On graphene, don’t feel like switching launchers again - just disabled all network access for nova launcher and its supporting apps… Thanks for the heads up!
I love testing out weird stuff! I was using Pielauncher before, then worked out this one gives me a clean home screen and swipe gestures!
I’ve been using it a few years now. I use Muzei and the NASA APOD plugin to get the astronomy picture of the day as my background, then have swipe actions for commonly used apps, favourites for the less commonly used apps that I still want an icon on the home screen, then I have the app list show with commonly used apps when I tap the search field.
It’s also a great talking point when people see me use it, because most people don’t realise you can change how this core part of your phone works with a couple of taps.
Well, first of all, let me say that people lamenting over an open source project is very sad.
The comment I’ve linked is from a Neo Launcher contributor and, as you can see, there’s been continuous work on the project.
There’s a system over at Nova Discord where we reply to polls about the new features, we’re basically guinea pigs trying out stuff Branch is going to push out via their deals with OEMs. That’s how I’ve understood it.
There is no bytes being sent out with the beta, and replying in Discord is voluntary, obviously.
Does anyone know of any other launcher that let’s you change the icon of an app to whatever image you want in your gallery? Because i have gotten to really like that level of customization and nothing else I’ve found let’s me
I’ve now tried this, and while I could probably get used to it fairly easily, unless I’m missing something it doesn’t have the capability I was talking about, which is the ability to change apps to have custom icons, not just icons found in theme packs
lawnchair > settings > desktop > lock desktop ☜ make sure this is disabled
then long press (touch?) an icon and choose customize (pencil). touch the icon on the new menu that comes up and you should have the option to choose “open photos”
I was trying an older version, but sense you asked I switched to Version 14 Beta 2 today and still don’t see it, though i will go back and look through the settings
i had to factoryReset and installed lawnchair from fdroid and then i tried the Lawnchair.14.0.0.Beta on their official site too. On these versions, like you wrote, it’s not possible.
only lawnchair-2-0-2589 from Aurora store (on google play store) has that option 🤷
For context Nova Prime has over 5+ million paying users, and it’s $6 when I check the Play Store.
The dev was just a single guy, who later hired someone to help with support and artwork. But if $30 million in revenue wasn’t good enough, I’m not sure what else you could expect.
while still a lot of money, keep in mind, a decent amount of those downloads was bought on sale. in my own personal context, i only had bought it when it was 1$
For sure, fair point. But we’re still talking millions, and far more than the guy was making at his previous, full-time job. In an interview, he said all he needed was $100 / day in sales to quit his full-time job… obviously, he exceeded that. LOL
I’m not really a fan of “clean” and “minimalist” launchers when they get to the point of impeding my productivity. And keeping a curated list can tap into muscle memory, improving speed further.
For example:
I’ve got 13 apps I can launch with a single tap, 13 more one extra swipe away (unless you count the swipe into my app drawer, which would bring it up to ~32 more).
Just something to keep in mind when looking for a launcher: you might want to find your definition of fast. If KISS works for you, all the more power to you. But I lament the lack of FOSS launchers that are more Nova-esque.
It sounds like you have something that works for you, and that’s great! But I don’t think it’s accurate to pigeonhole this other approach as being “for minimalists.” I’ve used KISS Launcher for a long time and I don’t think of it as especially clean or minimalist. It’s a powerful and flexible way to launch pretty much anything.
I too have built a muscle memory, and mine is tapping a few letters to filter through apps and launch the one I want. The same approach works when finding a contact in KISS. And from the same box I can also launch a web search with my default search engine, or enter a URL to visit directly in my browser. Where things get a little nuts is that this same search filters through apps’ intents as well: hidden shortcuts to launching specific functionality within the app.
All of these searches happen as I type, as quickly as I type, with results weighted by my launch history. And if for whatever reason I want to scroll through a complete drawer of my apps (it happens), that’s one tap away. I’d say KISS manages to be both maximalist and instant.
This approach may require more taps, but less thinking. I never have to start by asking “Am I looking for a tier-1 tap app? Tier-2 swipe app? A drawer app?” Every app (and contact, search, URL or intent) is a few keystrokes away, always the same muscle memory, and that’s my idea of fast.
I can’t type right to save my life. If I want Boost it’ll either come up “Voist” or “Boat” depending on whether I tap or glide. (And switching to a private keyboard has made this more of an uphill battle for me.)
You’ve got me dead to rights about forgetting where things are (besides the home screen), which is why I’m glad my launcher of choice has things organized not just in the Apps drawer, but in folders within them.
I appreciate the insight though. Not everybody’s workflow is going to be the same, and needing X apps at a certain distance will affect different people different ways.
True, I have one page with a few folders and gestures added to several icons. I’ve been using this setup for a few years so switching to different apps goes crazy fast.
I second this. I’ve been using KISS exclusively for years and I love its workflow. My homescreen is totally clean except the quick-launch bar, and I can find all my apps within seconds instead of having to swipe through a sea of pages or folders of icons.
