Been using Olauncher from fdroid since I switched to grapheneOS a few years ago:
https://f-droid.org/packages/app.olauncher
Zero complaints so far, pretty minimalist launcher.
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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Ditch this shit yesterday.
The company that owns it now blows chunks. I'm using Lawnchair now and it was a bit of a transition but after a few days I got it set up just how I wanted.
Lawnchair has been very buggy for me, with animations freaking out and icons appearing and disappearing
Me too but tapping the same spot to get to the same app still works so I just keep using it.
Yeah the "stable" version is over 7 years old and the only other options are perpetual beta or nightly, both of which were unusably broken for me when I tried them a couple months ago.
I went through like 15 launchers and just ended up back at Nova. Nothing was able replicate my exact weird setup I've built over 12 years.
At this point I'm more tempted to use JADx to decompile Nova, import it into Android Studio, and fix decompilation errors than I'm motivated to find a different launcher.
Tried Total Launcher?
I don't remember why it didn't work but the link is purple on Google so something didn't fit.
It's like the Arch... LFS of launchers. It basically gives you a bad template, but loads of control to do whatever you please
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.
Lawnchair isn't a one-to-one replacement unfortunately. I customized my Nova Launcher pretty heavily, I guess I'll have to just not download any more updates. I hope the update this week was just bug fixes, as the patch notes implied, otherwise I'll have to find an APK of the last version.
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/teslacoil-software/nova-launcher/nova-launcher-8104-8-2-4-release/
Also check out ApkPure.com
Thank you
i'm really sad...
i've had the same nova config for 10 years, almost untouched....
none of the FOSS launchers are even close in functionality and customization.... i tried them all...
Same. Only thing that I've changed in more than a decade since my Galaxy S4 is adding another row of apps when the aspect ratio got taller.
I love the gestures, but they don't seem to be available on most launchers
I am using Kvaesitso which is great, but not Nova.
+1 for Kvaesitso. It requires a different way of thinking but in the end it needs much less tinkering. I wouldn't return to Nova now even if it were open sourced.
While he says that Instabridge is in a “difficult position,” he thinks that open sourcing Nova “has to be a component” of helping rebuild trust with the community:
Yea, I bet it is a difficult situation, wanting to add advertisements and trackers to an app you didn't develop while trying to skirt out of a public commitment for going open source, an act that would allow people to completely undo your efforts for ads and trackers. I can see why they don't want to open source it.
For context that is paraquoting Barry(the ex-dev that left) talking about instabridge and open sourcing it. the full quote is in the post.
Moved to Octopi launcher. It's nice.
Looking at Dragon Launcher too which is really cool. However, I need more time to set it all up.
This is my new favorite launcher.
indistract minimalist launcher
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.indistractablelauncher.android
Looks a lot like M-Launcher on F-Droid.
I think I tried that one and I didn't like that you could only have 4 apps on the main page.