171–180 of 214 posts
Thankfully I am using GrapheneOS, so I never gave the app network permissions. I will look for a new launcher anyways now. Thanks for sharing.
So, frustratingly, I can't seem to get the launcher to downgrade after it automatically updated last night. Someone on the thread linked to the previous version APK from a site called uptodown (glanced at it, didn't seem to be malware, but didn't do any real forensic analysis). I enabled sideloading on my phone, tried to "update" the app, but the OS then refused to install it, claiming it was invalid. Can't tell if i…
Rollbacks pretty much only work on LineageOS. I've seen this come up a lot in the last year as multiple F-Droid apps pushed out a bad update and people wanted a fix ASAP rather than in a couple weeks. You can probably extract the apk of the old version on your other phone, btw. http://7thzero.com/blog/extract-an-apk-from-android-devices-...
Luckily, Nova has a very good backup/restore option, so I made a backup right before uninstalling and was back up and running in short order. I of course unchecked the box to allow auto updates.
I'm hoping this buys me a little bit of time to explore other launcher options in detail.
I was a 10+ year long Nova Launcher user and knew this day was coming after the sale and layoffs[0][1]... This evening I at looked several replacement launchers, such as Lawnchair and even the stock Pixel launcher again, but Octopi Launcher[2] is the more modern, more refined Nova replacement that you are looking for. It was a very easy, natural transition process from Nova - all of the Nova features that I used were…
Thanks for the tip. I opened up my phone to see about giving Octopi a shot, and (amusingly? alarmingly?) Nova Launcher produced a popup warning me that it would now feature ads. Anyway, my launcher needs are pretty minimal. Switching over and recreating a familiar layout was easy enough. I do find one function missing, though: Some shortcut functionality seems missing in Octopi that was present in Nova. For instance:…
What happened with the Open Sourcing promises? https://www.osnews.com/story/143297/nova-launchers-open-sour...
I was a 10+ year long Nova Launcher user and knew this day was coming after the sale and layoffs[0][1]... This evening I at looked several replacement launchers, such as Lawnchair and even the stock Pixel launcher again, but Octopi Launcher[2] is the more modern, more refined Nova replacement that you are looking for. It was a very easy, natural transition process from Nova - all of the Nova features that I used were…
Thanks for the tip. I opened up my phone to see about giving Octopi a shot, and (amusingly? alarmingly?) Nova Launcher produced a popup warning me that it would now feature ads. Anyway, my launcher needs are pretty minimal. Switching over and recreating a familiar layout was easy enough. I do find one function missing, though: Some shortcut functionality seems missing in Octopi that was present in Nova. For instance:…
What's the problem exactly?
The SDKs are also part of the app even if you paid for it, and there are reports on reddit of paid users seeing ads (that might be a bug, but still).
There's also the privacy side of this. It's not in my interest that my launcher sends data about me to Facebook/Meta.
I was a 10+ year long Nova Launcher user and knew this day was coming after the sale and layoffs[0][1]... This evening I at looked several replacement launchers, such as Lawnchair and even the stock Pixel launcher again, but Octopi Launcher[2] is the more modern, more refined Nova replacement that you are looking for. It was a very easy, natural transition process from Nova - all of the Nova features that I used were…
that same moment I switched to Niagara launcher. After 10 minutes of using it bought the Pro level and that was it. I kept around 5 apps in main screen, YT music widget automatically pops up on top when I connect headphones. The side scroll is very well thought out. For each letter the most used apps are on top. This one clicked with me.
Separately it openly states in the privacy policy it states your location with third parties (or at least did 2 months ago). Big GTFO from me at this point.
I also tried and loved Kvaesito, but sadly their strict "one widget per line" limitation is where I bailed out. I use a number of 1x1 and 1x2 widgets so this basically breaks it down for me.
Looking forward for the Nova replacement :(
https://novalauncher.com/nova-is-here-to-stay
Pretty much confirms that ads will become a thing. However:
> If ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad free. Our guiding principles are clear: keep the experience clean and fast, avoid disruptive formats, and provide a straightforward way to keep the experience ad free.
That's probably why I wasn't seeing any ads even after I got the update.
I've still reverted to a previous version and disabled auto-updates, because I basically have zero faith that being a paid member will turn off any of their shady tracking stuff, even if ads are not visible.
I was a 10+ year long Nova Launcher user and knew this day was coming after the sale and layoffs[0][1]... This evening I at looked several replacement launchers, such as Lawnchair and even the stock Pixel launcher again, but Octopi Launcher[2] is the more modern, more refined Nova replacement that you are looking for. It was a very easy, natural transition process from Nova - all of the Nova features that I used were…
I abandoned Nova last year when I read about this looming problem. I found that Fossify Launcher beta (from F-Droid) works well enough for me on my Pixel 8a.
I don't really need much out of a launcher. My main goal was to have one like my older Android and not be forced to have a search bar or assistant triggers on my home screen.
All I need from the home screen is to be able to place basic widgets like clock and calendar and shortcuts for the basic apps I use frequently. A plain app drawer is fine for the rest, because I don't really install that many apps and instead disable/remove many. My app drawer shows 35 apps and has several blank rows remaining on the first page with 5 icons per row.