Nova Launcher 7 has been completely rewritten – here’s what’s new

Source: Ara Wagoner / Android Central

Nova Launcher remains one of the most popular and ubiquitous Android launchers out there, and while it is certainly feature rich, that also means that the launcher was getting a bit big and bloated, which is when it did. it’s time to make a drastic change and straighten things out. What is driving the change this time around is that Nova is rewriting itself around Launcher3 rather than the outdated Launcher2, a change that has been needed for a few years now.

It’s a big update and it’s not quite ready for the whole world just yet – that’s why it’s starting with a beta test through the Nova Launcher Discord channel – but it’s in pretty good shape so far. from my experience with the beta. Most of the features in Nova remain the same or improve with the move from base Launcher2 to Launcher3, but there are a few features that disappear when this update is transferred to the stable channel. There is no ETA on when that might be, but I bet it’s at least a month away.

If you prefer your changes abbreviated, here is the changelog so far for the beta of Nova 7:

• Radial folder icon layout
• Vertical scrolling of paginated folders
• Swipe down action on icons (requires Prime)
• The search bar and tab bar in the drawer can be placed at the bottom
• More Nova window and search bar options
• Context menu action Save APK
• Improved handling of reshaping icons in themes
• Option to disable haptic feedback when scanning extension notifications
• So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so many bugfixes

A new feature that seems small but could have a big impact is the ability to set different apps / shortcuts when you swipe down from a home screen app instead of just when you swipe up. For example, you can configure swiping up from your Phone app to show Google Meet for your morning video call instead, and swiping down to call your mom directly.

One area where we’re seeing a lot of change is the app drawer, and that starts with the elimination of horizontally paged app drawers, at least in part. You can still use the app drawer tabs and drag them horizontally, but each tab is now a vertical scrolling list or grid rather than static pages that you can navigate. For the most part, that’s not a big deal, but if you’ve sorted the tabs in your app drawer by category, rest assured that you can still use your tabs, and now you can even set the tab carousel. at the bottom rather than the top, making it easier to use on larger phones.

There are also similar options for the search bar in the app drawer, and the folders also get new changes in appearance and usability. Hopefully more changes will come as Nova 7 moves towards a stable release – please we need a central theme menu so we don’t have to change the colors to ten different places when I exchange themes – but the changes we see so far are very encouraging.

The New Year is a great time to mix things up and try your hand at theming and customizing, and if you want to start that journey with a new launcher, it’s hard to beat Nova Launcher. After all, there’s nothing that makes an old phone feel like a shiny new phone like a new launcher and home screen theme.