I’m actively trying the launcher as an alternative to Nova (I was still on Version 7, so might as well start jumping ship before things happen). I got very used to widgets on other launchers, so this is nice if you like that “clean” look and actually remember what your apps are named. I’m bad at both of those ideas. Good launcher otherwise.
Some custom phone OSs (definitely GrapheneOS that mostly only works on pixels) will have the option for it.
Another way is to use something like Tracker Control (installed through F-droid not the info-only one on Google Play) and that let’s you disable internet access for a specific app.
I had analytics turned on (new phone and didn’t check it before), and the app info only shows 76 kB have been transferred in the past 30 days. Seems pretty reasonable, but I disabled it anyways out of principal.
When this acquisition first happened, I went hunting for a replacement and found one on Fdroid called OpenLauncher which felt very similar to Nova in terms of features. Unfortunately it appears to not be updated for the latest versions of Android, but might still be worth looking into
Could be forked, could have a PR, could be that it works fine in newer versions but the author hasn’t updated the repo for Fdroid to reflect which versions it works on.
I have no idea if any of those are the case, but that’s what I mean when I say it’s worth looking into.
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On graphene, don’t feel like switching launchers again - just disabled all network access for nova launcher and its supporting apps… Thanks for the heads up!
Truly the saddest news of the day.
Also KISS launcher is the goat
I love KISS!
I love testing out weird stuff! I was using Pielauncher before, then worked out this one gives me a clean home screen and swipe gestures!
I’ve been using it a few years now. I use Muzei and the NASA APOD plugin to get the astronomy picture of the day as my background, then have swipe actions for commonly used apps, favourites for the less commonly used apps that I still want an icon on the home screen, then I have the app list show with commonly used apps when I tap the search field.
It’s also a great talking point when people see me use it, because most people don’t realise you can change how this core part of your phone works with a couple of taps.
Switch to the open source Neo Launcher!
That has not been updated since 2022 tho. Is Neo launcher dead?
Their Github page looks like there’s active development, but yeah no actual releases for a long time
Finger crossed!
Ooh where are you seeing that?
Here: https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Launcher/issues/346#issuecomment-1542083001
No mentions of an alpha for nearly a year, all the recent comments are people lamenting its apparent abandonment!
Well, first of all, let me say that people lamenting over an open source project is very sad. The comment I’ve linked is from a Neo Launcher contributor and, as you can see, there’s been continuous work on the project.
There’s a system over at Nova Discord where we reply to polls about the new features, we’re basically guinea pigs trying out stuff Branch is going to push out via their deals with OEMs. That’s how I’ve understood it.
There is no bytes being sent out with the beta, and replying in Discord is voluntary, obviously.
Sounds actually quiet reasonable and respectful.
Does anyone know of any other launcher that let’s you change the icon of an app to whatever image you want in your gallery? Because i have gotten to really like that level of customization and nothing else I’ve found let’s me
most if them including lawnchair
Custom images not part of any theme? How? I’ve looked at several
https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Launcher
I’ve now tried this, and while I could probably get used to it fairly easily, unless I’m missing something it doesn’t have the capability I was talking about, which is the ability to change apps to have custom icons, not just icons found in theme packs
lawnchair > settings > desktop > lock desktop ☜ make sure this is disabled
then long press (touch?) an icon and choose customize (pencil). touch the icon on the new menu that comes up and you should have the option to choose “open photos”
voilà
Mine isn’t locked and all I see is icon packs, though I have found a way around it by making a custom pack using an app I found on f-droid
which version are you on?
I was trying an older version, but sense you asked I switched to Version 14 Beta 2 today and still don’t see it, though i will go back and look through the settings
i had to factoryReset and installed lawnchair from fdroid and then i tried the Lawnchair.14.0.0.Beta on their official site too. On these versions, like you wrote, it’s not possible.
only lawnchair-2-0-2589 from Aurora store (on google play store) has that option 🤷
It pisses me off that apps I’ve paid for become tainted like this.
To be fair, i paid like $3, 10 years ago… So, not a great revenue stream for the developer
Obviously selling to an ad company is not good, but i’m not sure what the alternative is in a world where everyone expects everything for free
For context Nova Prime has over 5+ million paying users, and it’s $6 when I check the Play Store.
The dev was just a single guy, who later hired someone to help with support and artwork. But if $30 million in revenue wasn’t good enough, I’m not sure what else you could expect.
while still a lot of money, keep in mind, a decent amount of those downloads was bought on sale. in my own personal context, i only had bought it when it was 1$
Yeah, I bought it for 10ct
For sure, fair point. But we’re still talking millions, and far more than the guy was making at his previous, full-time job. In an interview, he said all he needed was $100 / day in sales to quit his full-time job… obviously, he exceeded that. LOL
hence why i mentioned it was still a lot of money just liekly not on that magnitude given both price cut sales and googles 30% cut of sales.
at bare minimum, the dev has at least made 5 million probably post taxes for sure.
Had no idea about the user base numbers. I withdraw my objections lol
I’ve been using Kvaesitso launcher from fdroid and really liking it so far.
I’m using Niagara launcher and I am very happy with it. But I would definitely use Kvaesitso if I hadn’t already paid for lifetime premium Niagara.
