Kevin Barry, the founder and original developer of Nova Launcher has stopped working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing efforts.
After Working on it alone for a year, the founder and original developer of Nova Launcher Kevin Barry has stopped working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing efforts. More Info: https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html
I had noticed that Nova had been falling behind for the last couple of years, but I didn't know why. I've been using it for over 10 years.
It sounds like a case of "buy it, kill it" which is pretty sad. If it had been open sourced we might have been able to improve it and keep it alive.
I stopped using it years ago when it got bought and immediately injected with spyware. Neo Launcher or Lawnchair are very similar to Nova. Lawnchair gets more active development, but I use Neo because it's nearly the same as Nova.
Neo launcher hasn't had a release for 3 years, sadly.
Lawnchair is alright but it is missing a bunch of features compared to Nova.
I'm still using Nova Launcher, can you elaborate on the spyware part?
For people like me who are worried about the data collection of Nova, we can try asking to remove it.
I had no idea it was sold to an analytics company. That's real sad.
Edit: direct link to request removal of novalauncher personal data
Having used pixel phones as long as they've been around, and used some AOSP based OS, I cannot imagine what it would be to not be able to block network access on a per-application basis.
Calculator app? No, you don't need to read my contacts or network access to ship it to God knows who. Keyboard app that is an ipso keylogger, also no. Launcher, no... Image gallery? Fuck off.
I trust companies to do the wrong thing, always. They all sell your data. If they ever get caught, the punishment will be less than what they made by it, so why wouldn't they.
I turned off internet connectivity for Nova and the Nova launcher prime with tracker control, I figure that may help.
Wow what a betrayal, poor guy. He works for an open source release for a year and they just rip it away from him. Fuck Alex Austin.
It's not even the 6th yet! ...which tells me he's in Europe and that makes Nova a little cooler.
iPhone guy but of course I have Nova Prime on my backup phone. I wanna say I had a couple other apps he made, too? Tesla Coil sounds familiar. But it's been almost 10 years since an Android phone was my main phone.
So Nova should be usable for a few more years at least... but... what's everyone gonna replace it with? For what I use my S10 for, it should be good enough. I mainly need the launcher to support custom grid sizes, larger icons, and custom icons since my Android phone is a cosplay prop. (It's meant to look and act like the NookPhone from Animal Crossing. It's fully functional — you open Nook Music and it's Apple Music which I'm subscribed to, as long as it has WiFi it will play, and it has a lot of stuff downloaded. And of course the browser is Firefox with uBlock Origin — it's just Redd the fake art purveyor on a globe rather than the red panda we all know and love.)
Try Kvaesitso its free and open source: https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso
Amazing recommendation. I've used Nova for years, and while its different, Kvaesitso is stunning. So smooth, and it surfaces apps and actions I use all the time better than Nova.
Is the dev Lithuanian? Noticed a weather data app in the repo.
I enjoy Niagara launcher. The paid version is a bit pricey but the free tier is pretty solid as well.
Yeah Niagara is great and very usable at the free tier
I use KISS Launcher. Always fast, predictable and easy to find anything I want.
The other Tesla Coil app I used was Widget Locker. Back in the days before Android had flashlight controls on the system tray, I had a lock screen shortcut for the flashlight.
Yes, Widget Locker! I used that too. Now there's KWGT (I think that's how it's spelled) and also KLWP and KLCK. Kustom is the brand and their apps make widgets, live wallpapers, and lock screens, respectively. But Widget Locker came first IIRC.
Neo Launcher.
It's great. The only downside is not having a release schedule. It had one or two annoying bugs in the past but nothing serious.
I didn't read anything about nova for the past years, I even forgot that it was a thing.
Edit: there has been no fdroid or github release since 2022. There are still commits in the repo but I don't know if the published version on telegram is the one from github. Does this make it closed source now?
Do you like your iPhone?
I just came to iOS from a Razer Phone 2 (S9 generation), but I used jailbroken iPhones forever, until the 6 or so.
