Nova Launcher has been acquired by analytics company Branch
www.androidpolice.com
Hopefully, this isn’t the end of an era for Android launchers

Since a few folks seem unaware of this, I’m posting anew for visibility.

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    113·
    8 months ago

    What are you guys doing to your launchers that needs so much configuration? I’ve been happy with Lawnchair for years. I set my gestures and that’s about it.

    • sgnl@midwest.socialEnglish
      7·
      8 months ago

      I like to categorize my apps. In Nova I have them divided into Web / Media / Games / Tools / System and I can swipe between each page (horizontally) of them. I use quite a few apps to do a lot of things tho, so *shrug.

      I also really like the Sesame search integration, Lawnchairs adaption of Pixel Launchers is good. But there is style and behavior customization that Nova offers that Lawnchair doesn’t.

      I am pretty particular about making my phone just look and behave the way I want it, of course it changes over time as phones and apps get better but yeah… It’s largely why I preferred Android from the start and have stuck with it

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        8 months ago

        Agreed. Lawnchair was highly recommended, and when I tried it, I realized it’s recommended by people who were never actually utilizing Nova’s full potential. It’s basically just pixel launcher with more bells and whistles, and that’s not what I want. I use Nova because I wanted to make my own launcher that looked and worked exactly the way I wanted it to, not just be pixel launcher with some minor customizations.

    • RattlerSix@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      8 months ago

      I may be kinda weird. My phone has looked the same for probably 10 years or more. The home screen is a wallpaper but otherwise blank. My name is at the bottom in the dock area, six letters, like M Y N A M E. When I tap a letter it opens a certain app or folder of apps. When I swipe up it opens others. For example, tap the M and it opens the camera, swipe up and it opens a folder of photo apps. Same for all six letters. I have one other page with active widgets for info I can take in visually like weather radar, news ticker, etc but on my main page, with those 6 taps and swipes I can open anything in a couple seconds max, one handed, probably with my eyes closed for oft-used apps.

      The letters of my name are 6 different images, I just typed my name in a nice looking font, took a snapshot of each letter and made the background transparent. So to set it up I drag the camera app to the dock then change it’s icon to the M.gif I have saved on my sdcard, then set a swipe action to open the photo apps folder. Really simple… as long as the launcher has those options.

      Since I read this post I’ve been looking at other launchers. I could find no way to get rid of the search bar in the dock with one launcher, another one didn’t even have a dock, it had a vertical A-Z on the side so you could open a list of apps alphabetically. Lawnchair won’t let me choose my own images for the icons in the dock, I can only select system icons or an icon pack.

      I’ll keep looking, and maybe I can make my 6 gif into an icon pack to use with Lawnchair or something. But without those options I will have to start using my phone in a completely different way than I have been using it for over 10 years.

      • Fishbone@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        To the best of my knowledge, Pear Launcher can do everything you’re asking for. I haven’t used nova in a while, but from what I recall of it, the free version of pear launcher is far more feature rich than nova.

        • RattlerSix@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          Thanks! I downloaded it and it can change icons to images and swipes work fine. I just need to figure out how to do folders. It only says “folders in app drawer” in the description, I need folders to open with a tap or swipe on a home screen icon. I still have a copy of Folder Organizer although it’s been abandoned for years. I could get them to work with that if nothing else.

          • Fishbone@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            8 months ago

            Hey, dunno if you figured it out yet, but creating folders is done in the pear launcher settings (I get to the settings by a “pear actions” widget set to pear settings). From there, it’s app drawer > folders > then you can make new folders and add stuff to them.