this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024

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PSA: Nova Launcher is owned by an analytics company (www.androidpolice.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

317 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Since a few folks seem unaware of this, I'm posting anew for visibility.

(page 5) 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (12 children)

Switched to Niagara launcher (Pro version) about a year ago and now I cannot imagine using a phone with an traditional app drawer.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (17 children)

To remove internet access from Nova, in android go to:

Settings->mobile network->data usage->network access

Go to Nova and select "disable network access"

Nova will complain after but functions just fine.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

Ah man I've been using this app for years... It's really convenient!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It is unfortunate and I was looking at dozens of other open source launchers, but I was not able to find one that fits my needs and is as customizable as Nova Launcher :(

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

I use Nova integrated with Sesame. Unless I can find apps that can have the functions offered by these two apps, I've got no choice but to stay.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

Thanks for the info, as a long-time Nova Launcher user, I was not aware. Good thing I didn't give it any internet access.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Where is my tldr bot

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Would it be safe if I stayed on some older version of the app?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Just use the latest and disable internet permission

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Niagara is what I moved to from Nova. Less widget focused layout, but any app is literally 2 presses and one swipe away from the home screen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I love Niagara. For me, it really eliminated distractions and stopped me from swiping mindlessly.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well this sucks because I love Nova :(

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Anyone here not using an open source launcher after this announcement is seriously learning nothing from this. You are just trusting the next company that either already or eventually will go the same way. Like the dude mentioning Microsoft launcher as alternative, that one has branch analytics baked in as well as far as I remember.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Be aware that using open source doesn't protect you completely from this, look at what happened to Simple Mobile tools, best install your open source applications from f-droid.

Do you have any good open source alternatives for Nova Launcher?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Of course, but when something like that happens to a popular app there will be an outcry. If you are not a tech person you might miss that, but I'd argue if you care about what launcher your phone has and you care about this issue to go foss you are probably the type of person who'd hear about it.

I use KISS launcher but there are many other options mentioned here that are also good. Yes, nothing is exactly like Nova. But lots of other stuff is good too.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I backed up the APK of the last "clean" version before the sale. I'm going to keep using it until some OS update breaks it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

You don't have to do it! :)

One of the original maintainers of Simple Mobile Tools forked the project and he's adding new features and fixing bugs.

The project is called Fossify and you can already download the apps from both Play store and F-Droid

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

@Scrollone @slimarev92 The "Launcher" repository/project/portion/etc has no releases and no packages on its page, so how do i actually download it and try it?