Nova Launcher Prime is a paid app that unlock customization features in the free Nova Launcher app.

  • @coffee_poops
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    356 months ago

    For those who don’t know, Nova got sold to an analytics company a while back. It’s a spy app now.

    • @[email protected]
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      86 months ago

      I remembered that I bought the launcher at 0.99 USD but not when. I checked my emails and it was 8 years ago. I think the last time I used Nova launcher was around 6 years ago.

      It’s unfortunate that they got sold to an analytics company. It was an good launcher

      • @[email protected]
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        16 months ago

        I’ve been using it the whole time across dozens of devices. I love it. I guess I need to look into switching.

    • ProbablyNotQualified
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      6 months ago

      There’s never good news. Guess I gotta try and find a new launcher that isn’t ass. Update: did some googling of the time line and my Nova launcher hasn’t been updated since Dec of 21 ,before the acquisition, so it should be good.

      • @coffee_poops
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        36 months ago

        I like action launcher. I’ve tried Lawnchair 2 but it’s still in beta after like 7 years. Honestly haven’t found any launchers that are still actively updated that aren’t shitty. The others seem to be either lacking features, customization or are overly simplistic.

      • @[email protected]
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        16 months ago

        Unfortunately nothing much. I tried Lawnchair, ADW (on a whim, hasn’t been updated in almost a decade), and action launcher. Went with AIO again lol.

        I hear LightningLauncher got open sourced! Pierre isn’t working on it anymore though; there’s a fork being worked on here.

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          This app isn’t available for your device because it was made for an older version of Android

          Boooooooo!

          How do I go about installing the fork?

          • @[email protected]
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            26 months ago

            Oof, looks like the only available release is a debug version. It’d probably be a good idea to hold off until it’s a bit more up to date. I loved lightning launcher and I’m excited it’s making a comeback, it was the only app that would let me do a vertically sliding single-column folder lol.

    • @[email protected]
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      26 months ago

      I was just thinking “it’s refreshing that you only have to pay for it once, instead of it being a live service.” I guess there’s always a catch.

    • @[email protected]
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      26 months ago

      It doesn’t send anything beyond telemetry, wich can be tured off, but yes you shouldn’t pay for it.

      • @coffee_poops
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        46 months ago

        Have you seen the network analysis? It didn’t make sense for an analytics company to buy it unless they’re going to use it for data. I know the sesame plugin is sketchy, too.

        • @[email protected]
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          16 months ago

          Yes all my traffic goes through a raspberry pi and then NextDNS, there is no suspicious traffic from Nova. I definitely think they use telemetry data, but that can be turned off. Idk about the plugin however.

          • @coffee_poops
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            36 months ago

            Have you examined to see what’s in the telemetry data? Pi and nextdns just show where it’s going to, not what is being sent.

            • @[email protected]
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              46 months ago

              It doesn’t send anything because i turned it off… Thats the point im making. It has no outgoing traffic records.

              • @coffee_poops
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                06 months ago

                You can tell that it’s not sending anything to azure or AWS?

                • @[email protected]
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                  26 months ago

                  I can say it ain’t sending anything if telemetry is off.

                  Even if it wouldn’t go through the pi or the DNS to the outside.

                  • @coffee_poops
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                    16 months ago

                    So I decided to reinstall Nova to test your theory. As you can see, I have telemetry turned off:

                    Screenshot

                    Yet, the launcher still attempts some sort of network request:

                    Firewall Logs

                    I haven’t dove into the packets to see what it’s trying to do but if I didn’t have it blocked by Adguard’s firewall I wouldn’t even know.

                    Don’t trust it.