#novalauncher wurde wieder verkauft! :doh:
Erst an branch jetzt an eine Schwedische konzern, die wieder einmal noch mehr #tracker und #ads implementiert haben!
R.I.P NovaLauncher!
#android #app #apps #werbung #datenschutz #datensicherheit #launcher #androidlauncher #smartphone #Personalisierung #anpassung #opensource #ClosedSource #teslacoil #NoBIGTech #google
What's your favourite Android Launcher? Mine's Lawnchair.
#Android #Launcher #AndroidLauncher #Poll #Polls #Ask #askfedi #ask_fedi #askmastodon
TLDR: If you're looking for an alternative for Nova Launcher on Android, Pear Launcher could be worth a shot.
So after hitting the update button before the morning coffee had struck home this morning, Nova Launcher greeted me with a GDPR cookie popup, asking me to accept hundreds (literally) of tracking cookies. Of course with no "reject all" option. I'd seen the news about Nova getting sold so the writing was on the wall, but getting such a central piece of software wrecked all of a sudden is some unpleasant shit nevertheless.
I just want to be able to decide what I put on the home screen of my goddamn own mobile phone and where. I want it on three adjacent "workspaces" to loosely group the most used apps by function. Calendar event list on the center one. This doesn't seem like asking for pink ponies - it all used to be trivially possible in stock Android over ten years ago. But then it started getting worse, and eventually Google made their search bar mandatory in the home screen.
I've been through 3-4 launchers since then, each time eventually enshittified and forcing me to start the agonizing and time-consuming search from scratch. There are MANY launchers on Google Play, and there are lots of them on F-Droid. And few of them let me organize the home just the way I want.
One of the first things I tried, Fossify Launcher beta, looked promising but the current versions have a bug that causes widgets to disappear into a black hole and there didn't seem to be any workarounds. I only need that one calendar widget, but it is essential - so no luck there. Need to revisit that in the future.
Since then, I've gone again through something like twenty different launchers today, each of them failing to do what I want. Some of it was subtle, but most of it was not. I even went back to trying SailfishOs for a bit, but you get much less control on the home view there. Was getting more than a little desperate, but fucking finally found something that lets me set it up the way I want and doesn't offend you with cookies and whatnot.
So in case there are other Nova launcher refugees looking for a new home: you might want to give Pear Launcher (from Google Play / Aurora store). It's not F/OSS so I'll be revisiting Fossify Launcher eventually, but Pear doesn't appear to be evil, collect data, it doesn't have network permissions, etc. I'll take my chances for now.
Edit: To clarify, this is not to say the multitude of alternative F/OSS launchers on F-Droid are bad. There are some pretty interesting and innovative looking things in there if you're shopping for that kind of thing, or a minimalist launcher. Me, I just wanted to preserve my old usage patterns - this is such mundane stuff, I don't want to spend energy learning new interesting ways to launch my apps. And yes, it's also very much a first world problem 😅
@heiseonline Some more information about Nova Launcher here:
@heiseonline Hmm ... I really hope they keep updating and improving this wonderful Android launcher.
nova launcher is dead! so sad. my wife uses this...now what am i going to get her to use?
Nova Launcher: il fondatore si ritira, stop allo sviluppo
#Android #AndroidLauncher #App #KevinBarry #Launcher #NovaLauncher #Novità #Personalizzazione #TechNews #Tecnologia
https://www.ceotech.it/nova-launcher-il-fondatore-si-ritira-stop-allo-sviluppo/
I tried this, and ended up sticking with it. I didn't miss my many pages of home screens as much as I thought I would. Plenty of options and the search works well.
KISS Launcher | Blazingly fast launcher for Android
Trying to figure out a good #androidlauncher for my #grapheneos -ified Pixel but not finding one I like. Not a fan of text lists or search-focused, is there a good graphical/visually-orientated one?
New Project - Bridge Launcher, make your entire Homescreen with HTML CSS and JS Similar to a tweak in Jailbroken iPhones called XenHTML but for Android #androidcustomization #customization #homesceen #windows11phone #androidlauncher #icondesign #homescreenandroid #xenhtml #setupinspiration #demo
"Android treats third-party launchers poorly, but this survey could help"
"TL;DR
Article / Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/android-third-party-launchers-issues-survey-3481961/
Link to the survey (No Google account needed):
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5BcHpZ6vUQZsm0pdULk45JX6XZHH9IF2LdErpMseC09iOIw/viewform
#android #androidos #aosp #lawnchair #customrom #customroms #foss #floss #novalauncher #smartlauncher #androidlauncher #nigerialauncher #survey #google
Does Nova launcher have a tip jar or something? Or an optional $1 dollar donation subscription or something?
