Back in July 2022, when mobile app metrics firm Branch acquired the popular and well-regarded Nova Launcher for Android, the app’s site put up one of those self-directed FAQ posts about it. Under the question heading “What does Branch want with Nova?,” Nova founder and creator Kevin Barry started his response with, “Not to mess it up, don’t worry!”
Branch (formerly/sometimes Branch Metrics) is a firm concerned with helping businesses track the links that lead into their apps, whether from SMS, email, marketing, or inside other apps. Nova, with its Sesame Search tool that helped users find and access deeper links—like heading straight to calling a car, rather than just opening a rideshare app—seemed like a reasonable fit.
Barry wrote that he had received a number of acquisition offers over the years, but he didn’t want to be swallowed by a giant corporation, an OEM, or a volatile startup. “Branch is different,” he wrote then, because they wanted to add staff to Nova, keep it available to the public, and mostly leave it alone.
Two years later, Branch has left Nova Launcher a bit too alone. As documented on Nova’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, and transcripts from its Discord, as of Thursday Nova had “gone from a team of around a dozen people” to just Barry, the founder, working alone. The Nova cuts were part of “a massive layoff” of purportedly more than 100 people across all of Branch, according to now-former Nova workers.
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Used to be my favorite launcher and I, too, abandoned it. Sad, really.
I still use it. Where did you move to?
I was using the pro version, but later switched to Lawnchair. Still using Lawnchair, it’s great.
“This app is not available for your device because it was built for an older version of Android.”
Pixel 7 here, am I missing something?
The Play Store link (Lawnchair v2) has not been updated in years. There is a ground-up rewrite (Lawnchair v14) which is being worked on slowly but is currently only able to be sideloaded from their site, and is apparently still missing most of the features from v2.
From what I gather, though, development is happening at a snails pace with “when I feel like it” updates.
Lawnchair hasn’t had a new release in like 6 years.
Personally, I’m using Kvaesitso (available on fdroid). https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso
It’s the best I’ve found for me post-nova
Lawnchair is being updated it is just only being updated on its Github page.
This launcher is not as good as Nova.
I went back to action launcher which I really like.
I basically have one home screen with links to my most used stuff.
It has covers which I believe originated here but was later possible on Nova. Basically you make folders of apps that you can tap to open, but you can set that to swipe instead so that the tap just opens the first app in the folder
So for example I listen to podcasts way more often than music from my phone, so I have a folder for audio where I can tap to open podcasts or swipe to open the folder and get to music.
I then have a slide in drawer that has the weather and my calendar and that’s basically it. Very rarely need to go to the main app list once this is set up. I will likely never change this as I don’t really use that many apps regularly.
It was my go to launcher for years, but this weekend I decided it was time to see what else there was. I ended up on Niagara Launcher and have been liking it! Took about a day to get used to it- it’s definitely different. There’s not really an app drawer, and as far as I can tell there’s only one home screen and one place for widgets (you can have more than one, but you flip through them). I like how simple it is and how quickly I can get to everything.
I loved Niagara when I used to use it. Just wish the premium version didnt swallow my whole wallet… God damn that price is steep for a launcher…
I feel that! I ended up buying the premium license. I figure if I use it as long as I use Nova, it’ll pay for itself. Also will hopefully help the creator and prevent them from selling it to some advertising firm.
I thought Niagra’s premium was a monthly or yearly subscription.
They must have changed it! There was the option for a monthly subscription as well as a lifetime purchase.
https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/104-price-of-niagara-pro
I’ll take a look again. Thanks!
I agree. At first I chuckled that the App literally asks you to give it a week with Premium to get used to it. They were right though, once I let go of comparing it to Nova, I got pretty used to making folders and widgets. They have a good product and they earned my money/support for the lifetime price.
I used to use nova and switched to Niagara a couple of months ago. It very different but super sleek
I switched to smart launcher and bought lifetime cause I feel like its actually a really great option I never heard of or tried until I stopped using nova. Lawnchair is good too but for now im sticking with smart launcher.
Kvaesitso. It’s a great search based launcher
I moved to Hyperion. It’s essentially the same just less polished
I’ve been trying off and on to use Hyperion for a while now but it’s just been too buggy for me
Just because a lot of people might be looking for alternatives, here is some:
Minimal Launchers:
- Olauncher - Play Store & F-Droid.
- Kiss Launcher - Play Store & F-Droid.
- Unlauncher - F-Droid.
- Pie Launcher - Play Store & F-Droid.
- YAM Launcher - F-Droid(Izzysoft).
