Technology

I ditched them years ago after they got bought out the first time.

Dang... I saw this a while ago, but thanks to this post I looked again and it turned out that mine had automatically updated to the new version on Play Store. Went ahead and uninstalled it and then installed the latest Beta from before, and I was lucky that my email license still worked - don't know for how long though (not sure if the check is hardcoded in some way or if it makes an API call).

It's had a great run, but it's just sad that it has to end like this. Would've been spectacular if it was open-sourced as promised.

I started looking into alternatives and it seems like no other launcher is quite there yet, but Lawnchair looks promising for my use. The whole situation started looking like the appropriate time to learn some Android development; a while ago I was thinking of forking the AOSP launcher and trying to implement some stuff by myself, but now it seems like contributing to Lawnchair would be a better idea.

i like lawnchair launcher :3

Glad I read the writing on the wall and switched a few months ago

I switched to SmartLauncher about 4 months ago and have not looked back. It's fine for what I need. I was a nova launcher user for a decade.

Seems like all of our concerns have come true. I'm glad I switched earlier when the main dev bounced.

Been using Smart Launcher and haven't looked back.

I also liked Niagara too.

Finally removed it from my phone, octopi launcher does most of what I need even on the free version I do intend to pay for the extra functions when I can.

But yeah just remember you can sort the app drawer by tags and it's almost there.

I'm glad that the original developers have made some money.
I'm more glad that the new owners will lose all that good will, trust and activity. At the risk of sounding too much like Picard,....... "make it so"

Dumped Nova as soon as the sellout was announced. Replaced it with Octopi, which I found to be better anyways.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.otp.octopilauncher&hl=en_US&pli=1

Does a launcher need network access at all?

I have disabled network for this app now. Let's see what happens.

I often forget that I use Action Launcher. It has a feature that I love called Covers where an app icon is both an icon and a folder depending if I tap or swipe it.

Yep. I recently bought a used Pixel 8 and wanted to install a new launcher - my googling turned up Nova launcher, but the app said it had ads, so I looked a bit further and installed Lawnchair instead. Does the job!

this last week i finally bit the bullet and switched my default launcher to smart launcher once they finally got infinite scrolling working.

i think 2 days later nova updated to this latest version. i'm not going to see ads since i paid for it more than a decade ago. but that fb tracking (that i was not made aware of) i really don't like.

i hope nova gets open sourced soon.

I stopped auto-updates when the last death happened. Now I'm exploring Lawnchair.

Is it not possible to have a launcher that modifies the menu that appears when you slide down from the top of the screen (brightness and notifications menu..)?

I would really like a separate menu for quickly changing brightness and volume

Luckily I bought the prime version in 2018 or so for a few cents. Means I only have to configure Lawnchair when I get a new phone. Win for laziness.

I blocked the app from updating itself.

KISS