After years as the Android customization go-to, things are seeming dire for Nova Launcher, and we might be saying our goodbyes to the iconic launcher that helped shape the Android platform. It was known for being one of the best of its kind, but it is officially shutting down soon.

End of the Road for Nova Launcher

The founder and developer behind Nova Launcher, Kevin Barry, recently shared that he has officially left the project. This move puts the platform’s future in question as people believe this could be the end of Android’s most iconic launcher. After Nova was acquired by Branch in 2022, Barry decided to part ways now, stating that there is barely any active development on the platform.

He further added that he was working on making Nova open source, however, he was asked to stop work on this before he left. While there were initial promises that the platform would go open source if Barry left, this development hints that this probably will not be the case. Nova Launcher was one of the biggest third party launchers that helped bring deeper customization if your Android smartphone’s original custom skin was lacking.

To recall, it allowed users to bring changes to their home screens, gestures, app drawer, and much more. Many believe that Nova helped improve the Android experience overall, inspiring new features and bringing great quality of life features even before official OS builds on certain smartphones. This is all the information we have at the moment, so stick around for more.

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The post Are We Saying Goodbye To Nova Launcher? Development Slows & No Plans for Open-Source appeared first on Gizmochina.

One of the advantages Android has is its wide range of customizations. From basic things such as customizing icon packs to changing your font to widgets, there are several ways to make your Android phone yours. Another common way is to use a 3rd-party launcher.

Installing a 3rd-party launcher is one of the easiest ways to change the way your phone looks and works. The Google Play Store is filled with tons of launchers, with some that have crossed over 10 million installs. Some of these launchers are free while others have in-app purchases that provide more features.

For our poll this week, we want to know if our readers use a 3rd-party launcher. So, please take the poll and also drop a comment telling us the launcher you use and why you like it.

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The post Poll of The Week: Do you use a 3rd-party launcher on your phone? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Most smartphone manufacturers are using their own custom skin on top of the Android operating system. While such custom interfaces introduce new features that are missing in stock Android, not everyone is a fan of the design of the custom skin. For those, the third-party launchers come in handy, allowing them to customize the look.

However, Huawei is now taking a step that will block the third-party launchers on its Android fork EMUI. Huawei has announced through its forums that it will be blocking the use of third-party launchers on EMUI 9.

The company is trying to explain this by saying that it received feedback from users who encountered various problems while using third-party launchers. So, the company says that in order to maintain the customer experience, it will block the use of launchers.

Huawei further adds that most third-party launchers come pre-installed with bloatware which in turn affects the phone’s performance. It adds that sometimes, due to high power consumption by such applications, the phone also starts experiencing heating-related issues.

Another issue that the Chinese company is pointing out is advertisements. It says that most third-party launchers are loaded with advertisements, from pop-up ads to background apps, which apart from inconvenience for usage, also poses a privacy risk.

Read More: Apple and Huawei sit atop the Top 10 Smartphone brands in China in terms of revenue

In light of this, the company says that it has decided that from EMUI 9, users wouldn’t be allowed to set third-party launchers as the default. While it appears that the company is concerned about the users’ data and experience, Huawei has taken an easy way out and is depriving its users of using the feature which is one of the major things that makes Android the most popular mobile operating system.

The post Huawei announces that it will now block third-party launchers on EMUI 9 appeared first on Gizmochina.