Best FOSS alternative to Nova Launcher? - eviltoast

Would really love a launcher that can format icon shapes so that they’re all uniform in shape, like Nova Launcher …but open source.

    • guttermonk@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      Looks like the stable channel hasn’t received an update in years, and the alpha channel hasn’t received an update in over a year. Is this launcher abandoned?

      • Otter@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Someone commented previously that the main devs are busy with other things and are hoping to return to it some other time

      • mister_monster@monero.town
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I mean, does it matter? Some code needs to be maintained, some really doesn’t. A launcher, once it’s built it keeps working. I’m still using lawnchair 1, won’t update to 2 because it’s missing features I need. Been using it since before 2 was released, at some point things are just done and that’s a good thing.

          • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Depends on the project, something like the linux kernel? all the damn time, something like a launcher tho is already in googles aggressively sandboxes environment, so can’t fuck up too much even if it tried

    • Hydroel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Lawnchair is good enough, but it still lacks many features and hasn’t been updated in too long.

    • Cris@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Thats a different neo launcher. The one he’s talking about isn’t available on the google play store.

      Lemme find you an f-droid link

      Edit: here you go https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.saggitt.omega

      Its on izzydroid. You’ll want to use an f-droid client to download it and keep it updated. There are a bunch, the official one is an easy place to start, but I really like droid-ify. There’s also neo store which is developed by the same person/people who make neo launcher, but personally I find neo launcher pretty clunky

        • Cris@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Sorry, I replied to a different comment and I think lemmy messed things up and attached the comment to your parent comment. It looks like mine may not have been the only one. Also possible I just made a mistake, but it looks like it was lemmy’s issue

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hmm, the first review on the Play store says it serves ads and has annoying popups. That’s too bad, because it looks cool, but there’s zero chance I’ll install an ad delivery network as my phone launcher.

      • OrangeJoe@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        If I remember correctly they got bought out by an analytics company at some point. So you know, ads and data collection.

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Definitely keeping an eye on this one - no release in over a year but Dev looks super active and edging towards a major update

    • BritishJ@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Can I create a folder in the dock, and make the background transparent. That’s all I want, dock folders with no background.

  • sudotstar@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s not like Nova Launcher, but I’ve been really enjoying Kvaesitso. It does support icon transformations (better than Nova does IMO) but provides a very different interface that’s focused on search.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      On a similar note, I have been enjoying the KISS launcher and made it work for me. Had I looked at Kvaesito before that may have been my choice instead. Its a weird concept at first but works well.

    • Hydroel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I love Kvaesitso! It’s my current pick as well. I like that it does its own thing and provides a very different UX from the rest of the Android launchers, which are always variations on either AOSP or the iPhone launchers. And it does it very well, with a very good looking UI!

      For these reasons though, it is not similar to Nova at all.

    • 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been on this for a couple months and have enjoyed the experience as well. I imagine some of the overall issues encountered are more about my phone being nearly 6 years old than the launcher itself, but is the default weather widget broken for you as well?

      • sudotstar@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I wasn’t a fan of the built-in weather widget so I immediately replaced it, so I have no experience with it being nonfunctional, sorry.

  • wilberfan@lemmy.film
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Big fan of Nova, but it’s wonky under Android 14… So I switched to the Lawnchair alpha. Icons can be square, rounded, circle, Squircle… I like it!

  • Maraska@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Have been using nova in the past, but now I’m using a combinaton of KISS launcher and Delta Icon Pack (both available on F-Droid).

    KISS lets you adjust the shapes and with delta you’ll get an uniform icon appearance (for most apps). The thing is that the KISS works a bit different , so it’s not a direct replacement for nova, but maybe you’ll enjoy it anyways.

    • marcell mars@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      i used to use lawnchair and tested kiss for a friend who never used smartphone before. old school. i played for few hours and kept using it myself.

      widgets: clock, jtx board tasks and simple calendar pro. the rest of the home is the empty space for gestures, favorites bar/line and search.

      black background.

      kiss after a while disappears as the launcher should. i stopped thinking about launchers. but remember it swiftly once the discussion about launchers start. obviously.

  • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Im looking for the opposite, something that can keep the icon shape without changing it… But I want too much :'(

    • guttermonk@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s a closed source luancher on Google Play. It works really well, but the developer recently sold out according to someone in this thread and it now contains trackers according to the Exodus app.