however be a OnePlus specific error, since searching for it only gives me a result in their product forum.
Nevertheless, I dug around with LogCat Reader and found that the message is displayed by com.android.systemui. Not really surprising, but I wasn’t sure which exact system resource is responsible. So then I went ahead with AppOps and set the “Display Toast” permission to “Ignore”, and voila.
Caveats:
Check out TrackerControl on the F-Droid app store. It lets you block Internet access to individual apps and selectively block trackers and other analytics. It does this by acting as a VPN in the android OS so it won’t work while on another VPN but that’s good enough for my needs.
https://trackercontrol.org/
this approach may leak data, don’t blindly trust it
+1 for Tracker Control, though I will say updates are pretty slow. I’ve noticed a few things making it through every now and again.
https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard
The only caveat is that it’s setting itself up as a local VPN for the block/allow list, so you can’t use it in parallel with an actual VPN. My workaround is to have my actual VPN installed directly on the router both at home and at work, which covers 98% of my use cases.
KISS is all I need.
KISS changed my perception of how I use my phone, using a bunch of icons on different pages seems crazy now
Oh man i’m suprised i had to scroll down this far to find some love for kiss by far the best launcher imao .
Not everyone love innovation! 😀
i paid for https://aiolauncher.app/ … just sleek.
Yeah me too! o/ I honestly don’t know why more people aren’t using it, the customisability is off the charts
Are there comparable alternatives? I never found another launcher that I like as much.
I haven’t found anything yet, Nova has always been the best. I’ve been using Nova since the early years like version 2 or something like that. When I heard they were going to be bought and uninstall went to vanilla Google launcher, and searched high and low for another launcher. I tried dozens over a few months and literally nothing was close to Nova. So here I am, typing this to you in an app that was launched through Nova…
Please, please, please someone make a good launcher.
I’ll probably try lawnchair again, but it isn’t nearly as good.
You can download the APK of Nova 7, which was the last version before the buyout. It’s perfectly clean.
Just don’t update it.
Plan to just keep using it myself until it’s no longer viable, at which point I’ll look for a launcher that hopefully reached feature parity.
Maybe not a popular reply, but if you’re already in Windows ecosystem, the Microsoft launcher is pretty impressive features-wise.
Neo Launcher is really close, and FOSS.
Edit: Closer than Lawnchair IMO
TotalLauncher
i’m just using the stock launcher
since niagara can be buggy
I switched to Lawnchair 2. It’s free, open source and quite versatile. Probably not as much as Nova, though it’s been a few years since I last used it.
Lawnchair 2 is no longer under development. The development team always starts to develop a new launcher based on the latest stock launcher every time a new Android version is released (so basically every year). This way the app usually never gets past the alpha or beta builds till they already move on to start from scratch. I don’t understand their strategy.
It is significantly less than Nova. People keep suggesting it but it’s not a true replacement for those that were actually using Nova to its full potential. They’re frankly isn’t a replacement right now that goes all out on providing users customization options. That’s not in vogue anymore, apparently.
Lawnchair 2 isn’t available for my phone since the app is too old, and I’m only on Android 12.
Edit: this only applies to the Play Store version
That’s odd, I’m on Android 14 and it works just fine here.
Very strange. I get a big notification and everything.
I see, I installed it through Aurora on my device. But you can just download the apk from their Github or https://lawnchair.app/ instead. Only Google PlayStore seems to have disabled the download even though the app still works perfectly fine.
That would explain it. Thanks!
Free - Lawnchair | Kvaesisto
Paid - Niagara Launcher
Shoutout for Niagara. High quality reliable launcher. Only switched away after 2+ years cuz I got a little bored of the interface
I got bored but then I noticed almost immediately how I spend so much extra time just navigating my phone on other launchers. So I switched back and then they released a wallpaper that has a fun cat in it and now he’s my home screen homey and I’m good
Show us the wallpaper!!!
I’m also waiting for lemonparty to show us their wallpaper.
OKAY OKAY HERE YOU GO.
Geez
Is it the one called “waiting”?
I came back to this several days later and was not disappointed 😍
I tried to upload a screenshot but it keeps throwing an error. Here’s a link to it from their web Site.
Funny enough i actually switched from niagara to kvaesisto
Well now I have to go look into this kvaesisto!
Edit: how do you find the interface? I looked at the photos and it looks very interesting, kind of has some Sesame type system wide search functionality?
For those interested: https://kvaesitso.mm20.de/
Niagara’s free version is still pretty great too. I usually pay for apps but don’t want a subscription for my launcher, so I use it in free mode. Despite the limitations it’s methodology of getting you to the app you’re looking for as quickly as possible is a game changer. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to icons and folders + app drawer launchers haha
I used Niagara free for quite a while. It does have a fair few features locked behind the paywall, but it’s certainly usable.
neo launcher is the closest FOSS alternative
Maybe also check out Total Launcher.
This seems awesome, testing it out.
Seconding Total, that’s where I ended up after leaving Nova and trying a few. Very, very customisable, but a bit of a learning curve.
Agreed re how customisable it is. Can also back up to a file for easy transfer to your next phone etc.
Here’s a link to my current setup with Total. (My actual home home screen is the sixth image, I can’t seem to alter image order on Pixeldroid…)
Nope. And since so far they’re doing nothing, Nova it is for the time being. There just isn’t anything remotely as customisable.
This will be down voted, but I also tried a bunch of launchers and never found one I liked better than Nova. I ended up installing TrackerControl and Nova has its internet connection fully disabled. It doesn’t need Internet for any features I use, so I felt like this was a good compromise, personally. I ended up starting to block trackers in all my apps now because of it, so I see it as a net win.
Kvaesisto has treated me wonderfully
For me Hyperion ended up giving me the closest out of the box experience to what I wanted.
+1 for Hyperion, nice customization features.
You can switch off Error & Usage option in advanced setting in Nova.
Well. Fuck.