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 there (unlike Lawnchair), such as swipe up/down on icons to perform different actions. And little things like folder options, icon placement, and widget handling are SO much nicer on Octopi compared to Nova. Staggeringly better.
I took a screenshot of each home screen page, set Octopi as the new default launcher, and was back to my previous configuration but with a significantly improved visual appearance, in about 15 minutes. It's a no-brainer upgrade from Nova.
The Google Play install is free and basically unlimited, but there is an unobtrusive "Buy Me A Coffee" type button that allows you to donate either $1 or $3 to unlock some eye candy, which I did, but mostly just wanting to support the developer.
I liked it, but when I added a 4x1 widget (meteoblue forecast), that didn’t properly resize to the size available. Wasn’t a problem for Hyperion or Nova, was worse for Lawnchair.
Widget sizing/appearance was probably the only surprise that I discovered between Nova and Octo. Resizing in Octo takes a bit of getting used to, but I was able to reproduce the appearance of all of my widgets.
Padding is a little different and harder to discover than Nova - it is in the "Customize appearance" menu when you long tap on a widget. That is something to check out, as well as making sure Rounded Corners aren't enabled.
For those still using Nova Launcher (custom launcher for Android), it seems that it's owned by a new company and the latest update comes with the Facebook Ads and Google AdMob SDKs and require extra permissions.
I moved to Lawnchair when I recently-ish migrated to GrapheneOS. I can't remember why I didn't go with Nova Launcher again, might have been related to the permissions required.
Lawnchair has fewer options, ie. is simpler, but I haven't, in practice, noticed any memorable differences.
I've been mostly happy with Action launcher. It has the few features I really liked from Nova that are missing from pixel launcher: I can make my home screens scroll in a circular/infinite manner, I can remove the search bar and the google news feed or whatever they call the left page, I can set more than one page in the dock.
Unfortunately, the app list page isn't quite as configurable. There are folders rather than tabs, and there's an extra click necessary to search by app name. Overall, it does the job.
I switched to KISS Launcher several years back and had been loving it. I like the philosophy of search-based launcher. This way, if I don't actively search for an app, I won't be distracted into opening one
I did this as well when the previous Nova launcher news came out. It took maybe a day to get used to, but I like it much more now - I have nothing to organize, I just access what I want to use instead. It feels natural.
I switched from Nova to Smart Launcher a couple years ago because it allowed me better customization of app groups - although I did need to work on the config a bit. I like it.
It’s interesting, Lawnchair works totally fine with these “app action” 1×1 widgets, and Firefox can add website shortcuts without any problem for me. I’ll try it in Brave a bit later.
I'm using Evie Launcher, but a really old version from just before the developer shut down the project and later removed it from the store. If you look today, you'll find a fairly convincing imposter that loves spamming you with ads, from a different developer.
3. Types of Data collected
Among the types of Personal Data that this Application collects, by itself or through the listed Data Processors, there are:
Unique device identifiers
Approximate geographic position (city level)
IDs (package names) from installed apps
Usage Data
Cookies
Yeah.. I used to use Niagra because it really is a great launcher but I don't like the data collection. A great FOSS alternative is Kvaesitso which doesn't have the exact same layout but it is search based. They also managed to implement a native search that in my opinion is better than Sesame.
Thank you! I had looked at several recommended launchers and none were real Nova Launcher replacements. I randomly saw your comment and was intrigued, especially since I hadn't seen a lot of sources mentioning Octopi Launcher as a suitable option.
It is the perfect Nova Launcher replacement. The UI and features feels like a more polished Nova and transitioning to Octopi is such an intuitive process.
Do you know if this, or any other launcher for that matter, works well on the latest Android for Pixels? Ever dang launcher I try (Nova included) has this horrible problem where at some point during the day the app launcher becomes a wasteland of blanked out apps with no names and no order. Only fix is to restart the phone. It got a little better with Android 16 but not much.
How much am I missing out by using the standard launcher my Pixel comes with?
