[breput]

I was a 10+ year long Nova Launcher user and knew this day was coming after the sale and layoffs[0][1]...

This evening I at looked several replacement launchers, such as Lawnchair and even the stock Pixel launcher again, but Octopi Launcher[2] is the more modern, more refined Nova replacement that you are looking for.

It was a very easy, natural transition process from Nova - all of the Nova features that I used were there (unlike Lawnchair), such as swipe up/down on icons to perform different actions. And little things like folder options, icon placement, and widget handling are SO much nicer on Octopi compared to Nova. Staggeringly better.

I took a screenshot of each home screen page, set Octopi as the new default launcher, and was back to my previous configuration but with a significantly improved visual appearance, in about 15 minutes. It's a no-brainer upgrade from Nova.

The Google Play install is free and basically unlimited, but there is an unobtrusive "Buy Me A Coffee" type button that allows you to donate either $1 or $3 to unlock some eye candy, which I did, but mostly just wanting to support the developer.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45170000

[1] https://www.androidpolice.com/exclusive-cliff-wade-nova-laun...

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.otp.octopi...

[ssl-3]

Thanks for the tip.

I opened up my phone to see about giving Octopi a shot, and (amusingly? alarmingly?) Nova Launcher produced a popup warning me that it would now feature ads.

Anyway, my launcher needs are pretty minimal. Switching over and recreating a familiar layout was easy enough.

I do find one function missing, though: Some shortcut functionality seems missing in Octopi that was present in Nova.

For instance: Shazam. I use it to identify the music I hear, and that's all I want it for. With Nova, I was able to create a single-tap button on the home screen for a "Shazam Now" shortcut that immediately went straight to the identification phase with zero nonsense. This worked slick, and I'd been using it this way for a decade or so.

With Octopi, I can long-press the Shazam icon and pick "Shazam Now", and that does work. But that's multiple steps instead of just one, and I can't drag that shortcut to the home screen. There is also a list of apps with shortcuts that I can add, but Shazam is missing from that list.

Thus, the single-tap Shazam Now function I'm familiar with is presently lacking. Perhaps some day. :)

(Otherwise, Octopi fits with everything else I want to do, so I'm buying the dev a coffee.)

[hnuser123456]

You can use the open source app Activity Launcher to create homescreen shortcuts to directly launch any exposed activity/method in any app. There's probably a StartSongSearch or similar activity in Shazam. (there's also a song search activity in the Google app)

https://github.com/butzist/ActivityLauncher

[BoppreH]

I managed to add a Shazam Now button using a Shazam widget, not a shortcut. Give it a try!

I just installed Octopi on this thread's recommendation. Pretty good so far, and I'm happy to remove the useless Google search bar from the bottom of my Pixel (I use Kagi and Firefox, neither of which can be configured on that bar). Also satisfied how you can resize widgets to any size, regardless of what the widget asks for.

[ssl-3]

That's similar functionality, but it's not a Shazam Now shortcut. I really don't want any widgets -- at all, ever. And I need labels -- remembering arbitrary iconography is a silly task when phonetic written language exists.

Just a shortcut is fine. Or at least: It had been fine for nearly a decade.

This, right here: This is what I want, and what I was using with Nova Launcher until late last night. https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/01/27/shazam-gets-updated...

:)

(Besides, Shazam is just a singular example. I had other shortcuts that I also used. I'm really rather disinterested in finding individual workarounds for each of them.)

[ssl-3]

As an unfortunate reply to myself, I'd like to ask a question to nobody in particular: Do y'all not use shortcuts? I think that they are pretty neat, and we've had them on Android since around version 7.1.

And the reason I ask this is because when I Google up different combinations of nouns, verbs and word usements for my problem of Android shortcuts and Octipi Launcher, I fairly-consistently find my own recent comments on HN (above, in these threads; within the bounds of this posting) in the top 5 results.

And that tells me that I am not only preaching to the choir, but the choir only exists of one member. And that member is me.

So I guess I am thus preaching to myself.

Awesome!

And thus, perhaps I am much more of an outlier than I ever imagined.

So the question stands: Am I really looking in from the outside with my quest for Android shortcuts that we've had for almost a decade? Is this lack of functionality really a thing that others just simply don't notice in a modern Android ecosphere? Is it a forgotten relic of the past?

(Whatever the case, it presently doesn't work with Octopi Launcher -- and I'm going to keep using it anyway.)

[BoppreH]

A bit late, but maybe you'll see this reply.

I do use shortcuts, even with Octopi. WhatsApp has shortcuts to chat with specific contacts, and Termux has shortcuts to arbitrary snippets, and I love both. I mentioned the Shazam widget only because it seemed to have the exact same functionality, only lacking the label.