Version 8 removed some stuff i used, so now im trying out Niagara and Smart launcher. The latter is really close to Nova.
Shameless plug for the best android launcher ever made imao
KISS Launcher (Blazingly fast launcher focused on search) https://f-droid.org/packages/fr.neamar.kiss/
I’m not really a fan of “clean” and “minimalist” launchers when they get to the point of impeding my productivity. And keeping a curated list can tap into muscle memory, improving speed further.
For example:
I’ve got 13 apps I can launch with a single tap, 13 more one extra swipe away (unless you count the swipe into my app drawer, which would bring it up to ~32 more).
Just something to keep in mind when looking for a launcher: you might want to find your definition of fast. If KISS works for you, all the more power to you. But I lament the lack of FOSS launchers that are more Nova-esque.
It sounds like you have something that works for you, and that’s great! But I don’t think it’s accurate to pigeonhole this other approach as being “for minimalists.” I’ve used KISS Launcher for a long time and I don’t think of it as especially clean or minimalist. It’s a powerful and flexible way to launch pretty much anything.
I too have built a muscle memory, and mine is tapping a few letters to filter through apps and launch the one I want. The same approach works when finding a contact in KISS. And from the same box I can also launch a web search with my default search engine, or enter a URL to visit directly in my browser. Where things get a little nuts is that this same search filters through apps’ intents as well: hidden shortcuts to launching specific functionality within the app.
All of these searches happen as I type, as quickly as I type, with results weighted by my launch history. And if for whatever reason I want to scroll through a complete drawer of my apps (it happens), that’s one tap away. I’d say KISS manages to be both maximalist and instant.
This approach may require more taps, but less thinking. I never have to start by asking “Am I looking for a tier-1 tap app? Tier-2 swipe app? A drawer app?” Every app (and contact, search, URL or intent) is a few keystrokes away, always the same muscle memory, and that’s my idea of fast.
I can’t type right to save my life. If I want Boost it’ll either come up “Voist” or “Boat” depending on whether I tap or glide. (And switching to a private keyboard has made this more of an uphill battle for me.)
You’ve got me dead to rights about forgetting where things are (besides the home screen), which is why I’m glad my launcher of choice has things organized not just in the Apps drawer, but in folders within them.
I appreciate the insight though. Not everybody’s workflow is going to be the same, and needing X apps at a certain distance will affect different people different ways.
True, I have one page with a few folders and gestures added to several icons. I’ve been using this setup for a few years so switching to different apps goes crazy fast.
I second this. I’ve been using KISS exclusively for years and I love its workflow. My homescreen is totally clean except the quick-launch bar, and I can find all my apps within seconds instead of having to swipe through a sea of pages or folders of icons.
I’m actively trying the launcher as an alternative to Nova (I was still on Version 7, so might as well start jumping ship before things happen). I got very used to widgets on other launchers, so this is nice if you like that “clean” look and actually remember what your apps are named. I’m bad at both of those ideas. Good launcher otherwise.
Going to take the moment to plug Action Launcher! I’ve been using it for years and it’s fantastic!
I used to use it many years ago but then one day they paywalled all the unique features
It hasn’t had proper updates in a long time (even no 2023 supporter pack. There are plenty of issues being reported in the discord with no response.
removed by mod
Just to note, I’m on v8.0.14 and there has been 0 bytes of data coming in and going out.
I have 7.0.58 and also 0 bytes. But once I disabled internet connection for nova completely I got nagging notification about that really fast
How did you manage that? A friend of mine uses the launcher and was unable to find an option for it.
Nova settings > advanced > error & usage reporting
Some custom phone OSs (definitely GrapheneOS that mostly only works on pixels) will have the option for it.
Another way is to use something like Tracker Control (installed through F-droid not the info-only one on Google Play) and that let’s you disable internet access for a specific app.
In my case MIUI (don’t laugh) has an option to do that as well
I had analytics turned on (new phone and didn’t check it before), and the app info only shows 76 kB have been transferred in the past 30 days. Seems pretty reasonable, but I disabled it anyways out of principal.
My favourite launcher is ADW1, but it’s extremely outdated now. ADW2 was nice too, but also stopped receiving updates.
When this acquisition first happened, I went hunting for a replacement and found one on Fdroid called OpenLauncher which felt very similar to Nova in terms of features. Unfortunately it appears to not be updated for the latest versions of Android, but might still be worth looking into
Man, dead project is definitely not worth looking into
Could be forked, could have a PR, could be that it works fine in newer versions but the author hasn’t updated the repo for Fdroid to reflect which versions it works on.
I have no idea if any of those are the case, but that’s what I mean when I say it’s worth looking into.
I really find i like discreet launcher from fdroid https://github.com/falzonv/discreet-launcher.
That link doesn’t work
There’s a period at the end of it. Remove that and it’ll work
Works for me.
I get the GitHub 404 page
That’s odd, it’s working for me.
The app or frontend you’re using you’re using is probably smart enough to ignore the period at the end of the link
Yep, the link is in blue, while the period is in white, because I’m using dark mode. So clearly, the period is being ignored.