7 launchers you should use instead of Nova Launcher

If you’ve been using Android phones as long as me, it’s impossible that you haven’t dabbled in Nova Launcher at some point. In fact, I’d say that Nova Launcher has been the go-to app for Android customization for well over a decade. It earned that well-deserved status by giving users more control than stock launchers ever could, from how icons looked to how gestures worked to how the app drawer was laid out. But all good things come to an end, and the development of the app has drawn to a close.

Anyone following the industry would’ve seen the writing on the wall when the app got taken over by Branch Metrics a while back. All that to say that updates and future compatibility remain unlikely. And if you haven’t been keeping up with alternate launchers for a while now — I know I haven’t — well, it’s time to start planning for what comes next. The good news is that Android’s launcher scene has grown rich and varied, and I’ve spent time testing and revisiting a wide range of options that will appeal to you not only if you’re looking for a Nova alternative, but also if you want to try something fresh. These are seven of my favorite Nova Launcher alternatives that stand out right now.

Niagara sits at the top of my list because it doesn’t try to copy Nova at all. It’s a ground rethink of what a launcher should be by stripping everything back to a vertical list that you can easily scroll with one hand. Notifications integrate directly into the list, and the whole experience feels designed for speed and focus. On big phones, it’s a relief to stop stretching across the screen to reach icons. And the simplistic interface quickly becomes muscle memory for reaching out and launching apps without even looking at the screen. More than that, though, I’ve been on a minimalism kick, and the pared-back experience has helped me a lot with cutting down digital noise.

Of course, this means Niagara doesn’t replicate Nova’s granular customization. You don’t get grid layouts or multi-layered docks. There’s a single slot for widgets, though you can swipe through them carousel style. But what you lose in customisation, in return you gain a cleaner interface that reduces distractions and makes your phone feel like a tool instead of a toy. Once you live with it, it’s hard to go back to the clutter.

If Niagara is a bit too much outside your comfort zone, Lawnchair offers the perfect comfortable dose of familiarity. It looks and behaves like Pixel launcher, but with more flexibility, which makes it an easy jump for Nova users. In fact, the app is quite literally a port of Pixel Launcher with additional features tacked on. It supports Material You theming, third-party icon packs, and even automatic organisation of apps, as well as better widget handling. While not perfect, Lawnchair has also gone a long way towards bringing back the nerfed gesture actions to the launcher. Because it’s open source and backed by a community, development is pretty quick, and the team actively adds in features with nightly releases.

The one area where it still trails Nova is in extreme customization. Nova veterans who dived deep inside the settings menu or, like me, had a habit of exporting and reimporting years’ worth of dialed-in settings and layout organisation will notice missing toggles here and there. But for most people, Lawnchair gets the balance right. It’s familiar, it’s fast, and it makes it fairly easy to get your home screen looking exactly the way you want it to look.

As good as Action Launcher is, it’s always been considered a tier-2 alternative to Nova despite the fact that Action Launcher has been around almost as long as Nova. However, with Nova Launcher out of the picture, it might be time for Action Launcher to shine. The app has built up a distinct identity with features like Quicktheme, which pulls colors from your wallpaper — Material You style. There are other cool additions as well, with Shutters being my favorite. As much as I like widgets, I don’t want them to occupy space on my home screen all the time. Shutters lets you swipe an app icon to reveal the accompanying widget. Another swipe and it’s back to an icon. Very cool. You also get standard features like notification dots and unread counts for emails and widgets. Action Launcher goes a step beyond in its visual tweaks with features like adaptive icons and fun transitions when launching an app. That may or may not be what you want, but it’s certainly distinctive and makes the launcher experience feel much more dynamic than what Nova has offered. Moreover, the updates have continued steadily, which is important now that users are looking for reliability as much as customization.

The app isn’t entirely free, but the cost for an upgrade to the Pro pack is affordable. More so considering you’ll likely use the app every day for years to come. The appeal of Action Launcher is that it covers much of the same ground as Nova while offering tricks Nova never did, and it does so in a way that feels polished rather than experimental. It’s a good choice for Nova users looking for a new home.

Where Action Launcher is about adding new and flashy features, Hyperion narrows its focus on speed. I’ve dabbled with it over the years, and what stands out is how light, smooth, and quick it feels in operation. More so than Nova ever did, especially on older or mid-range hardware. Animations are crisp, the interface is uncluttered, and it will be familiar to any long-time Nova or Pixel launcher user. Moreover, it still gives you enough customization to get your desktop and app drawer looking exactly how you feel. If you were the kind of user who likes adjusting the corner radius in Nova, Hyperion might not cut it for you, but the feature set is largely there.