[ssl-3]

It's not the same, though.

A widget is a thing that runs. It's an active process with a channel to create its own on-screen display, and the mere existence of it consumes non-zero CPU even if never invoked.

A shortcut is more like an icon on a Windows desktop, or perhaps a unix symlink. If it is never used, then it never really does anything at all.

Anyhow, Octopi. It does support shortcuts, but it seems like there's two different pathways for them and they do not work the same at all.

One pathway: Long-press the wallpaper and there's a list of them a tap or two away for some apps and it's easy to add them to the home screen. Home Assistant is in this list, but Shazam is not.

The other pathway: Long-press an app icon and a list of named shortcuts may appear. These are impossible to link to a home screen icon. And the per-app behavior is opposite: Long-pressing Home Assistant does not present this list, while long-pressing Shazam does.

[pepa65]

I tried with Round Sync to add a button for a certain task to my home screen, and it doesn't work... That is very sad, it used to work on Nova.

[princevegeta89]

What a coincidence of shitholery here. I've been a very loyal user of Nova for almost a decade now, and I have never even thought of using any other launcher. Now, strangely since 2 weeks ago, on my Samsung phone, I've been experiencing a lot of freezing and random crapping out of my Nova launcher, where it would just not let me do anything and show a blank home screen with a wallpaper. So this most likely is the reason, I'm not sure, but this sends a very bad vibe down the line now.

I am going to look for a nice open source launcher and get used to it. To hell with the shittification of our beloved apps and services.

[rpdillon]

I've been using the keyboard based KISS launcher for 6 years now. Available in F-Droid, small, light, fast.

[princevegeta89]

I just tried kvaesitso and it seems good so far. Will try KISS once thanks

[amne]

that same moment I switched to Niagara launcher. After 10 minutes of using it bought the Pro level and that was it. I kept around 5 apps in main screen, YT music widget automatically pops up on top when I connect headphones. The side scroll is very well thought out. For each letter the most used apps are on top. This one clicked with me.

[subscribed]

I tried Niagara myself, but that's not for me. I need more than one widget, very different weather widget, and quick access to the full drawer.

Separately it openly states in the privacy policy it states your location with third parties (or at least did 2 months ago). Big GTFO from me at this point.

I also tried and loved Kvaesito, but sadly their strict "one widget per line" limitation is where I bailed out. I use a number of 1x1 and 1x2 widgets so this basically breaks it down for me.

Looking forward for the Nova replacement :(

[nxtbl]

"In-app purchases" another annoyance of the play store, can't see prices without installing an app. So question for users of Octopi, how's the pricing?

[ffsm8]

1. It's not unique to the play store, as a matter of fact, this started in the iOS app store and was "adopted" by Google. It could definitely be improved though, i.e. if all potential in-app purchases were listable via the store page, like on steam for example

2. The prices were mentioned in the comment you're responding to.

[noja]

> this started in the iOS app store and was "adopted" by Google

I can see prices for in-app purchases in the iOS App Store.

[ffsm8]

Where? Just checked on every app I've purchased in app unlocks and none of them have any indicator for these unlocks (or others that are still available) on their app store page.

The only way to see them - from my experience which I just verified - is to go into the app and go into the relevant menu's of the apps.

Please explain where you're able to see this information on the app store on iOS or iPadOS

[gruez]

It's in the app store's app listing, just under age rating. It says "in app purchases: yes", which you can expand to show all purchase options.

https://back.ww-cdn.com/superstatic/docs-res/41269/in-appfin...

[ffsm8]

Is this maybe only available for some regions or opt-in for the developer? I this UX doesn't exist on my devices running on 26.2 in the apps I checked. I just verified again but no luck

/Edit: found it! that is way too hidden - Would never have found that without your explicit mention and gif link!

After exploring some more on the play store too, There is actually a similar UI in the app details there too, it doesn't list all items but the price range (cheapest item to most expensive item). Definitely worse then having all items listed, but both could be improved imo by listing them as repeatable purchases, temporary licenses, forever unlocked etc) for informed consent before install. I'd never install any app which has repeatable transactions for example

[ezst]

What seems to be missing from every alternative I've seen is the power offered by the combo Nova+Sesame. I really don't use my launcher as a navigation system. All it does for me is pop open a search box after a swipe so I can type the name of the app I want to use, the contact I want to text or call, etc.

There seem to be other "search-first" launchers out there (KISS is one), but then they miss the amount of expected polish (unread/notification badges, leeway in letting you place random widgets on the background, etc). Still searching.

