Nova Launcher could soon introduce Nova AI, a built-in AI assistant complete with a chatbot, and a new Nova Plus subscription tier
there have been enough reasons to ditch nova in the past years, in case someone is still using it
- 2022 acquired by branch metrics, data harvesting company https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/branch-strikes-twice-with-nova-launcher-and-sesame-search-acquisition
- 2024 nearly everyone laid off https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/9/24217077/nova-launcher-layoffs-only-original-developer-remaining
- 2025 original dev left after being told to stop working on the open source efforts https://www.theverge.com/news/773937/nova-launcher-founder-left-kevin-barry-branch-open-source-android
- 2026 fb and google ads tracking https://lemdro.id/post/lemdro.id/35049920
- 2026 (this post) evidences for built-in AI that harvests your data https://www.androidauthority.com/nova-launcher-ai-plus-subscription-apk-teardown-3658932/
Yeah the only words they needed in the headline were “Nova Launcher sucks”
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Sadly my custom home screen depends on features I haven’t found in any other launcher, so right now I just have internet disabled for it with trackercontrol :/
If crazy levels of customisation is the reason you use it, Total Launcher did the trick for me.
Thanks for the reccomendation, I’ll take a look :)
Yeah its the customization features. A couple replies down I listed some of the features I use that I haven’t seen in other launchers. I’ll check out total launcher and see if it could work for me
No worries friend :)
You can place things anywhere down to the pixel, not just snapped to a grid like with Nova (though, there is option for a grid of apps, also).
It’s a bit of fiddly process if it’s complicated, but you can layer and place things however you want.
There is no dock, you can however pin items to show on every screen, which is basically the same thing, so that would also fit that criterion.
Also 4 swipe directions on icons for extra shortcuts beyond tap (last I used nova, it was just up and down? It’s been many years).
Basically, can highly recommend Total Launcher, though in fairness, I have not tried some of the other launchers listed by others here.
The one time fee for pro is pretty affordable, iirc. The Dev is also pretty responsive via email
What features out of curiosity? I haven’t used Nova since like Android 7
Largely stuff like widget and home screen padding, ability to place widgets on top of one another, set a custom widget for the search bar in the dock and place widgets in the dock
Some parts look kinda jank cause I haven’t really worked on it since I replaced my phone so I never finished adjusting stuff to the different size screen, but this is my home screen right now. I just use a lot of features to make my jank ass setup work, so its hard to switch. Custom fonts would be so nice if I ever did make the leap though
Well shit, that’s me.
Or it just keeps breaking and not reading my files.
Oh I am confusing this for Nova Video player.
Damn I was excited to switch to this Lawnchair everyone is so indifferent about.
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.
What’s been everyone’s experiences in customization on it? I keep mine simple of fun background and a calendar and only the app drawer. No second pages
I second this. Lawnchair is great.
I’ve tested several popular ones and landed at Lawnchair as well. Plus point for being FOSS.
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.
Switched about a year ago and it works perfectly!
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.
+1. Just last week they added the ability to import Nova backups.
Excellent. Lawnchair it is then.
I don’t hate Lawnchair. I just hate Nova making the switch necessary.
Niagara is good as well.
Also spyware.
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Well yeah that’s the only way but then you lose the meteorology API which is a shame.
It sucks because Niagara is easily my favourite launcher, but I can’t afford to have a proprietary app with insane privileges across my device.
It’s likely the only reason for the privilege is to collect coords to send to the weather API. At least it’s optional, and there are alternative ways to see weather reports, just not on the home screen.
I tried accessing Google Photos via my phone to handle a couple of things I had active on that account from before. Little fuck refused to let me open the app unless it had unconditional access to all my media.
It didn’t need to request the coordinates, it should allow me to just pick a city in the world from a list and give me the local weather based on that.
It is a design choice to force you to always stay connected and, in my opinion, is very shady. It’s okay if you wish you assume innocence here, I personally cannot.
Yeah nah that makes sense. I’ve got a weather integration in Home Assistant and chose to add relatively accurate coordinates for the API calls. That at least was entirely under my control, whereas their implementation was “use it this way or not at all”, demanding location access or no weather.
How so?
Requires network connection and is closed source.
Thanks!
Sauce?
Well it’s a good thing those two URIs can be easily blocked. Besides you can get the app from their Github page (sadly no F-droid repo as closed-source), and pay for Pro (if wanted) via Stripe instead of Google Play. I also had issues migrating Niagara off of Google once I’d connected the two, but an email correspondence with the lead dev Max Rumpf got the issue pleasantly and quickly resolved.