While Hyperion also offers a premium tier, the free tier is perfectly usable without needing to upgrade. Some advanced tools, like locking your apps behind a fingerprint lock, sit behind a small premium upgrade. For most people, the performance gain will outweigh the few missing extras. It’s the launcher I reach for when I want a phone to feel brand new again, even if it isn’t, and it is my go-to recommendation for anyone on an older phone.

Compared to Nova Launcher and even some of the other launchers on this list, Smart Launcher 6 takes an entirely different approach. Instead of leaving you to organize everything yourself, it categorizes your apps automatically and adapts its look based on your wallpaper colors. Unless you like getting in the weeds with customization, Smart Launcher is a solid choice if you want something that’ll get you going within seconds.

Additionally, unlike other app launchers, Smart Launcher deploys a horizontally aligned layout by default. Combined with the automatic folder categorisation, I find it quite nifty for navigating large app collections quickly. The layouts are flexible, widgets can be resized easily, and the overall vibe is more modern and user-friendly. It feels like it was designed to keep clutter at bay and doesn’t require a whole lot of setup to give your phone a whole new look. My only gripe with Smart Launcher is that it doesn’t feel quite as speedy as Nova Launcher or even Action Launcher, but that’s just me nitpicking.

Like most other launchers, if you want deeper tweaks, you’ll need the paid version, and I’m not a big fan of how overt Smart Launcher’s push to premium is. But I like how it turns the home screen into something functional straight away, especially for people who don’t want to dig through pages of settings. It’s the launcher I’d hand to someone who’s never used a custom launcher before and just wants their phone to feel organized.

I’ll be honest, Nova Launcher never really worked all that great for me on foldable phones. And if you’re rocking a foldable or flip phone, you should look at Octopi instead. Its big idea is that it lets you create separate layouts for outer and inner screens, so you can design a compact setup when the phone is closed and a more expansive one when it’s open. It also supports all the usual features like widget stacking and a turbo search feature that pulls up apps instantly as you type.

There’s ample customization to be found here, ranging from options to remove labels, adjust padding, scale icons, and more. All of these are commonplace for launchers that focus on customisation, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. The real difference, like I mentioned earlier, is that the setup on your phone’s inner display is completely independent of the outer screen. Octopi is probably not going to be a drop-in replacement for Nova for every user, but if you’re using a foldable phone, it’s one of the few options that let you truly maximise the capabilities of your hardware.

Finally, if you’re looking for a whole new approach to Android launchers, you’ll want to give Kvaesitso a shot. While I still can’t pronounce the name right, I really like what this launcher is doing. In fact, my colleague Andy called it the best alternative to Nova Launcher. So, what’s it all about? Kvaesitso is an open-source launcher that puts minimalism and a search-driven interface right at the center.

The home screen is intentionally clean and bare, and everything else lives in a clean vertical list. Instead of folders, Kvaesitso uses an all-new tag-based approach to organising apps. This is a very nifty trick that lets you place apps under multiple categories. Elsewhere, search lies at the heart of the app. You can get website previews or perform basic calculations right in the app drawer. It operates very similarly to Spotlight search on the iPhone. Even widgets get an all-new approach with a single pane that houses all of them. Again, inspired by the iPhone’s widget-exclusive screen.

It won’t fit everyone’s needs, but Kvaesitso is hands down one of the most unique launchers available right now with its only real downside being availability. The app is not available on the Play Store, and you’ll have to sideload it from F-Droid or GitHub. But if that doesn’t bother you, it’s definitely worth trying out.

The Android launcher scene is alive and thriving

Nova Launcher was, perhaps, the most popular Android launcher for a good reason. No single launcher can tick every box from Nova’s feature list. Niagara offers minimalism and one-handed speed while Lawnchair delivers familiarity. Meanwhile, Action Launcher gives you smart features that are unlike anything Nova never did. And Kvaesitso flips the script entirely by making search the default. You catch my drift.

While your best move would be to try out each of these apps and decide which one sticks, I’d start by picking out what you value and need most. If you want the closest Nova-like, Lawnchair might be a solid choice. Foldable users should definitely give Octopi a shot. And if you want something different, Niagara and Kvaesitso give you a whole new way to use your phone.

As much as I’m going to miss Nova Launcher, you don’t need to mourn the demise of Android customization just yet. There are more than a few apps that can fill the Nova-sized gap. Some might even surprise you with how they exceed Nova’s feature set. The ecosystem is stronger than ever, and if anything, this might be your chance to take a break from old favourites and try something new and fresh.