[high_priest]

I use the Nova Launcher in exact same way as you. I've checked many alternatives and none are as polished as Nova.

[cik]

As another 10+ year Nova Launcher user, I appreciate this. I bought prime forever ago (3x actually as I moved domains), I'll happily use Octopi on my tablet. Thanks again!

[Wurdan]

I've spent about 10 mins seeing if I can replicate my Nova setup with Octopi. My only missing feature so far is more extensive gesture support. As far as I can tell, Octopi supports a max of five actions, and you can't change the gestures for them. They seem to be hardcoded to "swipe up", "swipe down", "swipe right from first screen", "double tap" and "tap home (icon)". If I could change the gesture for "swipe right from first screen" and "double tap" then I could almost perfectly recreate my Nova setup.

[saltcured]

It's these discussions where I realize people use phones in such different ways.

I abandoned Nova last year when I read about this looming problem. I found that Fossify Launcher beta (from F-Droid) works well enough for me on my Pixel 8a.

I don't really need much out of a launcher. My main goal was to have one like my older Android and not be forced to have a search bar or assistant triggers on my home screen.

All I need from the home screen is to be able to place basic widgets like clock and calendar and shortcuts for the basic apps I use frequently. A plain app drawer is fine for the rest, because I don't really install that many apps and instead disable/remove many. My app drawer shows 35 apps and has several blank rows remaining on the first page with 5 icons per row.

[Semaphor]

I liked it, but when I added a 4x1 widget (meteoblue forecast), that didn’t properly resize to the size available. Wasn’t a problem for Hyperion or Nova, was worse for Lawnchair.

[breput]

Widget sizing/appearance was probably the only surprise that I discovered between Nova and Octo. Resizing in Octo takes a bit of getting used to, but I was able to reproduce the appearance of all of my widgets.

Padding is a little different and harder to discover than Nova - it is in the "Customize appearance" menu when you long tap on a widget. That is something to check out, as well as making sure Rounded Corners aren't enabled.

There is also a "Freely position and resize items" option in the Launcher Settings->Home tab, which I do not have enabled, but might be necessary to get your widget sizing just right?

[Semaphor]

Yeah, tried all of that, but none of the options work. Funnily enough with free resizing it looks right for a moment, then changes to being too big again.

I’ll certainly not exclude this being a meteoblue issue (I only use two widgets, digical and meteoblue), but Hyperion (only with 6 columns) and Nova (always) get it right.

[breput]

I had never experienced meteoblue so I installed it, it looked very nice, but when I added the 4x1 widget, it looked horrible. I resized it and got "Subscription required. Tap on the widget to open the in-app store"!

If you're in the US, I like NOAA Weather Unofficial[0]. It is not quite as visually impressive as meteoblue, but has good technical details and the 4x2 widget resized exactly like I wanted. I think the free version is unrestricted, but it is another app where I explicitly wanted to support the developer.

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nstudio.we...

[Semaphor]

Ah yeah, it’s paid. I’m in Germany.

[aagha]

Thank for the list.

I tried some of these and decided on Smart Launcher [0] espescially because they had an "import settings from Nova" feature. AND their search is amazing--with a single search it looks at contacts, web search, apps, etc.

0 - https://www.smartlauncher.net/

[InfinityByTen]

Thank you for this! I was really happy with one launcher that I configured probably 8-9 years ago and then moving to the new phone meant everything just worked (^tm ?) with normal phone porting. Reading the headline made me freak out for 2 min. I really really do not like UI muscle memory being changed for something like my phone.

[SeriousM]

Octopi es an excellent replcement. Thnaks for your recommendation.

[gbil]

What is your experience from a performance perspective? Nova Launcher was pretty light on that front, I'm using smart launcher since a few months and it is ok but Nova was lighter.

[breput]

I only have one day's worth of light usage on a Pixel 9 Pro, but it feels at least as responsive as Nova Launcher.

Zero lag in switching screens, opening the app drawer, or scrolling through apps - there is a control for the animation speed, but it doesn't seem to really have any impact, positive or negative.

[opan]

I use OpenLauncher from F-Droid and have been pretty happy with it.

[AdmiralAsshat]

Meh. I installed Octopi, but it's like death by a thousand cuts. The dock looks like hot garbage when you flip to landscape mode--it ends up taking up like 60% of the screen. I don't know why it doesn't just switch to vertical mode the way Nova did.

Lack of being able to name the folders is also an annoyance, as is the way the folder icons pop out to the side from the dock rather than up-and-over.

[gf000]

You can rename folders. Long press on them, edit and you have quite a few options.