It’s not FOSS though I think? Free and paid tier. Website doesn’t say much about privacy etc. I actually have Lawnchair running silently and almost configured to mirror my Nova home screen but there doesn’t seem to be folders in the app drawer which is a pain, unless I have totally missed it.
Edit: Indeed, I totally missed it, in the settings. FFS.
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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.
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 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.
Lawnchair is a pretty good FOSS launcher.
Can confirm. I switched from Nova Launcher a year+ ago. I haven’t noticed any downgrade. Lawnchair feels cleaner, better.
I guess proprietary software has no option but enshittification once an open source alternative exists. The proprietary product becomes strictly for chumps, so they make it a full on scam.
Do you know if Lawnchair can do a splitscreen with two apps? I got a new phone with lawnchair and I couldn’t figure out how to do it the other day. I know it used to be a part of Android. I don’t know if it’s part of the OS, the launcher, or Google just decided to remove the feature.
I’m not sure if this is even launcher dependant thing? I’m on pixel 9 pro, using lawnchair myself.
In your open app-selector, you should have drop-down to start split screen mode.
spoiler
God bless. I didn’t even see the drop down. My old Samsung and LG didn’t do it that way. And of course searching on the internet for the solution yielded jack because everyone has enshitittfied their search engines. Thank you kind stranger.
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
The problem with paying is that it doesn’t solve the fundamental economics. Marginal cost of copying software is near zero, fractions of a cent. So there’s just no way to justify economically charging anything more than a nominal fee for software. The entire concept of charging to allow people to download stuff is simply pure greed, and paying a little bit won’t stop the greed in the slightest. And a lot of people simply enjoy creating software, so there’s always going to be a foss alternative.
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.
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!
Anyone that gives a single shit about their data being sold to third parties should have dumped Nova a long time ago.
This is the first I’ve heard about any privacy issues. I dumped Nova recently because I found a good FOSS launcher.
Mind sharing which launcher you switched to?
Dragon Launcher. Apparently it isn’t on Play; you have to use F-Droid.
well if you didn’t jump ship in 2022 i guess this is your time
hasn’t update this app since 2021 lol. Good thing the pre-enshitification version worked perfectly fine without updates.
Fuck all this. Stock android degoogled/Lineageos should be standard for every phone.
Next phone I get will be 100% degoogled. Hopefully a full Linux distro is out by then. I wish there was a Linux distro for phones that was just the regular OS but with adaptive standards like how websites change with desktop and mobile and Windows size changes.
Check out Swappa.com, find an unlocked Google Pixel 7a or 8a, and load GrapheneOS onto it.
Out of interest as a 7a user , what’s the top 3 pros and cons ?
Top 3 Pros:
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You have a daily driver OS that is so open you can install any app on it that can be sideloaded.
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You have access to the Google Pixel camera, which, when paired with Open Camera or any open source camera app, can take photos in stunning detail without having to rely on Google’s proprietary software.
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The form factor of the A-series of Pixels, depending on your hand size, may be just the right fit for your hands. I have big hands and even I find the Pro/XL models to be a bit big for my tastes.
Top 3 Cons:
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There are some banking, payment, etc. apps that won’t even open without Google Play Services being installed. Fortunately, GrapheneOS has Sandboxed Google Play services that isolates Google Play services from the OS and allows only the necessary minimum utilities from Play Services for those apps to be useable.
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Google’s Tensor chip is…not good. Like it’s Exynos bad. Fortunately, I believe the Pixel 6 series had the first and worst version of the chip. Each phone after has slowly improved the reliability of the modem so calls can be made in/outbound. Thankfully, GrapheneOS recently partnered with Motorola to allow future Motorola phones to be installed with GrapheneOS, so ideally their phones should have much better modems.
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[insert third con I can’t think of here]
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Yeah might end up doing that. I’m waiting for the graphene official phones for now while my current phone is still functioning.
Try Fairphone. Ethically fantastic company, and they offer their phones with either Android or Murena /e/OS
Lawnchair runs fine on GrapheneOS.
And on pretty much every other android too.
Thanks for the reminder! I had switched to Lawnchair, but I just realized I had forgotten to uninstall Nova. Fixed!
Same. Just uninstalled that spyware
Yeah it’s time. Nova was great but now it’s fully enshitified. I went with Niagara. There’s a short learning period, less than a week for me to feel comfortable, but I love it. Very simple and clean.
Same, it’s great