... And I don't like it. All the gestures, everything is unintuitive, and I can't change hardly anything! My old jailbroken 5 was more feature rich, yet somehow simple and snappy too. Every app nickels and dimes you, and I feel like I'm struggling to restrict thier access to things.
I made the mistake of getting it for older family thinking it'd be easier, and they can hardly even function.
Well, I have the best one. I have the 16 Pro Max, 512GB. I like the big screen, and I like a lot of things about it. And how well it works with my watch, my AirPods, and my Macs — for example, being able to copy something on one and paste it on the other. "The Ecosystem" isn't as great as some say, but it does have its advantages.
Some apps cost money. I refuse to do subscriptions. I'll pay for an app if I like it but I won't pay monthly unless it's a service (like say Apple Music). There are free apps on both platforms. There are paid/subscription apps on both platforms. Both platforms take 30% so they're both incentivised to promote subscriptions and paid apps over free ones. The free ones still exist. Only on Android, you also have F-Droid which is all free/open source apps.
Nothing is more powerful than an iPhone in all conditions. Okay so the Galaxy S25 is faster right now, but when it gets hot, its thermal protections reduce power by like 50-60% to cool it faster. iPhone only loses 20-30%, so under no load, the S25 is gonna be faster, and the iPhone is gonna be faster under load. Talking about playing the top games. So most of the time you're under no load. Also, on paper nothing has faster storage than an iPhone because iPhones use more expensive NVMe SSDs. Your top Android phones use UFS 4.0, or even 3.x, which is slower... on paper. The benchmarks speak for themselves. But power on an iPhone 16 Pro and a Galaxy S25 Ultra and open and close apps, you're not going to see a big enough difference to say "I'm selling the phone in my left hand to buy the phone in my right," whichever way you wanna go. Android has more RAM. Android has better AI. iPhone has never had a good keyboard — Gboard sucks on iOS but it's amazing on Android. Android has Firefox with uBlock Origin. iPhone has better video cameras. Still cameras? iPhone over-sharpens, Samsung over-softens, and Pixel uses AI hallucinations to fill in what it can't see. They can all show you lab-created conditions where their phone comes out on top. MKBHD has shown people time and time again that in blind image contests, most of his viewers/subscribers prefer pictures taken by cheap Android phones, not flagships from anyone.
So the truth is, there really is no best smartphone platform. For a Mac guy, iPhones have a slight advantage, but their disadvantages are notable, too. And honestly I'd love to have a better Android phone than my 2019 Galaxy S10, but the fact that I like my S10 better than my 16PM for a few things speaks volumes.
I think what I'm gonna do is, in a few years, buy a Galaxy phone that's a couple generations out that is better than my S10 (it should be — by a lot) and then after a few more years, replace the iPhone... probably with a base model, because honestly I don't play top end games and even the top iPhone can't get something as basic as typing.
kvaesitso is a good free/libre launcher. I've been using it for a while now and like it.
Does anyone know of a good replacement launcher that supports Private Space?
Lawnchair supports it.
I think Lawnchair is the closest visual / UX replacement to Nova that I've found, but it is missing many features compared to Nova 🙁.
Also, I'm starting to learn Private Space is a pain, as amongst other shortcomings it forces you to use a logged-in Play Store to install apps ("private", my ass!). You can install apks via ADB, but who can be bothered to do that.
Under the hood, it looks like Private Space uses another hidden user, so I think I'll just make another user logged into nothing and switch to it occasionally instead of using private space.
I've been very Happy with Kvaesito which supports private space, but it's not a typical launcher format
What's the appeal of all these alternative launchers? Stock launcher works fine and I've never felt like anything was missing. I'm a poweruser on PC but I can hardly think of anything I'd want to do with a phone along poweruser lines.
Personally, the customisability without the effort. You get a hundred bells and whistles to make your phone look and feel unique, things that stock android should really provide but doesn't.
