Nova Launcher could soon introduce Nova AI, a built-in AI assistant complete with a chatbot, and a new Nova Plus subscription tier. Read on!

Nova Launcher could soon introduce Nova AI, a built-in AI assistant complete with a chatbot, and a new Nova Plus subscription tier

  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    214·
    2 个月前

    there have been enough reasons to ditch nova in the past years, in case someone is still using it

    • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zipEnglish
      2·
      2 个月前

      Sadly my custom home screen depends on features I haven’t found in any other launcher, so right now I just have internet disabled for it with trackercontrol :/

        • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zipEnglish
          1·
          1 个月前

          Largely stuff like widget and home screen padding, ability to place widgets on top of one another, set a custom widget for the search bar in the dock and place widgets in the dock

          Some parts look kinda jank cause I haven’t really worked on it since I replaced my phone so I never finished adjusting stuff to the different size screen, but this is my home screen right now. I just use a lot of features to make my jank ass setup work, so its hard to switch. Custom fonts would be so nice if I ever did make the leap though

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 个月前

        If crazy levels of customisation is the reason you use it, Total Launcher did the trick for me.

        • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zipEnglish
          1·
          1 个月前

          Thanks for the reccomendation, I’ll take a look :)

          Yeah its the customization features. A couple replies down I listed some of the features I use that I haven’t seen in other launchers. I’ll check out total launcher and see if it could work for me

          • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            1 个月前

            No worries friend :)

            You can place things anywhere down to the pixel, not just snapped to a grid like with Nova (though, there is option for a grid of apps, also).

            It’s a bit of fiddly process if it’s complicated, but you can layer and place things however you want.

            There is no dock, you can however pin items to show on every screen, which is basically the same thing, so that would also fit that criterion.

            Also 4 swipe directions on icons for extra shortcuts beyond tap (last I used nova, it was just up and down? It’s been many years).

            Basically, can highly recommend Total Launcher, though in fairness, I have not tried some of the other launchers listed by others here.

            The one time fee for pro is pretty affordable, iirc. The Dev is also pretty responsive via email

    • Canaconda@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      2 个月前

      Or it just keeps breaking and not reading my files.

      Oh I am confusing this for Nova Video player.

      Damn I was excited to switch to this Lawnchair everyone is so indifferent about.

  • Bluefruit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    87·
    2 个月前

    What a great advertisement for almost any other launcher.

    Lawnchair is my go to if anyone wants a pretty simple and customizable launcher that respects your privacy.

          • Specter@piefed.socialEnglish
            4·
            2 个月前

            Well yeah that’s the only way but then you lose the meteorology API which is a shame.

            It sucks because Niagara is easily my favourite launcher, but I can’t afford to have a proprietary app with insane privileges across my device.

            • lyralycan@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              2 个月前

              It’s likely the only reason for the privilege is to collect coords to send to the weather API. At least it’s optional, and there are alternative ways to see weather reports, just not on the home screen.

              I tried accessing Google Photos via my phone to handle a couple of things I had active on that account from before. Little fuck refused to let me open the app unless it had unconditional access to all my media.

              • Specter@piefed.socialEnglish
                1·
                2 个月前

                It didn’t need to request the coordinates, it should allow me to just pick a city in the world from a list and give me the local weather based on that.

                It is a design choice to force you to always stay connected and, in my opinion, is very shady. It’s okay if you wish you assume innocence here, I personally cannot.

                • lyralycan@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  2·
                  1 个月前

                  Yeah nah that makes sense. I’ve got a weather integration in Home Assistant and chose to add relatively accurate coordinates for the API calls. That at least was entirely under my control, whereas their implementation was “use it this way or not at all”, demanding location access or no weather.

        • lyralycan@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          12·
          2 个月前

          Well it’s a good thing those two URIs can be easily blocked. Besides you can get the app from their Github page (sadly no F-droid repo as closed-source), and pay for Pro (if wanted) via Stripe instead of Google Play. I also had issues migrating Niagara off of Google once I’d connected the two, but an email correspondence with the lead dev Max Rumpf got the issue pleasantly and quickly resolved.

      • ropatrick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 个月前

        It’s not FOSS though I think? Free and paid tier. Website doesn’t say much about privacy etc. I actually have Lawnchair running silently and almost configured to mirror my Nova home screen but there doesn’t seem to be folders in the app drawer which is a pain, unless I have totally missed it.

        Edit: Indeed, I totally missed it, in the settings. FFS.

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    26·
    2 个月前

    Total enshittification. Practically conned then kicked out the original team so that they make their own intrusive changes.

    Hell, any data they harvest will and can be sold to other parties. God knows how much fucking lunatic Peter could be offering them.

    If anyone is stubborn enough and until someone makes a near 1:1 version – and Lawnchair is functionally close to what Nova does – do backup the existing settings, uninstall the app, roll back to the pre-2022 7.0.57b version, sideload install, then from GPlay disable auto-updating for the app. Yeah, and put restrictions on the app from trying to do telemetry.

    • ViperActual@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      9·
      2 个月前

      This is what I ended up doing. Keeps it in the older untarnished state, things still work fine. Telemetry hadn’t been added yet

    • anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      2 个月前

      I still got my Nova7 Pre-Branch .apk saved on my NAS. I really should try to find a replacement but so far it works as expected.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      2 个月前

      Can confirm. I switched from Nova Launcher a year+ ago. I haven’t noticed any downgrade. Lawnchair feels cleaner, better.

