I ran across this in a thread about buying a particular tablet, but this is about to become an issue for me, as i use Nova launcher on my phone. (A pixel 9). Someone acquired Nova, and the only developer left on the project just left the new company, and anyone using Nova will need to migrate to something else in the not too distant future.
So, what are the options? What do you recommend?
The pixel default launcher has gotten better. What adjustments would i have to make to revert to that? Anyone made that change?
I’ve switched to Octopi launcher, and am liking it fine. It is not a feature for feature dropin replacement for Nova, but after using it for a month or two, I’m not really missing Nova. Nova was so versatile and configurable, that it seems everyone has their favorite feature they miss, so it’s hard to say if this will be a good substitute for you.
The biggest missing feature for me is the lack of a button to go to the app screen. Instead I use an up swipe. At first that seemed like a deal breaker, but meh, I’m used to it now. If it is added as a feature I’ll probably add a button to go to the app screen, but I don’t really miss it anymore.
There is also a somewhat active Reddit group for Octopi where the developer posts. Premium is also a single, low payment. No subscription or anything annoying. Premium only adds a few features I don’t use, but I bought it anyway.
The actual deal breaker for me on the stock launcher on my Google Pixel is that the Google search bar must be on the screen. I don’t want it, and I’ll never use it. I see it as a giant unblockable ad.
It lets you do this, and even in some pretty easy ways, but there are some missing features. You can put apps in folders and then put those folders on the home screen. Getting things into folders isn’t quite as easy as it was on Nova, but it works.
The more fun way is to tag apps, and then create folders from the tags. The missing feature is this doesn’t sync, it is just a one time thing. Delete and recreate is an option, though. For example, I tag Netflix, YouTube, and Paramount as “TV” and then create a folder from that. Later I tag Disney as TV, and it won’t automatically go into the folder.
Tags work pretty well, because on the app screen you can swipe side to side to move through the different tags. So see all of your apps, or just TV, Money, Games, etc. Apps can have multiple tags.
There is an app search feature easily available from the app drawer.
There is a backup and restore settings feature. That might be one of the premium features. I haven’t tested restore yet.
All of those are also “yes”. The rows and columns can be changed between 4 grid sizes, up to 5x6 grid of 30 icons/folders at the smallest.
Personally I just have one home screen and swipe up to search for any less commonly used apps. As soon as you swipe up, you can start typing the first few letters of an app and easily find it. IMO it’s much faster than going through several home screen pages.
You should be able to disable or uninstall Nova to try the stock launcher again. It might be good enough?
The main reason I don’t use the stock launcher is the fixed Google search widget, which I have absolutely no use for and hate having it take up space.
Nova still exists, and I’ve not even seen anything about it being removed from the store. But, seeing as it was supposed to have been made open source and that failed, I’m leaning towards trying out Lawnchair Launcher.
I’m really really bad at remembering specific words. Anything that makes me spell out the name of items, instead of looking in a fixed place, is going to drive me bonkers some morning when I’m especially aphasic.
I have two home pages I use, each 5x6, plus a bottom row of fixed apps. Some of the space is large widgets (my calendar, the weather, an analog clock) and other space has folders, some of which have 20-30 items. (Games and travel apps are especially large.) This works well for me. Every app i ever use is on a home page. I have an app drawer that’s easy to summon that i can type in to find apps. But if i have to look in the app drawer, that’s a failure, and i make sure to put that app someplace i can find it.
Yeah, the stock launcher might be good enough. It’s improved a lot recently.
So install a wallpapper app, like this one. Lets you choose a different background for each home screen, or span one panoramic image across all of them (up to 5)
Naw i think all the launchers, except maybe square, will support my existing wallpaper. I don’t want a different background for each page. I want the things i click on to look somewhat distinctive. I have a mix of sizes of items on my screens, and i make a lot of use of the option to place apps “off center” making it easy to know where to click without looking too carefully.