I haven't played with different launchers since the Nexus 4 and Android 2/3 (I think).
I don't like the stock launcher because I can't remove the search bar and I never use the search bar. Nova feels like a no nonsense launcher that does what I need. I think last time it came up, the recommended option was missing something for me so I stayed with Nova, but the writing is on the wall.
Checked again and I don't see a way to get a button to show the app drawer on Lawnchair, and I don't want to use a gesture, so that's going to be hard to use.
I switched to Nova for the same reason. I paid for it, too. I pay and donate for good software all the time, but this is another sober reminder to never pay for proprietary software.
For me the advantage of nova is increasing the density of app icons able to be displayed on the home screen and app drawer.
I run with a 9x7 home screen grid and 8x6 app drawer.
This allows me to have a weather widget with a large clock and an excellent calendar widget called Todo Agenda displayed while still allowing me to have all my apps accessible on one screen.
I've used nova on every android I've had since it came out to current, and when the former owner/dev warned people, I switched to lawnchair and didn't look back. Sounded like shenanigans and time to pull the ripcord on nova. RIP (not in ad/malware)
Well, that sucks. When the sale was announced, I tried several launchers, free and paid, and none of them were as good as Nova :/ Guess I’ll do another round.
I’ll be trying out Hyperion now as default launcher, list of stuff I checked quickly:
Kvaesitso (FLOSS) and AIO: Different style of launcher that I don’t want, so out.
Action: Felt weird to use, didn’t find a setting for auto search in app drawer
Smart launcher: The most expensive one at 25€, and no proper app drawer search either.
Lawnchair (FLOSS): Annoying animations, widgets don’t work properly (many widgets require Yx2 sizing that should work as Yx1)
Octopi: Slightly better widgets than lawnchair, but still sizing issues. Without that I’d probably have gone with it first.
Hyperion: This is what I’ll be testing for now. The only Nova feature I’m missing is showing recently installed apps in the drawer, but that’s extremely minor. Apparently support is bad and updates rare, but neither is an issue for me.
I initially thought that switching to a lighter launcher like Nova would make my phone-apps launching faster. However, I soon realized that what I actually needed was something to boost my productivity, so I switched to a launcher with fewer distractions, like Yantra Launcher (terminal-based), which I've been using ever since.
I highly recommend you try Niagara launcher.
It's the only non-grid based launcher I have tried that has actually been worth the little learning curve.
Do older versions of Nova have any security flaws which preclude using them?
I've been using this app for ages and it's been essentially feature-complete for several years. A part of me wants to switch launchers for no other reason than "it is supported and not tracking me", but it is possible for software to be finished, and I believe Nova falls into that category. If there's no meaningful vulnerabilities in it, there's really no reason for me to switch away, at least not immediately.
That sucks. I've been running the paid version for years - however it's clear that it hasn't been properly maintained for a while and it suffers from sporadic crashes.
Any recommendations for launchers that are functionally similar? The launchers mentioned in this thread so far are quite different.
Lawnchair is similar, but it does have some bugs that they're still working through.
If you're not set in the traditional page/app drawer launcher, I'd recommend Kvaesitso. It's a FOSS search based launcher. A bit of a learning curve but it is very performant and feature rich.
For those out of the know, Nova Launcher is an Android home screen replacement... so hits home when the root of your phone existence gets shook piece by piece.
There have been enshitification clouds looming on the horizon for Nova Launcher for so long, I think many people (including me) were hoping it would just never happen.
That said, check out Octopi Launcher. I installed it for the first time tonight[0] and it is exactly what you are looking for - a smoother, better Nova Launcher.
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 there (unlike Lawnchair), such as swipe up/down on icons to perform different actions. And little things like folder options, icon placement, and widget handling are SO much nicer on Octopi compared to Nova. Staggeringly better.
I took a screenshot of each home screen page, set Octopi as the new default launcher, and was back to my previous configuration but with a significantly improved visual appearance, in about 15 minutes. It's a no-brainer upgrade from Nova.
