As a long-term Nova user, my biggest problem with replacing it is finding anything that provides similar capabilities. There were reasons why it was so popular for so long. That probably also limited the market for launchers with a similar approach. I can only hope that its decline will cause someone to build something similar.
Of the available options, Lawnchair seems to be the best, but that doesn’t make it a good option. It probably does three-quarters of what I rely on in Nova. That isn’t actually a complaint about Lawnchair. It wasn’t intended to be a Nova replacement… It’s a good launcher in its own right and I really appreciate that it is also FOSS.
I guess my point is that people keep saying there are lots of alternatives to Nova. Yes, there are, but there are currently no substitutes.
Niagara launcher for the win
This is really disappointing, but not unexpected. I’ve been using Nova for more than a decade and can’t get used to any other launcher I’ve tried so far. Everyone thought Nova would turn into an ad infested shell of itself once it was bought a few years ago. I guess this is worse since it will cease to function soon (maybe).
I’ve had updates and Internet access turned off since they were bought, and it still works fine. I’ll switch when I have no other choice.
Almost every other launcher advertised on these threads is minimalist and search based, and I don’t want either of those. I want full control over how my app menu, notifications, and home pages are laid out.
Lawnchair seems to do a good chunk of what Nova does. I haven’t taken the time to fully recreate my setup, but most things I’ve tried have worked so far.
With Nova I have a setup that more or less fits everything on my home page without looking too busy. Lawnchair is letting me change the number of rows and columns, shrink icon size, choose a monochrome theme as a default, make folders, etc.
Lawnchair doesn’t seem to allow gestures on icons/folders, so it’s a non-starter for me. I use swipe actions all the time to launch apps. Like, tap for SMS, swipe down for WhatsApp, swipe up for Signal; or tap to open a folder of utilities, swipe up for Root Explorer and down for KeePass. I want to be able to launch all of my frequently used apps with 1 action from my homescreen. If anything, I’d like a launcher that allows even more swipe actions (right & left).
I just want a full app drawer and a single homescreen with shortcuts/folders that can be overloaded with swipe actions. IDGAF about widgets or search. If I need to type anything, I’m doing too much work to launch an app.
This is the key missing piece for me too. All of the things I use on my phone are accessible through the five icons on my dock. Whether it’s a simple swipe to open another app or swipe to open a folder, none of the “alternatives” have similar functionality.
I don’t want to search for things, I want at most two taps to open the app I want.
I’m more than a little nervous to try something else, because I worry about not being able to reenable the same version of Nova I have now with all of my settings.
Lawnchair doors look good as a next home, though.
Why remove Nova before you’ve got things set up? Get a feel for whether or not your new launcher works for you for probably at least a month before removing the old.
If you don’t find any issues you can’t live with within a month, you should be fine.
