That talk about substitutes happened when it was initially handed over to said data miner, and anybody concerned should have switched back then. I did, moving to Lawnchair, and never looked back. Oodles of other options are doubtlessly available.

I would be so happy if Kevin got accidentally 'hacked' and the source leaked, by now im so ingrained in nova that it just feels wrong switching.

I hate clickbait too. Just downvote posts like this

So if Neo started updating again I think it is the closest open source match?

Help a brother out, which one is closest to Nova? I don't mind paying for good work, I just want home screens and being able to place my icons where I want, also widgets!

Yes

Man probably needed to eat. What a system we've got.

It's always capitalism

I switched to Niagara a few years back because Nova didn't have good support for foldables and tbh I haven't looked back. It's very different but once you get used to it it's much faster than a traditional launcher.

Yep, have been using and currently using Nova for the last 8 years I think. Suuucks to see it go as I couldn't find a viable search based launcher like Nova when it was sold.

I like Olauncher a lot but I can't do like a feature comparison with Nova, I never used it. Hope you find something good to replace it with though!

Seriously, one of the few apps I've ever paid for - and this is what I get?!

Hey by any chance do you have the last APK file and the SHA256 of that file ?

Oh wait, it this it ?

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/teslacoil-software/nova-launcher/nova-launcher-8-1-1-release/nova-launcher-8-1-1-android-apk-download/

Name: com.teslacoilsw.launcher_8.1.1-81001_minAPI26(arm64-v8a,armeabi-v7a)(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk
Size: 11970405 bytes (11 MiB)
SHA256: 30bccfdd995969089ad364a7a6bb7bbea482a703fbfb30ebccad6418aa977fec

Is there an x86_64 version ?

Just making sure we've got the last version saved

Oh wait, it's not open source ? And they've been acquired in 2022 ?

date of acquisition 2022-07-19

Ok, last one before the acquisition, just in case

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/teslacoil-software/nova-launcher/nova-launcher-8-0-2-release/nova-launcher-8-0-2-android-apk-download/

Name: com.teslacoilsw.launcher_8.0.2-80002_minAPI26(arm64-v8a,armeabi-v7a)(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk
Size: 12580956 bytes (11 MiB)
SHA256: 61a760413387dde99f2a2ef4b065caf278b575c8028cc5b3092f05192cfee258

I'm sorry, brother. My condolences. I actually get my launcher from Fdroid and so I'll probably also be fucked.

https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html

Read a bit further:

Two years later, Kevin Barry left Branch and is no longer involved in Nova’s development. In his announcement, Barry revealed that he had been the sole developer for the past year, spending recent months preparing to open source Nova Launcher and clean up its codebase. However, Branch ultimately asked him to stop both development and his open-sourcing efforts.

Are you being sarcastic?

Same. I loudly exclaimed "FUUUUUUCK" as I read the article, much to the confusion of my partner.

I used to use lawnchair but there was some lag with it. Now I use whatever default launcher there is that graphene has

KISS is so good. It's 100% the fastest way to get to where you wanna be when you pull up your phone.

Yeah, it's open sauce, has shortcuts, widgets, & works fine.

Oh, this is great news. I have Nova tweaked to work almost exactly like this. Excellent, thank you.

There's no direct replacement. The features I use are in Pear launcher so I use that. You have to look through launcher comparisons to find the features you need.

Also, I'm surprised purple are still using Nova. I thought most people abandoned it after it got sold.

It's very much not a classic launcher and takes some getting used to, but Kvaesitso is nice.

if you are asking about combinations of customisations, flexibility and stability. none atm.

I love my Niagara Launcher ! it's a different concept than most launchers, and looks pretty spartan on first glance, but it's sleek, efficient and can look absolutely fabulous. The Pro stuff is a bit pricey, but it has a good privacy policy, autodelete data older than a year, and are GDPR compliant.

I switched from Nova to Smart Launcher and haven't looked back.

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.

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 have used and enjoyed lawnchair for the past year. It's quite minimal and I've found it very stable.

Octopi Launcher seems quite promising.

Trebuchet seems good...?

I've been using Lightning Launcher for over a decade now.

It's no longer on play store, but a version is available at https://github.com/TrianguloY/LightningLauncher

Lots of customization options.

I've been using Hyperion for a few years. I mostly wanted something with app drawer folders like nova offered and this was the best I could find