The Google Play install is free and basically unlimited, but there is an unobtrusive "Buy Me A Coffee" type button that allows you to donate either $1 or $3 to unlock some eye candy, which I did, but mostly just wanting to support the developer.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45170000
[1] https://www.androidpolice.com/exclusive-cliff-wade-nova-laun...
[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.otp.octopi...
Padding is a little different and harder to discover than Nova - it is in the "Customize appearance" menu when you long tap on a widget. That is something to check out, as well as making sure Rounded Corners aren't enabled.
8.1.6:
- Branch (analytics)
- Bugsnag (crash report)
8.2.4:
- Facebook Ads (advertisement)
- Google AdMob (advertisement)
- Branch (analytics)
- Bugsnag (crash reporting)
- Google CrashLytics (crash reporting)
- Google Firebase Analytics (analytics)
Lawnchair has fewer options, ie. is simpler, but I haven't, in practice, noticed any memorable differences.
Unfortunately, the app list page isn't quite as configurable. There are folders rather than tabs, and there's an extra click necessary to search by app name. Overall, it does the job.
The only improvement I could imagine is supporting multiple screens of widgets (i.e. swiping left/right or scrolling up/down).
For folks interested in checking it out:
Website: https://kisslauncher.com/ Source: https://github.com/Neamar/KISS Store: https://f-droid.org/packages/fr.neamar.kiss/
It’s interesting, Lawnchair works totally fine with these “app action” 1×1 widgets, and Firefox can add website shortcuts without any problem for me. I’ll try it in Brave a bit later.
The APK is at least 6 years old now.
Unique device identifiers Approximate geographic position (city level) IDs (package names) from installed apps Usage Data Cookies
Oh boy...
https://github.com/VaibhavLakhera/minimo-launcher
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.otp.octopi...
It is the perfect Nova Launcher replacement. The UI and features feels like a more polished Nova and transitioning to Octopi is such an intuitive process.
What do you folks use 3rd party launchers for?
Checked again and I don't see a way to get a button to show the app drawer on Lawnchair, and I don't want to use a gesture, so that's going to be hard to use.
I run with a 9x7 home screen grid and 8x6 app drawer.
This allows me to have a weather widget with a large clock and an excellent calendar widget called Todo Agenda displayed while still allowing me to have all my apps accessible on one screen.
Kvaesitso (FLOSS) and AIO: Different style of launcher that I don’t want, so out.
Action: Felt weird to use, didn’t find a setting for auto search in app drawer
Smart launcher: The most expensive one at 25€, and no proper app drawer search either.
Lawnchair (FLOSS): Annoying animations, widgets don’t work properly (many widgets require Yx2 sizing that should work as Yx1)
Octopi: Slightly better widgets than lawnchair, but still sizing issues. Without that I’d probably have gone with it first.
Hyperion: This is what I’ll be testing for now. The only Nova feature I’m missing is showing recently installed apps in the drawer, but that’s extremely minor. Apparently support is bad and updates rare, but neither is an issue for me.
https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso
I've been using this app for ages and it's been essentially feature-complete for several years. A part of me wants to switch launchers for no other reason than "it is supported and not tracking me", but it is possible for software to be finished, and I believe Nova falls into that category. If there's no meaningful vulnerabilities in it, there's really no reason for me to switch away, at least not immediately.
Any recommendations for launchers that are functionally similar? The launchers mentioned in this thread so far are quite different.
If you're not set in the traditional page/app drawer launcher, I'd recommend Kvaesitso. It's a FOSS search based launcher. A bit of a learning curve but it is very performant and feature rich.
I can't help but think there's bots
If anyone knows of another launcher with app drawer tabs, let me know.
That said, check out Octopi Launcher. I installed it for the first time tonight[0] and it is exactly what you are looking for - a smoother, better Nova Launcher.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46688336
Damn these privacy-invading leeches.
Thanks for sharing.
[1] https://kisslauncher.com/