Nova Launcher on Nexus 4 - Any users?

bobjohnson201

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That is very cool! I can see some awesome uses for that!

Not really, but you can change the page transition. Maybe that will help. I have no issues with the speed. There are some pretty cool drawer opening effects too.

ADW has a few different folder styles. But you're right the no background option would be nice.

Interesting. That could be useful.

I want to say ADW has this. I could be wrong though.

Now this I've never heard of. Sounds cool.

This is exactly the discussion I was looking for! Thanks! I might just have to give nova a try.

Edit:
Bought Nova Prime. :D

Edit #2:
It gave me an error when I tried to import my ADW settings. I'll have to play with it when I get a chance.



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haha its a win-win. you helped me see some useful things with ADW and I helped you see some things with Nova. Isn't android wonderful?

Another thing to note: the widget over the dock thing is an experimental feature. You can enable all the experimental features by holding the volume down button while on nova settings. you will see a new option titled "labs"
 

donec

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How did it fubar your icons? I have Apex and Nova both installed and swap back and forth all the time. They are both pretty good, but I think Nova is better. It's faster and gives you a few more features that make customizing easier.

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When you swap back and forth do your settings have to be reset or does it remember them?

Also do either Nova or Apex require root or will they work with stock un-rooted phone?
 

bobjohnson201

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When you swap back and forth do your settings have to be reset or does it remember them?

Also do either Nova or Apex require root or will they work with stock un-rooted phone?

when you switch back and forth the appropriate launcher remembers all your settings. So say you in apex you have a 6x4 grid, various gesture controls enabled, notficiation bar and dock hidden, and in Nova you have a 10x8 grid, different gesture controls, dock and notification bar enabled, when you switch back and forth each launcher will retain what you set it to do. Nova even lets you create backups for your whole desktop layout, which stores all the settings, loads what icons you used for apps/where you placed them, and remembers the widget placement you used. and yeah, works with stock un-rooted phone. hope this helps!
 

bobjohnson201

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I think I saw a backup option in Apex but haven't tried it. One other thing I love about Nova is that when you speed up the transitions it just flies. Almost instantaneous response on my Nexus 4.

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apex seems to only allow for one backup and you can't even name them :(. so everytime you change something and then back it up, i believe it will just overwrite your previous backup. i also don't like how the backups in apex are divided into two catagories. i think ADW's is better but i don't have much experience with that either...
 

badbrad17

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apex seems to only allow for one backup and you can't even name them :(. so everytime you change something and then back it up, i believe it will just overwrite your previous backup. i also don't like how the backups in apex are divided into two catagories. i think ADW's is better but i don't have much experience with that either...
ya you're right. Could you save to a different folder?

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donec

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when you switch back and forth the appropriate launcher remembers all your settings. So say you in apex you have a 6x4 grid, various gesture controls enabled, notficiation bar and dock hidden, and in Nova you have a 10x8 grid, different gesture controls, dock and notification bar enabled, when you switch back and forth each launcher will retain what you set it to do. Nova even lets you create backups for your whole desktop layout, which stores all the settings, loads what icons you used for apps/where you placed them, and remembers the widget placement you used. and yeah, works with stock un-rooted phone. hope this helps!
Thanks for the replies.

Does that hold true with the stock launcher also like if you switch from stock launcher to Nova and then to Apex and back to stock will you have your original stock launcher back like it was?

apex seems to only allow for one backup and you can't even name them :(. so everytime you change something and then back it up, i believe it will just overwrite your previous backup. i also don't like how the backups in apex are divided into two catagories. i think ADW's is better but i don't have much experience with that either...
Sounds like Nova allows you to make backups and name them each differently. Is this correct?

ya you're right. Could you save to a different folder?

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Once you made the first backup is there any reason you could not copy that file/files to another folder and then create a second different backup and when the time came restore the one you choose?
 

bobjohnson201

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Thanks for the replies.

