I'm on one of the last versions from before the acquisition (8.1.1) and intend to use it for as long as I can while searching for alternatives. Thankfully my Prime key still works (email one, not Play Store), maybe the checks are hardcoded in some way.

What I'm thinking now is to get the APK and self-sign it as a way to prevent Play Store from auto updating it. I'm with a non-rooted device, this seems to be about the only way I have. I have already unchecked the auto update for it, but it still appears in the update list, and if I tap "Update all", it would update. Does anyone have experience with this?

Nova sold to shitheels, I switched to Lawn Chair a customizable FOSS Launcher

Plug for open source launchers like Lawnchair

https://lawnchair.app/

Hey, me too! I tried a couple of other ones I saw here like lawnchair and Niagara but I think Hyperion is the closest so far. I miss the side slide drawer, I hate scrolling down, but other than that its pretty close.

I had nova for so long too, I hate this shit.

nova was good many years ago. iirc they got bought by an advertising company, and that was the day i deleted it.

I have to imagine that anybody savvy enough to make the decision to install a third-party launcher is also savvy enough to immediately uninstall that shit.

!

On the subject of android launchers, I gotta advertise: https://github.com/RoBoT095/win95_launcher

Made it in two days, released yesterday, still needs work but I want to know what people think of it.

EDIT: here is an image of it

I switched over to Lawnchair leaving Nova Launcher just last week. All the Lemmy articles about the new owners forced my hand. Perfect timing!

The irony of an ad for an adblocker...

I was watching a youtube video of an engineer student showing off his project. He had a stopwatch app up to show how quickly something was done, and there was a banner ad at the bottom of it. Like, it's a damn stopwatch, who thought "I worked hard on this, and deserve to make some money!". Also, how normalized to ads was that person that they didn't think twice about letting that ad roll in their video.

Ive been using the FOSS launcher Kvaesitso for about a year now due to annoyances with Nova. It's a different setup entirely, but I always preferred the app drawer over having scattered icons on the homescreen so its worked great for me. Anyone interested in trying something new should check it out. :)

I'm enjoying a lot using Dragon Launcher, it's a bit more complex with a bit of a learning curve but really nice once you get used to it. It's less known so I'm trying to increase its visibility because it deserve all the love it can get.

https://f-droid.org/packages/org.elnix.dragonlauncher

I switched to Niagara a few years ago and can never go back. The alphabetized list of apps and slick scroll are super addictive.

Here's what it looks like: (ignore the use of Papyrus, I just use it because it drives my friends nuts)

This is exactly why the first thing I did was disable updates for Nova, just in case.

I have been using Lawnchair Nightly as my default home screen though; there are a couple of things that aren't carried over from Nova (mainly folder and tabs in app drawer) but for the most part it's pretty comparable.

Used Nova for almost a decade. Switched a few weeks ago when the news broke of them adding ad tracking.

I like Kvaesitso so far.

I switched to lawnchair. It's ok but feels a bit "We have Nova Launcher at home".

They asked for ad permissions so I uninstalled and now giving Niagara a go. Have a try, it's different.

And that license is now in the pile of licenses that used to be worth something, but are now junk.

Little sad trumpet player eulogizing this mess.

I suggest Lawnchair to y'all

For anyone looking for more customization, Octopi Launcher has been the closest replacement for me. I've tried Lawnchair, Niagara, et al.

WTF is going on? I've never seen an ad in my Nova Launcher. I'll switch immediately if I ever see one. Did they add them to widgets? Does this only apply to the free version?

If you'd like to try something different, i use Lynx launcher:

oh damn :( I used to use it but that was several years ago and it seems quite a bit has changed...

The free version is completely enshittified. Fucking javlar'd.

Either use a different launcher just like it, or roll back to the pre-takeover version and block the app from updating itself (after all the biggest change is them adding popup ads).

Thanks for the reminder to uninstall, I had switched to lawn chair months ago but never got rid of nova

Man how the mighty have fallen. It's rather sad actually