Highly recommend Nova Launcher for S3

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android94301

Senior Member
May 28, 2012
208
134
Hey folks,

I highly recommend replacing the touch Wiz launcher with nova launcher. I have found it much more intuitive, and much easier to use. (I am not affiliated with Nova in any way.)

Several advantages:

1. The bottom bar (dock) of apps is highly customizable, with as many apps as you choose. You can also create multiple pages of docked apps, so it's possible to access 10 or 15 apps on the lower dock.

2. The App drawer is automatically alphabetized, unlike touch Wiz, which I find so much easier to use. There are of course workarounds on touch Wiz, but why bother? I just dock the icon for the app drawer on the lower dock so it's always available.

3. Nova has one step back up of your screen layouts so that if you are wiping your phone regularly in order to reflash ROM's, it's trivial to reset your screen layouts by doing a restore from nova. This saves a lot of tweaking time.

4. You can customize the layout of your desktop with variable margins, a persistent search bar on all pages, gestures, and with nova launcher prime ($4), you also get unread counts for SMS, missed calls, and Gmail, which is very nice.

5. Basically everything is customizable and modifiable. I greatly prefer it over the stock touch Wiz launcher. Check out the free version of nova, as it has virtually all the features other than the unread counts.
 
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lowg

lowg

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2010
127
37
nyc
jsb5388 said:
I personally prefer apex but I can see the appeal in nova. They are pretty similar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


I tried Apex but had a super annoying rendering hug that would display a box on the main home screen for a split second...

Not even considering that I spent a few hours tweaking Apex for a few hours (loved that it had so many options) but 90% of the Nova defaults were perfect for me and after going from Apex to Nova was convinced that it was right for me.
Sent from my Galaxy S3
 
csyrell

csyrell

Senior Member
Jan 31, 2008
68
8
android94301 said:
Hey folks,

I highly recommend replacing the touch Wiz launcher with nova launcher. I have found it much more intuitive, and much easier to use. (I am not affiliated with Nova in any way.)

Several advantages:

1. The bottom bar (dock) of apps is highly customizable, with as many apps as you choose. You can also create multiple pages of docked apps, so it's possible to access 10 or 15 apps on the lower dock.

2. The App drawer is automatically alphabetized, unlike touch Wiz, which I find so much easier to use. There are of course workarounds on touch Wiz, but why bother? I just dock the icon for the app drawer on the lower dock so it's always available.

3. Nova has one step back up of your screen layouts so that if you are wiping your phone regularly in order to reflash ROM's, it's trivial to reset your screen layouts by doing a restore from nova. This saves a lot of tweaking time.

4. You can customize the layout of your desktop with variable margins, a persistent search bar on all pages, gestures, and with nova launcher prime ($4), you also get unread counts for SMS, missed calls, and Gmail, which is very nice.

5. Basically everything is customizable and modifiable. I greatly prefer it over the stock touch Wiz launcher. Check out the free version of nova, as it has virtually all the features other than the unread counts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

*1. Love Nova
 
P

piiman

Senior Member
Jun 21, 2010
520
47
lowg said:
I tried Apex but had a super annoying rendering hug that would display a box on the main home screen for a split second...

Not even considering that I spent a few hours tweaking Apex for a few hours (loved that it had so many options) but 90% of the Nova defaults were perfect for me and after going from Apex to Nova was convinced that it was right for me.
Sent from my Galaxy S3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Have you tried Go launcher?
 
F

Fadingintofall

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2011
118
19
Rochester
Just fyi... the "work around" to get the app drawer alphabetized is clicking the menu button with the app drawer open and then clicking, "view type" and switching to alphabetized. Not exactly complicated. Or even a work around.

Nova is great, but I'm actually enjoying touchwiz. I do want to switch over and play with nova more... But eh, not seeing a huge need. Coming from sense (which I hated) I'm quite happy on tw.

Though I do miss being able to back everything up

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
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doeboy711

doeboy711

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2009
1,069
180
Owings, MD
How does ADW work on it. I have been rocking them for a while. I am picking my S3 up next weekend when I get back in town. My wife already has hers though and she is rubbing it in my face lol.
 
juancaperez2000

juancaperez2000

Senior Member
Jul 22, 2010
1,837
173
Hyattsville
doeboy711 said:
How does ADW work on it. I have been rocking them for a while. I am picking my S3 up next weekend when I get back in town. My wife already has hers though and she is rubbing it in my face lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

i start to use ADW ex on my old EVO and is really good launcher, by personal reasons i movo to iphone and now that i back to android i found more launchers, and Nova is really good maybe even better than ADW ex, IMO
 
badseed767

badseed767

Senior Member
Jul 28, 2011
93
30
Covington, Louisiana
Using Apex launcher plus. I tried Nova first, but Apex has a few more features. Just my opinion. Coming from my Dinc running Holo launcher after a VERY long run with LauncherPro (rip).

Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
 
E

EverythingAndroid

Member
Jan 16, 2012
6
0
I've been using nova launcher for about a week and I like it a lot. It's very smooth and very fast. It is easily customizable as well.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
 
Last edited:
D

Div033

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2010
1,332
271
I noticed Nova was a bit smoother than Apex for me, so I've been using Nova and loving it :)

Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA App
 
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T

tars16

New member
Apr 18, 2011
2
0
Any idea what's up with the widget selector for Nova? I click on the widgets tab and instead of the expected widget drawer I get a list of widgets similar to ginger bread.

Is this a feature that's unlocked with nova prime? Or is that widget drawer option something different? Other than that Nova is pretty sweet!
 
SlimSnoopOS

SlimSnoopOS

Senior Member
Jan 29, 2011
8,052
3,348
tars16 said:
Any idea what's up with the widget selector for Nova? I click on the widgets tab and instead of the expected widget drawer I get a list of widgets similar to ginger bread.

Is this a feature that's unlocked with nova prime? Or is that widget drawer option something different? Other than that Nova is pretty sweet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Tried this? On my last rooted phone, Droid Incredible, it worked perfectly. Haven't tried it on this phone though cuz I don't feel the need to root. REQUIRES ROOT:

xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=780828

Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
 
Last edited:
F

Falcyn

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2010
338
33
Apex and Nova are both based on the stock 4.0.x ICS launcher, so they're very similar, but Apex gives more features for free.

You're definitely making a mistake if you use Go Launcher or ADW or LauncherPro on this phone, since those are Gingerbread-based. The ICS launcher is just a much, much better base.
 
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lowg

lowg

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2010
127
37
nyc
tars16 said:
Any idea what's up with the widget selector for Nova? I click on the widgets tab and instead of the expected widget drawer I get a list of widgets similar to ginger bread.

Is this a feature that's unlocked with nova prime? Or is that widget drawer option something different? Other than that Nova is pretty sweet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You just need root.

If you have root you can go to Nova Settings... Drawer and enable Widgets in Drawer.


Sent from my Galaxy S3
 
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    Fadingintofall
    Just fyi... the "work around" to get the app drawer alphabetized is clicking the menu button with the app drawer open and then clicking, "view type" and switching to alphabetized. Not exactly complicated. Or even a work around.

    Nova is great, but I'm actually enjoying touchwiz. I do want to switch over and play with nova more... But eh, not seeing a huge need. Coming from sense (which I hated) I'm quite happy on tw.

    Though I do miss being able to back everything up

    Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
    View
    2
    A
    android94301
    Hey folks,

    I highly recommend replacing the touch Wiz launcher with nova launcher. I have found it much more intuitive, and much easier to use. (I am not affiliated with Nova in any way.)

    Several advantages:

    1. The bottom bar (dock) of apps is highly customizable, with as many apps as you choose. You can also create multiple pages of docked apps, so it's possible to access 10 or 15 apps on the lower dock.

    2. The App drawer is automatically alphabetized, unlike touch Wiz, which I find so much easier to use. There are of course workarounds on touch Wiz, but why bother? I just dock the icon for the app drawer on the lower dock so it's always available.

    3. Nova has one step back up of your screen layouts so that if you are wiping your phone regularly in order to reflash ROM's, it's trivial to reset your screen layouts by doing a restore from nova. This saves a lot of tweaking time.

    4. You can customize the layout of your desktop with variable margins, a persistent search bar on all pages, gestures, and with nova launcher prime ($4), you also get unread counts for SMS, missed calls, and Gmail, which is very nice.

    5. Basically everything is customizable and modifiable. I greatly prefer it over the stock touch Wiz launcher. Check out the free version of nova, as it has virtually all the features other than the unread counts.
    View
    1
    D
    Div033
    I noticed Nova was a bit smoother than Apex for me, so I've been using Nova and loving it :)

    Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA App
    View
    1
    F
    Falcyn
    Apex and Nova are both based on the stock 4.0.x ICS launcher, so they're very similar, but Apex gives more features for free.

    You're definitely making a mistake if you use Go Launcher or ADW or LauncherPro on this phone, since those are Gingerbread-based. The ICS launcher is just a much, much better base.
    View
    1
    D
    Div033
    Death&co said:
    I recently purchased Nova Launcher but haven't had the free time to set everything up the way I like it yet.

    One thing I did notice was when I hit the home button it asked me which launcher I wanted to use. Touchwiz or Nova Launcher and if I wanted to select one as a default. Since Nova Launcher is completely new to me I choose TW as the default. Once I get everything set up, where can I go to make Nova Launcher the default?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Go into settings and select application manager. Then find Touchwiz launcher under all applications and press clear defaults.

    Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA App
    View

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