Does that hold true with the stock launcher also like if you switch from stock launcher to Nova and then to Apex and back to stock will you have your original stock launcher back like it was?
Yes.
Sounds like Nova allows you to make backups and name them each differently. Is this correct?
Yup. It's an amazing feature. Also, ADW seems to allow for multiple backups which are sorted by the date you did the backup.
Once you made the first backup is there any reason you could not copy that file/files to another folder and then create a second different backup and when the time came restore the one you choose?
The problem with this is when you backup something in apex, each backup will have the same exact name (I believe), so when you move your other backups back to the appropriate folder that apex reads when looking for restore files, Idk how that would work... But this gives me an idea. Each time you do a backup move it to a dedicated folder, and rename the backup whatever you want. Then when the time comes to restore, move your desired backup back to the apex (restore) folder and rename the file back to the original name (forgot exactly what it is titled). I guess this would work. But Im not sure if apex even remembers widget placements like Nova does. Don't know for sure but I have read things on xda. Maybe that was for an older version?

Edit: just learned that apex does NOT restore widgets. Beware...

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Last edited:

Basscase

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Just got word from Nova's developer. Kevin, nice guy, quick response. Ace in my book. :thumbup:

Unfortunately the only thing he can suggest to fix the problem importing my ADW settings is to uninstall then reinstall ADW, which completely defeats the purpose of importing. :thumbdown:

Looks like I'll manually have to set up my Nova screens. :(

Edit:
So you can share a backup file via email. I did that now I just have to bring myself to uninstall ADW. If the backup I sent doesn't work once I reinstall I'll have to launchers to set up from scratch.

Here we go... :eek:

Edit2:
Good news: The emailed backup worked! I just had to format my widgets again. No biggy.
Bad news: Still won't let me import into Nova.

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Last edited:

badbrad17

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Just got word from Nova's developer. Kevin, nice guy, quick response. Ace in my book. :thumbup:

Unfortunately the only thing he can suggest to fix the problem importing my ADW settings is to uninstall then reinstall ADW, which completely defeats the purpose of importing. :thumbdown:

Looks like I'll manually have to set up my Nova screens. :(

Edit:
So you can share a backup file via email. I did that now I just have to bring myself to uninstall ADW. If the backup I sent doesn't work once I reinstall I'll have to launchers to set up from scratch.

Here we go... :eek:

Edit2:
Good news: The emailed backup worked! I just had to format my widgets again. No biggy.
Bad news: Still won't let me import into Nova.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
I uninstalled Apex and just decided to use Nova. I find it just works better for me.

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bobjohnson201

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Just got word from Nova's developer. Kevin, nice guy, quick response. Ace in my book. :thumbup:

Unfortunately the only thing he can suggest to fix the problem importing my ADW settings is to uninstall then reinstall ADW, which completely defeats the purpose of importing. :thumbdown:

Looks like I'll manually have to set up my Nova screens. :(

Edit:
So you can share a backup file via email. I did that now I just have to bring myself to uninstall ADW. If the backup I sent doesn't work once I reinstall I'll have to launchers to set up from scratch.

Here we go... :eek:

Edit2:
Good news: The emailed backup worked! I just had to format my widgets again. No biggy.
Bad news: Still won't let me import into Nova.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

im trying to import my layout from apex but it just says "loading" and shows that circle thing again and again lol...is that what happened with you?
 

Basscase

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im trying to import my layout from apex but it just says "loading" and shows that circle thing again and again lol...is that what happened with you?

Nah. I get this error. I should email the ADW dev to see if this is a known error or if they have disallowed other apps from reading the settings.

avy2aba6.jpg


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bobjohnson201

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Nah. I get this error. I should email the ADW dev to see if this is a known error or if they have disallowed other apps from reading the settings.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/07/avy2aba6.jpg

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I've been getting this and it's been doing this for like 10 min. Are we supposed to have the other launcher open in the background? uploadfromtaptalk1357514907775.jpg

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