I don’t know what people are mad at. I assume that the users with Prime still seeing ads aren’t happy, but I have no idea.
Me personally, I don’t like to have my launcher selling data to Meta/Facebook. I also can see the change in strategy, from where a paid app supported development, to one where tracking and ads is at the centre of the monetization of the app. That’s something I try to avoid these days. I prefer to pay or use open-source and donate, and have a clean app.
The code is on the launcher itself. Prime is a separated app that is supposed to unlock paid features and disable the ads. I’ve seen some comments on Reddit of people claiming to have prime and seeing ads, so I don’t know what’s going on.
I had similar issues with the latest beta version from Github.
A few years ago, I installed Nova on my parent’s phones to work around small text on the stock launcher and to make it easier to move the layout to a new phone. I wanted to replace it with Lawnchair, but the icons freaked out while I was recreating the setup, so I gave up. Octopi Launcher seems to be a good replacement, but they expect new apps to appear on the home screen(s) and unfortunately Octopi doesn’t support that, so I’m currently testing Pear Launcher, which is closer to Lawnchair, fairly simple, but stable so far.
I might go with Octopi for myself, but I too like to have new apps appear on my home (so I don’t have to go look for them and don’t forget to remove what I’m testing), so I’m not sure yet. I like the performance of Lynx Launcher, but it also lacks this feature. By default it also uses a different “layout”… but it’s smooth on my phone, there’s no BS. A tempting option.
Smart Launcher seems to be very nice, but pushes the premium stuff hard. While I plan to buy/donate to support development of the launcher I will use, I’d like to test things without having a “upgrade to premium” banner in front of me.
I know it’s just a launcher, but f me, it’s hard to find a good replacement for Nova.
APK Mirror: https://www.apkmirror.com/uploads/?appcategory=nova-launcher
The Nova Launcher archive goes all the way back to 2012, so that’s not a problem.
The thing is, if you install an old version and disable updates, you still depend on the Play Store not to update it. From time to time I manually open the Play Store to force updates, when some app isn’t working as it should. So for me at least, it’s only a matter of time until I forget about this and update the app.
We could block it from accessing the internet, but looking at DNS queries, this latest version also keeps retrying failed connections every few minutes. There’s no way that’s good for battery life.
In other words, while I’m sad and this is pain in the ass, it’s time for me to move on.
It’s crazy how much longer battery lasts after removing Google Services from Android.
Unfortunately for me, not only some of my apps require Google Services, but I also use a Samsung… I don’t even have LineageOS available. Even if I did, custom ROMs on Samsung can’t use VoLTE, which is a problem as they’re shutting down 2G/3G where I live.
If you’re using Nova, be aware that it keeps retrying some failed connections, so while this might improve privacy, it may also increase your battery drain.
I was going to keep using it for now with an Android firewall, but decided to uninstall it to force me to find a replacement.
btw, the launcher you linked to is called “minimalist phone”, that’s what the scan is about.
if you meant to link this “AIO Launcher”, then it still collects telemetry and crash reports, but I guess most launchers on the play store do this: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/ru.execbit.aiolauncher/latest/
it seems that the only way to use a “clean” launcher is to use an open source alternative.
Keep an eye on your battery life. I blocked Nova on my firewall app and it was retrying a connection to Google’s Firebase every minute or so. I assume because it was failing.
This is the launcher that everyone installs. I don’t think the paid app, which only unlocks some features, has been updated (at least I haven’t received an update yet).
No Facebook Ads or Google Ads on that launcher, but there’s the same Branch analytics stuff that made people leave when Nova was sold for the first time:
https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.qqlabs.minimalistlauncher/latest/
What’s the version to use? The latest pre-release?
I installed it to test. Went to change the fonts, some apps had the old font, some had the new one (even after restarting the app). Couldn’t organize apps inside folders by name. It doesn’t seem to handle icon adaptation for old apps as well as Nova did.
I feel bad for saying this as it’s free and open, but it doesn’t seem to be as polished as Nova.
Man, I’d love to adapt to some of these launchers, but day to day, having a few icons and folders in easy to reach places works better for me than having to type, scroll, use gestures, etc. I always go back to traditional launchers.
At this point, I don’t mind paying something every year to keep development going (there’s always something that needs to be fixed on new Android versions) and so the author doesn’t feel the need to sell it, but monthly subscriptions… I don’t know.
I think I paid the equivalent to $4 a few years ago for Nova. I’ve been using it for 10 or so years. I wouldn’t mind paying $4 per year just to avoid this sad outcome.
I’ve tried Lawnchair. It’s better than it used to be last time I tested it. With this said, I don’t seem to be able to order folders by name, changed fonts (something more compressed) and half of the icons had the old font, and others had the new one (even after restarting the app)…
I think I could make it work, but like all open source launchers I try, there’s always something half-backed or not polished enough.
They’ve released 14 today: https://lineageos.org/Changelog-28/
I used “Lawnchair 15 Beta 2”, which was the latest available on their site and Github 4 days ago.