Does anyone have recommendations to replace Nova?
this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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It's very much not a classic launcher and takes some getting used to, but Kvaesitso is nice.
I'm using Kvaesitso as well. But just looked at the permissions and I am shocked. Don't know when the permissions changed, but I'm switching right now.
Pretty sure that just has to do with how widgets are integrated
It's a launcher, it can do a heck of a lot of things, and needs permissions to be able to do so.
But you don't actually have to allow any of them in modern Androids if you don't need those features. Nova Launcher also has quite a list, but I haven't actually enabled any of them, it has never asked to, and everything works fine.
that's because you can integrate your contacts, calendar and more... calm down
Also it's GPL so feel free to edit as desired. Users not stuck with dev choices like some of the other options being mentioned here.
Those are for widgets that you choose to enable. Hard to access search features without permission to search, if you don't want them, all you have to do is ... not enable them / disable them if you flipped the on ...
Kvaesitso is awesome, updates regularly, and was the best launcher I found that worked for my use case transition from Nova.
Granted I avoided trying a lot of the Freemium ones, or others.that were corporate controlled. Not interested in a forced migration 2.0, open source is nice cause it can always be forked if something happens.
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Action launcher is a good replacement that I don't see recommended. Still updated, stuffed with features. The main one I miss on other launchers is "covers" which let you promote one app as the default for a folder, you can swipe it instead of tapping to open the folder or tap to open the default. I only really use about 10 or so apps super regularly, so it's great as I just have a single home screen that I rarely need to leave
I actually switched from Action Laucnher to Nova because the former kept crashing.
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I switched from Nova to Smart Launcher and haven't looked back.
I've been using smart launcher for years it's automatic categorization is amazing. Though, wanting change, I recently started using Niagara, and like the minimalist approach too.
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I have used and enjoyed lawnchair for the past year. It's quite minimal and I've found it very stable.
Have been using Neo Launcher since it had the features I needed from Nova (mostly hiding most apps from the app list while having them on the home screen in some folder so that it isn't a mess when you want to find something specific). It hasn't been updated in a while, but it works perfectly fine for me.
if you are asking about combinations of customisations, flexibility and stability. none atm.
Octopi Launcher seems quite promising.
Trebuchet seems good...?
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gahdam...end of an era. This sucks.
It's sad to see it go, for people that want to try a minimalist launcher, ap15 is great.
This isn't a very popular opinion, but I just use the stock Huawei one. Works perfectly for me
Depends on the phone. I hated the one on my oneplus 3 so i needed nova but the one on my current phone has the basic customisation options i was using nova for.