It's too good of a thing to let it fall by the wayside. If they can't get people tipping a little bit, then I guess they should require a 1 dollar yearly fee or something like that. Right? Would a dollar a year from all users keep it running smoothly? 2 dollars? What would it take?
#novalauncher
#android
#android15
#android14
#androidlauncher
#apps
draft - android 15 beta 3 for pixel - ok, so kinda the first thing i'm noticing / thinking about is that, i have nova launcher, but i am doing the android 15 beta 3 thing now because i want private space. so...i guess i gotta do that thing where i do pixel launcher even though i want to use nova. hm.
#pixel
#pixel8
#pixel6a
#android15
#androidbeta
#android15beta
#android15beta3
#android15privatespace
#privatespace
#multipleusers
#stockandroid
#novalauncher
#androidlauncher
@stonedonkey I tried all possible #androidlauncher in the last week - paid and free ones available on #playstore, #github and #web - there are some great options. I like #pixellauncher - but I would like to change a couple of things. To do so, I'll need to root #googlepixel - I look forward to it.
Anche Olauncher non è male per niente! Forse anche meglio!
Nuovo launcher in prova! Non mi dispiace affatto!
(si trova anche su F-Droid)
draft - pixel launcher idea - ya know how when you drag one icon over the other it becomes a folder? How about, once that folder reaches 9 icons, it automatically expands to be a 3x3 app widget taking up the space of only 2x2 icons, so you get 9 icons in space just 4 used to fit
#pixel
#pixel8
#pixel7
#launcher
#android
#androidlauncher
#novalauncher
#backup
#googledrive
#android14
#pixel9
#pixel8a
#pixel8pro
I'd be happy if pixel launcher could be 7x6 instead of just 5x5, but at least if they're not gonna give us a 7x6 or at least a 7x5 app grid, then at least build this type of 3x3 app widget into the operating system so it backs up and restored etc ...
I'd also be happy if nova launcher would work on pixel so that when we used the app switcher while nova launcher is activated, it would work. But it doesn't. So, I guess the main thing would be: please give us the ability to use the app switcher when 3rd party launchers are being used.
draft - pixel launcher idea - ya know how when you drag one icon over the other it becomes a folder? How about, once that folder reaches 9 icons, it automatically expands to be a 3x3 app widget taking up the space of only 2x2 icons, so you get 9 icons in space just 4 used to fit
#pixel
#pixel8
#pixel7
#launcher
#android
#androidlauncher
#novalauncher
#backup
#googledrive
I'd be happy if pixel launcher could be 7x6 instead of just 5x5, but at least if they're not gonna give us a 7x6 or at least a 7x5 app grid, then at least build this type of 3x3 app widget into the operating system so it backs up and restored etc ...
I'd also be happy if nova launcher would work on pixel so that when we used the app switcher while nova launcher is activated, it would work. But it doesn't. So, I guess the main thing would be: please give us the ability to use the app switcher when 3rd party launchers are being used.
draft - pixel launcher idea - ya know how when you drag one icon over the other it becomes a folder? How about, once that folder reaches 9 icons, it automatically expands to be a 3x3 app widget taking up the space of only 2x2 icons, so you get 9 icons in space just 4 used to fit
#pixel
#pixel8
#pixel7
#launcher
#android
#androidlauncher
#novalauncher
#backup
#googledrive
draft - any custom launchers you might recommend that include a document mode layout option? or a center of gravity option for app icons to gravitate toward? and/or, since the app drawer is already in document mode, any launchers where the app drawer layout can be manually adjusted? (not just a-z, but customized drag and drop layout). Also, any app drawers accommodate widgets? As opposed to just being on the home screen?
#android
#androidlauncher
#androidlaunchers
#novalauncher
#app
#apps
#pixel
#ios
#iphone
#UIphysics
#guiphysics
#userinterface
#UI
#gui
#touchscreen
