- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
Sad to read, but not at all surprising. I remember how much damage control Kevin was doing back when the sale to Branch happened.
I hope he has learned something about trusting the word and contracts from entities like Branch from the whole thing.
- Nova Launcher, that is. - Oooh, that’s concerning, that’s what I use. I don’t find Android particularly useable without it, the vanilla experience is pretty awful. - I do hope it’s not going away! - So it didn’t get opensourced and the last dev has stopped working on it. I think the conclusion you can make from that is that it’s gone. - deleted by creator - That was the plan but they shut him down on the transition to open source and moved him on to other projects. 
 
 
- It’s not like there aren’t several alternatives, especially ones that are basically the same. Lawnchair, Hyperion etc. 
 
 
- Can we crowd source a legal effort to force the contract to be honored? - Doubt it. The outcome of these kinds of things is usually determined by whoever has more money, and an ad company like Branch usually has more money than god. 
- If it’s in the contract then he could do it on his own, without any help or permission from the company, couldn’t he? - He could, but he likely doesn’t have the financial backing or community support to pull it off. - What financial backing, if the contract said it then any incoming lawsuit would be thrown out - You have to pay lawyers to litigate. - And the contract said it was to be open sourced, which has not happened, so litigation must now happen to enforce it. 
 
 
 
 
- Anyone have a comparable launcher that is still being developed? - Lawnchair is what I’m currently using, and it’s improving. They’ve had a large development push recently. Another one I’ve looked at was SmartLauncher. - I tried Kvaesitso for a while but ultimately it wasn’t for me - Kvaesitso takes a little to get used to. It is not like a traditional launcher and is no where near as customizable as Nova but I still really like it. - If you don’t like having a ton of icons, only use a limited number of widgets, you like to use a search bar, and you don’t like shoving things in the app screen in to folders, I suggest giving it a try. - The home screen only allows one row of icons. You have a set of icons as your favorites in the app screen. You can use tags, rather than folders, to organize icons. - It is different but it is very polished. - I found that after a good part of a year, I wasn’t using the widgets menu at all and it would take me more time to find the right tag than if I had folders that benefit from muscle memory - I do get the appeal though, it’s very polished - You seem to know what you need but if you decide to try it again, you can set favorite tags. Clicking a favorite tag will put all the icons to the top. - But yeah I can understand why it’s not for everyone. The widgets only allow for full width so customization is limited. Tags and the search bar will limit muscle memory. I can probably open my most used apps blindfolded in Lawnchair or Nova. I can’y do that with this launcher. I see your point. 
 
 
 
- I’m really loving Octopi. Especially on the Fold since I can have multiple layouts. The stackable widgets are really nice too. - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.otp.octopilauncher 
- A launcher that allows for icon swipe up/down actions?? - I switched to action launcher years ago and it still works great. The ability to have a default app in a folder is so convenient, you tap to open the app you use most, or swipe to open the full folder. I’m not aware of another launcher which allows this. - I only have one screen for everything I need because of this feature, with the full app list available on the left and a widget panel with my calendar and weather on the right. - I never see it mentioned in these threads though, I guess because it’s not FOSS. I tried lawnchair and the gap in features is massive. - Action can do this? I’ll have to check it out, because that’s the feature from Nova I can’t live without. My whole home screen has been built around it for years. - Action can do this. I believe it was implemented on Action before Nova anyway but it’s years ago at this point… But yeah that’s the main feature I miss with all the other launchers. - I can’t quite remember how the in app purchase element of it works, I appear to have paid to be a supporter in 2022, I think around then maybe is when they changed payment models and annoyed people idk. - It’s too integral a part of my usage for me to worry about, as much as I love FOSS stuff. I’m totally happy with the small amount I’ve contributed. The app is still releasing updates. 
 
 
- I use Total Launcher - it has up and down swipe gestures but also left and right. It’s a bit of a learning curve, much less intuitive than Nova was at its peak, but very customisable. - I tried total launcher. Even bought a license. It didn’t have the app icon swipe. For example if I swipe up on the phone app icon it launches the contacts app. Swipe up on the messages app icon to launch Signal. Great way to easily access a bunch of related apps without cluttering the home screen. - Agreed, that’s exactly what I do too - I use icon swipe all the time though, so I’m confused why you don’t have it. - Admittedly, I swipe folder icons rather than individual apps, but it definitely works, here’s a quick video (link lives for 2 days): https://streamable.com/liybvg - EDIT - looking again, I can’t set swipes on individual app icons either, just the folder icons. Weird, never noticed that before! 
 
 
 
- Nova is ridiculously big shoes to fill, but I’ve had a decent experience with hyperion. - I mostly use Niagara these days though, I’ve come to like the list layout more than icon grids. 
- I used neo for a while, and it came close. but at least for me it had some issues with energy hunger and I think it lagged from time to time. maybe it’s fixed by now. - edit: still no new release since December 2023. sad - Yeah if it weren’t for the laundry list of glitches and no new releases since I think 2022 (the December 2023 date was a mistake, there was no change at all, it just overwrote the release date) I would also be using neo. But i got really tired of accidentally resetting all my damn widgets because I moved an icon wrong, and having to manually remake them since they wouldn’t restore from backup. 
 
 
- deleted by creator 











