Nova Launcher has been the default suggestion for “how do I change my home screen” on Android since the Ice Cream Sandwich era. Ownership has changed hands, a Prime paywall exists, and a hundred rivals have come and gone. Nova is still the recommendation for most people who want a custom launcher. Here is why, and where it now falls short.
What a launcher actually is
A launcher is the software that draws your home screen, your app drawer, your icon layout, your swipe gestures, and your folder animations. Every Android phone ships with the manufacturer’s own — Pixel Launcher on a Pixel, One UI Home on a Samsung, HyperOS’s launcher on a Xiaomi. Installing Nova replaces that layer without touching anything else on your phone: your notifications, your Play Store, your app data are untouched.
You can uninstall a launcher at any time and your phone reverts to the stock one. This is a low-stakes app to try.
What Nova does out of the box
Install Nova, set it as your default, and you land on a nearly stock home screen. Nothing looks dramatically different at first — that is deliberate.
The good stuff is one layer down, in Settings:
- Icon size, label size, and grid density on the home screen and app drawer, all adjustable.
- Custom folder animations and shapes.
- Swipe-up-on-icon gestures (swipe up on your camera icon to open the front-camera selfie mode, for example).
- Fully custom icon packs from the Play Store — hundreds of them, from monochrome and minimal to loud and cartoonish.
- A search bar you can move, restyle, or replace with something else.
- Backup and restore of your entire home screen setup, including wallpaper and icon pack, to a single file.
Where Nova pulls ahead of stock
Three things Nova does that stock launchers still, in 2026, do not:
Real app-drawer control. Hide apps you do not want cluttering the drawer. Group apps into custom drawer tabs. Sort by frequency of use. Change the drawer to a horizontal-swipe layout or a vertical scroll.
Gesture actions. Two-finger swipe down anywhere on the home screen to open notifications. Pinch out to toggle the app drawer. Double-tap the home screen to lock. These become muscle memory in a week.
Backup portability. When you buy a new phone, restoring your Nova backup gives you back the same home screen you spent hours arranging. No stock launcher lets you do this cleanly across manufacturers.
The Prime paywall
Nova is free. Nova Prime is a one-time paid upgrade that unlocks unread-count badges on icons, custom swipe gestures per icon, and a few extra folder options. The core launcher — icon packs, grid density, drawer layout, home-screen customization — all work in the free version.
For most people, free is enough. If you spend an hour arranging your home screen and enjoy the process, Prime is worth the small one-time cost.
Where Nova has fallen behind
Nova is no longer the only mature custom launcher on Android. Two rivals worth naming:
- Niagara Launcher takes a radically different, list-based approach. If you like a quieter, alphabet-scrolling home screen instead of a grid, it may fit you better than Nova.
- Lawnchair 14 is a Pixel-Launcher-style launcher with more customization. Open source and free of a paywall.
Nova’s advantage over these is depth. Nothing else is as configurable, and nothing else has as many icon packs designed around it. But Nova’s grid model is genuinely a “traditional” home screen — some people will prefer the alternatives.
Battery, RAM, and stability
Nova is unusually efficient for a launcher — memory footprint under 100 MB, no meaningful battery impact in day-to-day use. Crashes are rare. The one time in the last year that Nova froze on us, it was because we tried to load an animated wallpaper that was 400 MB.
The verdict
4.5 / 5. Nova Launcher is still the default recommendation for anyone who wants meaningful control of their home screen. It has been eleven years and it still deserves the recommendation.
Where to get it: the official Nova Launcher listing on the Google Play Store.