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Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

novalauncher.com

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Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#112

Post by celsoazevedo »

baggachipz wrote: post #65
mastermedo wrote: post #47

What a throwback. Nova launcher sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure where to place it in my head. When I saw the logo I was immediately transported to memories of using lineage OS and bricking my new Samsung Note 4. I was trying to customize every button combination to do something smart back then. The good old days when I had the time to fix the phone after every update. I've since moved to the apple ecosystem... Se…

> I've since moved to the apple ecosystem... Set and forget. Careful, you'll get blasted for that in these parts. Until about 7 years ago, I had been an Android absolutist. Custom ROMs, launchers, you name it. I sneered at those Apple-loving simpletons. Then, after missing several important phone calls in a day due to the phone 'app' not working properly, I got fed up and got a Nexus 6, the official Google phone and…

There's nothing wrong with iOS and iPhones. If that's what works best for you, then that's what you should use. With this said...

Most people use their Android phone like iPhone owners do. They use the default launcher, default settings, and things work. Like you, they turn it on and it does things. They'll install their apps for work, social media, etc, just like iOS users. Maybe they'll install a different browser so sync works or have adblocking, but that's it.

Unlocking bootloaders, custom ROMs, perhaps rooting, getting to the point where apps are hijacking your phone (wth?)... I'm not sure if you understand this, but that's very extreme. If you get blasted, it's because that's the equivalent to jailbreaking an iPhone, replacing the OS, and so on. Of course things are going to break.

iOS lets you do a lot of UI customization these days. Home screen(s), widgets, icons, lock screen, etc, some of which I can't do on my Android phone and may have to use a 3rd party launcher! Why don't you spend hours tweaking that stuff, like many do? Why doesn't it bother you that you can do it? Just a guess, but I think you've changed. You no longer care about this stuff and maybe you also don't have the same free time? That's fine, but also shows that the problem wasn't Android or iOS, but the old you that didn't always know when to stop.

On a side note, things have changed a lot in the past few years. These days you don't install a custom ROM if you want features... you get a phone from a brand like Samsung because their UI is packed with features that custom ROMs don't have. You also don't need them for updates when a new phone gives you 5-7 years of support. Most posts I see here about custom ROMs are about privacy and security, removing Google from their phones, stepping away from the cloud and subscriptions, etc. Don't assume that that the wild side of Android is still the same because it isn't, at least not to the extent. You may also want to drop the idea that using Android requires doing all you've mentioned, because almost no one does that. You were the 1% of the 1%.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#113

Post by pteraspidomorph »

herrherrmann wrote: post #4

Ugh, quite annoying. My next phone might be an Android (instead of the current iPhone), and I was looking forward to returning to Nova Launcher, after having used it many years ago as my favorite launcher. This feels like a big no-go now. What are other good customizable launchers on Android nowadays?

I used Nova for years and went through this research before, having tested many alternatives. Octopi is what you're looking for. It can do pretty much everything Nova did for me and more besides. They also update often with improvements and fixes!

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#114

Post by BatteryMountain »

I got fed up with Nova and all the others to the point that I've built my own launcher in two evenings. Its just a black screen (no wallpaper or widgets) with a list of alphabetical scrollable apps (almost like how Windows Phone / Lumia looked), no icons/colours. Just black with white text & accents. You can tag an app as a favourite and it will show at the top. Thats it. No internet connection, no real customizations. It works amazingly well and fast and looks awesome on OLED. Once you are used to it, everything else (incl iOS) looks like a circus.

If you are an app developer, remember to add a black/oled theme to your apps. A good chunk of my apps have them and they fit so well with my launcher.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#115

Post by bentcorner »

throwa356262 wrote: post #75

It's 2026, why are people still using custom launchers? Serious question from a former Nova Prime user.

I appreciate that I can choose to decorate my house as I see fit. At least on my Pixel 10 there's way too much google this and google that. I guess if you're deep into the ecosystem it's a value add but for me a custom launcher lets me remove all that code.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#116

Post by userbinator »

fullstop wrote: post #42
whalesalad wrote: post #29

I take it the stock android launcher these days is not good?

It's fine, and it works. I have a Pixel, though, and there's no way to disable the google search box on the homescreen. I will never use the search box, yet it dominates a good portion of my screen.

Isn't the stock one open-source? Even if it isn't, Java is really trivial to decompile reversibly, and removing features is much easier than adding. Take advantage of Android the way it was meant to be taken advantage of.
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