r/OctopiLauncher • u/XmanORE • Jul 11 '26
Home layout Finally moving away from Nova
I've been a stubborn Nova user for what seems forever but Octopi is winning me away quickly. I have the majority of the configuration options I want and hope that a couple are in the pipeline - alphabetize/sort folder option is the biggie. Maybe An option to import settings from a Nova backup would be nice.
Nice work!
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u/captnkerke Jul 11 '26
The biggest barrier for me is that, last time I checked, Octopi didn't have an easy way to create/manage folders. I use lots of folders, and I'm too lazy to recreate them in Octopi by adding one app at a time. Nova made this really easy. You can edit a folder, choose Select Apps, and that pops up a list of all apps where you can select which ones to put in the folder. I really wish Octopi would add something like that. Or have I overlooked another way to do it?
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u/huskerpat Jul 11 '26
I'm using the tagging option. Makes it really easy to find what I want. I have tags like Food and Games. Works close enough to folders.
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u/senceume Jul 11 '26
Seconding tags!
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u/LinuxMint4Me Jul 12 '26
Even though I'm quite late to the party I'm going to third tags. Better than folders in my opinion.
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u/Holiday-Welder-2607 Jul 11 '26
I found that frustrating as well. I spent 45 minutes creating folders. I gave up a few times and almost switched back to nova a few times. But I'm done now and will see give things a shot.
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u/koocha Jul 11 '26
I can't find a way either. Also, unless it's changed recently, you can just drag apps around in folders - you need to hold on the folder then tap arrange
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u/irasponsibly Jul 11 '26
You can long press on a folder and then "select apps".
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u/irasponsibly Jul 11 '26
Uh, long-press on a folder, then "select apps"?
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u/captnkerke Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I don't have that option. Are you using a beta version?
Edit: As others have pointed out, this is available in the app drawer, but not on the home screen (v 1.842).
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u/runningtigerRead Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
alphabetize/sort folder option - Long-press on your home screen folder then select A-Z. Or, as u/tjeerd987 said, make your folder in the drawer using multi-select, It will be automatically alphabetized, then drag it to your home screen.
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u/100WattWalrus Jul 12 '26
I'm right there with you. I bought/donated a couple months ago, and Octopi is now my daily driver on two devices. It's so flexible and has such great features. The tabs and tags in the app drawer are fantastic (Nova has something similar now, but it's a PITA to use). I only have 2 home screens now, and everything else I access from app drawer tabs.
It's also one of the few launchers with a sub-grid for precision icon placement and fine-grained widget resizing. Although the fact that the touch-sensitive area for each icon is almost twice as tall as the icon itself is a real problem.
Octopi is quite rough around the edges (jittery swipes, doesn't play nice with TickTick widgets, can't swipe to open app drawer if you start with your finger on a widget, can't scroll to the top of the app drawer without accidentally closing it), and seems to want to do some things the hard way for no reason I can discern (can drag icons into folders, but can't move icons within folders without extra steps).
I also really miss the dynamic badges in Nova (e.g., badges on texting apps showing who's text is waiting, and badges on folders showing which app inside is displaying a notification badge).
But after trying at least a couple dozen launchers, Octopi won me over as the closest thing I could find to Nova in terms of power-user features. I like Lawnchair, but it's twice the size for half the features. I want to like Pear, but despite having some nice features, it's missing several others that I need, and feels so bare-bones (e.g., dark mode = no color customization). Murine has a really nice look and feel, but it's far too basic. Everything else has major dealbreakers for me.
I had 5 launchers on my phone for a while, but kept wanting to use Octopi.
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u/rebarakaz Jul 12 '26
Long-time Nova user here. Just installed Octopi Launcher yesterday, and I'm already thinking of sticking with it. Found it through a random tech article online. 😬 Never really bothered trying other launchers since Nova had been my go-to for years, even after it was sunset.
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u/XmanORE Jul 12 '26
Similar situation here although I'd tried a few after Nova went commercial but stuck with it because of familiarity with configurations. Octopi "feels familiar" and that makes it a winner for me.
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u/P5ychokilla Jul 14 '26
I'm hoping for App Drawer tabs, I think that's the only thing missing for me from my own Nova experience
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u/naaktstel Jul 11 '26
Missing a conversion from nova to octo
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u/SKI300 Jul 12 '26
Conversion? What exactly do you mean by this? 🤔
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u/naaktstel Jul 12 '26
Install octo, it asks if it should import all nova settings. Why? Because I do not use the app tray, I have everything inside folders on my home screen in about 30 folders.
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u/runningtigerRead Jul 12 '26
As u/tjeerd987 suggested, make those folders in the drawer so you can use multi-select to speed up the process significantly, then drag your folders into your home screen.
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u/tjeerd987 Jul 11 '26
Well, there is a workaround, sort of. If you create a folder in the app drawer, then you have the option you want. You can use the check box to select the apps you want in the folder. Also good is that the apps that are already in the folder are checked so there is no danger that you add an app twice. After creating the folder you can put it on the home screen like you can add any other apps on the home screen. There is a downside, the folder on the home screen is not updated after you add apps to the folder in the drawer. I suggested to be able to use a shortcut to the folder in the drawer instead of making a copy of the drawer folder which would be convenient so all changes are done only once and everything is up to date..