People want to interact with their devices in ways that fall outside the blessed functions permitted by the corporate designed pattern deemed appropriate for them. If corporate UI works for you, that's great for you, but it doesn't for everyone.
Consistency between devices. Android isn't android, everyone mucks with it, especially Samsung.
Yeah, I used Nova on all of my phones before I got a Pixel... The stock Android experience is decent enough that I haven't felt the need for a third party launcher yet.
Aside from functionality, stock launchers are more often than not inperformant and battery hungry piles of crap.
I add an extra row and column of apps on the home screen, and make the icons bigger so there's less space between. And bump up the text size since my eyes are getting older.
I'm with you, I never heard of nova launcher until now, and not sure why I would want it.
I just hope there won't be any enshittification phases, just abandon it or remove it from play store if open sourcing it as-is is not possible.
I paid for Nova years ago, and have been happily using it ever since. For me, it’s set up in a really minimalist way that fits how I like to use my phone. I've never had any need to switch away from it because it works for my needs. Is there any reason I should consider switching away from it :?
When the next version of Android breaks support for it...
My phone still work's perfectly fine, so I plan to keep using it for as long as I can & it won't be getting any android os updates any time soon, so I think I'll be fine. When my phone eventually does give up the ghost, I’ll deal with it then, but until that point, nova should keep working just fine for me....
What's nova launcher? All I can find is a seemingly proprietary Android launcher with a Twitter as only social media. Doesn't scream FOSS to me.
Nova Launcher was a very popular launcher many years ago. Its not Foss. If you read the post you'd known that the developer was working to make it open source but now stopped.
Note that the linked article answers your FOSS question.
I'm surprised to see how many people use launchers ...I've always found them heavy for my shitty phones..AOSP launcher seems good enough for me to wanna try something else.
That was/is the best part of Nova launcher. Highly customizable, but not laggy or slow
I started using them back in the day, when most phones had a very limited launcher. I have used nova for many years, it has a ton of customization options. I'm not sure how it is these days, but previous phones also came with thing that I did not like and could not disable or remove. Like a permanent Google search bar, or the Google assistant being a dedicated page on your home screen.
What even is it? Is it like fdroid for example?
I used it many years ago, perhaps 10, and started using it again because it allows me to rename PWAs. I have four instances of Frigate running for various locations and now i can edit their name based on location.
Why would anyone give Nova launcher internet access to begin with?
Fossify launcher is buggy but at least it's always been open source to my knowledge. Actively developed. All the fossify application. I use them
Everyone knew Nova was dead once it was sold. Surprised old mate held on this long.
Still haven't found a replacement launcher that matches all it's functionality.
KISS launcher is FOSS and a bit different, but many ex. Nova users flocked to it after it was bought.
I was already a long time KISS launcher user after the sale (long time nova user)
Recently discovered Kvaesitso and I have fully switched! It is just a bit more featureful than KISS while still being very clean and now when people use my phone for something, they can actually find apps too which is nice.
I never used nova, but I'm so used to KISS now, it's the first thing I install on a new phone. It's also funny to lend the phone to someone, because nobody understands it as it's very different (especially how I set it up).
Oh wow. I guess I really live under a rock. I honestly did not know it was bought. 😬
I did. Love KISS Launcher more than I loved Nova back in the day.
Same. I really need padding adjustments for my custom home screen, and I haven't seen anything else that lets you remove widget padding and adjust padding around each home screen page and the dock :/
And the ability to set my own widget as the persistent search bar widget.
I guess when I get tired of my current setup and start reworking it maybe I'll just blow it all up and start over with another launcher and work within their constraints.
Padding and grid / snap to half-grid makes it so easy to get things lined up exactly how you like.
I also like having slide actions on the dock... I have a phone icon. If you tap on it, it opens a folder with my most common 9'ish contacts as direct dials. If I slide up on it, it opens the phone app. Repeat for other icons on the dock and you get over a dozen potential actions from 4 icons.
Not sure if anything else offers this.
Torque Launcher and Trebuchet are pretty good, also Fossify Launcher is getting there overtime