      I guess proprietary software has no option but enshittification once an open source alternative exists. The proprietary product becomes strictly for chumps, so they make it a full on scam.

    • ElectricTrombone@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 个月前

      Do you know if Lawnchair can do a splitscreen with two apps? I got a new phone with lawnchair and I couldn’t figure out how to do it the other day. I know it used to be a part of Android. I don’t know if it’s part of the OS, the launcher, or Google just decided to remove the feature.

      • zutto@lemmy.fedi.zutto.fiEnglish
        8·
        2 个月前

        I’m not sure if this is even launcher dependant thing? I’m on pixel 9 pro, using lawnchair myself.

        In your open app-selector, you should have drop-down to start split screen mode.

        spoiler

        • ElectricTrombone@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 个月前

          God bless. I didn’t even see the drop down. My old Samsung and LG didn’t do it that way. And of course searching on the internet for the solution yielded jack because everyone has enshitittfied their search engines. Thank you kind stranger.

  • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    2 个月前

    You know some people beat this drum that more people should pay for good software and that it guarantees it’s longevity and independence, and so I did buy the pro version of Nova years ago and now we are here, I think when it comes to software unless it’s open source and you can have full control over it then it’s not worth anything, as it’s only matter of time before it either gets deleted or enshitified, that’s why I started shifting to open source alternatives for most things

    • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 个月前

      The problem with paying is that it doesn’t solve the fundamental economics. Marginal cost of copying software is near zero, fractions of a cent. So there’s just no way to justify economically charging anything more than a nominal fee for software. The entire concept of charging to allow people to download stuff is simply pure greed, and paying a little bit won’t stop the greed in the slightest. And a lot of people simply enjoy creating software, so there’s always going to be a foss alternative.

    • nevetsg@aussie.zoneEnglish
      3·
      2 个月前

      Other people are still rocking Action Launcher? I thought I was the only one left. Covers are my favourite feature.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    2 个月前

    Anyone that gives a single shit about their data being sold to third parties should have dumped Nova a long time ago.

  • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
    20·
    2 个月前

    You just solved one of my long-standing problems! I’ve been looking for a launcher that could replace Nova for me, but I hadn’t been able to find anything that really did the job. Octopi for the win!

    I am in the process of moving over my highly-customized setup now. And I made the larger of the two donations, in support of the app.

    Thanks for suggesting it and thanks to the developer who built it!

  • pyre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    2 个月前

    well if you didn’t jump ship in 2022 i guess this is your time

    • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 个月前

      hasn’t update this app since 2021 lol. Good thing the pre-enshitification version worked perfectly fine without updates.

  • monotremata@lemmy.caEnglish
    18·
    2 个月前

    Thanks for the reminder! I had switched to Lawnchair, but I just realized I had forgotten to uninstall Nova. Fixed!

  • IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.comEnglish
    18·
    2 个月前

    Fuck all this. Stock android degoogled/Lineageos should be standard for every phone.

    Next phone I get will be 100% degoogled. Hopefully a full Linux distro is out by then. I wish there was a Linux distro for phones that was just the regular OS but with adaptive standards like how websites change with desktop and mobile and Windows size changes.

        • Lemmayng@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          2 个月前

          Top 3 Pros:

          1. You have a daily driver OS that is so open you can install any app on it that can be sideloaded.

          2. You have access to the Google Pixel camera, which, when paired with Open Camera or any open source camera app, can take photos in stunning detail without having to rely on Google’s proprietary software.

          3. The form factor of the A-series of Pixels, depending on your hand size, may be just the right fit for your hands. I have big hands and even I find the Pro/XL models to be a bit big for my tastes.

          Top 3 Cons:

          1. There are some banking, payment, etc. apps that won’t even open without Google Play Services being installed. Fortunately, GrapheneOS has Sandboxed Google Play services that isolates Google Play services from the OS and allows only the necessary minimum utilities from Play Services for those apps to be useable.

          2. Google’s Tensor chip is…not good. Like it’s Exynos bad. Fortunately, I believe the Pixel 6 series had the first and worst version of the chip. Each phone after has slowly improved the reliability of the modem so calls can be made in/outbound. Thankfully, GrapheneOS recently partnered with Motorola to allow future Motorola phones to be installed with GrapheneOS, so ideally their phones should have much better modems.

          3. [insert third con I can’t think of here]

          • Aerlorn@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            1·
            1 个月前

            Sorry just seen this and i have always like Motorola devices , so the fact it may ship out of the box is nice to hear

    • lyralycan@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      2 个月前

      Try Fairphone. Ethically fantastic company, and they offer their phones with either Android or Murena /e/OS

  • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
    17·
    2 个月前

    I’m surprised people are still using this. I haven’t used Nova for almost a decade.

    I’ve been quite happy with Niagara for the last few months.

    • lyralycan@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      2 个月前

      +1 for Niagara, plus even though you don’t have to, pro features can be purchased outside of Google Play.

        • Holytimes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          8·
          2 个月前

          Nova has a life time buy too. Fat fucking lot of good that did.

          Far as I’m concerned if it ain’t a private company with no investors open source products and functions entirely offline. Even then I don’t fucking trust em.

          Companies and their promises are worth less than the horse shit up in my barn.

  • catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    17·
    2 个月前

    Yeah it’s time. Nova was great but now it’s fully enshitified. I went with Niagara. There’s a short learning period, less than a week for me to feel comfortable, but I love it. Very simple and clean.