Work in progress:
Proprietary Launchers:
Anyone know if any alternative supports app-drawer paging? Ive tried around six in the last few days, and none so far have. I’m open to trying other workflows but the “catch all” dock isn’t it.
I like to keep my home screen with a few widgets and the dock - stuff I want to see often, but not open an app for like weather and calandar.
When I open the app drawer I see a page full of everything I use daily, then I can swipe to the other pages organized for work apps, games, and other crap.
Folders don’t work as well because they usually sorted at the top of the screen and not quickly reached.
I’ve tried some of the minimislt scrolling launchers, but 1) I dont remember the exact name of every app and 2) for me, having to scroll through a list 100+ apps to get to “outlook”(for work) is not faster than having a page of my 20 most used apps.
Lightning Launcher if it still exists
From what I found, the short answer is no.
Long answer, summarized from a form post: the original dev got sick and launcher was left in limbo. Someone eventually contacted dev, the dev got better but “left android” and gave the person permission to open source it.
It is now avalible on GitHub, but does not seem to have an apk for download.
Love this list and I use Pear launcher currently on my Android 15 beta device. It has some quirks but overall I am happy with it over stock. Especially since I can add folders to the bottom bar.
Okay, I’m seeing a lot of “alternatives” posted. But to all of you recommending minimal launchers: They are NOT an alternative for Nova.
I’ve used Nova for near on 10 years now, always trying other launchers for a while. In those 10 years I realized that I want a fully fledged “traditional” launcher, not a list-based one where I have to search for my apps.
Thank you. I’ve been thinking the same thing. People keep posting things that aren’t remotely close to Nova. I’m beginning to think there’s just nothing else at their level. Lawnchair seems like the closest so far but it’s still not customizable enough and the Google feed implementation randomly broke and I couldn’t get it to work again (amongst other annoyances and performance issues).
deleted by creator
I use neo launcher which comes close. The lack of recent updates is concerning though.
Edit: found that they have some pre releases in their telegram.
Bought Nova just to nearly kill it. Fuck you Branch
It’s still my launcher of choice and I’m going to ride it until the wheels fall off.
Yeah same. Since nothing comes even halfway close, might as well use it.
Plus, the thing is AFAIAC feature complete. So as long as Barry can keep working on bugs cropping up with new versions, I’m happy with what I got.
I still use it, removed auto-update from the store. Hopefully it doesn’t just poof.
Is your version from before it got sold to the ad company?
Not them, but same dealio here, and yes.
Version 7.0.57 was the latest version before the acquisition. You can still get it off apkpure.
Oooooh good idea
GOAT launcher. Hopefully it doesn’t meet its demise. The features should be implemented into stock android experience…
Link please?
What link are you referring to?
GOAT launcher, obviously
Oh, i was just referring to Nova as the Great Of All Time (GOAT) 👍
Gotcha! I thought you were recommending a better, alternative launcher.
Shame about Nova though. It was (is, I suppose) a decent launcher.
+est
Lol…thanks!
If I was able to choose icons for some apps myself after applying a theme, I would immediately switch to Lawn Chair. But for now it’s still Nova Launcher without internet access for me…
Wish Lawnchair didn’t have some sort of ghosting when it won’t react to any inputs for like quarter of a second after minimizing the currently active app. Guess it’s a Samsung thing but still, not found on a default launcher. Otherwise would definitely switch to Lawnchair.
That’s a known issue with all third party launchers. I assume Google purposefully doesn’t fix it.
yeah, they just kinda do that sometimes -_-
Lawnchair is open source and basically identical in my experience, though i think i’m using some new version of it that’s technically not stable or something?
you can’t change the main home screen. there are threads going back 6 years asking for that feature and they’ve just been ignored so I think I’ll avoid it
change how?
if you have multiple home screens, you can’t change which one is the default one. you can’t add empty home screens, either.
Lawnchair is what I switched to after Nova Launcher was purchased. Honestly, I have few complaints, it’s been plenty good enough for me.
I switched and didn’t notice much difference
It’s a shame. Years ago, I adored their luncher, before I found Niagara and found how amazing it was. It will be sad to see it go, but these things happen. The luncher market is so full, you need to be special to stand out.
I felt like Nova’s not being special was what made it special. It was the closest to stock android while having a bunch of little tweaks here and there that allowed for more custom setups.
There are zero good alternatives.
NEO LAUNCHER FTW
Still needs a lot of time to mature, but yeah neo launcher ftw
any other lauchers that allow you to change app icons?
Action launcher.
saved
Lawnchair as well
Been using Niagara for nearly ten years, I think. Absolutely perfect launcher IMO.
