Android

Back in July 2022, when mobile app metrics firm Branch acquired the popular and well-regarded Nova Launcher for Android, the app's site put up one of those self-directed FAQ posts about it. Under the question heading "What does Branch want with Nova?," Nova founder and creator Kevin Barry started his response with, "Not to mess it up, don't worry!"

Branch (formerly/sometimes Branch Metrics) is a firm concerned with helping businesses track the links that lead into their apps, whether from SMS, email, marketing, or inside other apps. Nova, with its Sesame Search tool that helped users find and access deeper links—like heading straight to calling a car, rather than just opening a rideshare app—seemed like a reasonable fit.

Barry wrote that he had received a number of acquisition offers over the years, but he didn't want to be swallowed by a giant corporation, an OEM, or a volatile startup. "Branch is different," he wrote then, because they wanted to add staff to Nova, keep it available to the public, and mostly leave it alone.

Two years later, Branch has left Nova Launcher a bit too alone. As documented on Nova's official X (formerly Twitter) account, and transcripts from its Discord, as of Thursday Nova had "gone from a team of around a dozen people" to just Barry, the founder, working alone. The Nova cuts were part of "a massive layoff" of purportedly more than 100 people across all of Branch, according to now-former Nova workers.

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I used to take screenshots of the picture I wanted to use as wallpaper, but then Android stopped that from working, and now I have to manually add a giant border to make the screenshots fit the arbitrary fiant wallpaper size on the Android screen.

any normal screenshot I take is blown way oversized, is there any way to simply make a screenshot my wallpaper yet on Android?

it seems crazy that this is still so complicated years later on Android, am I missing something?

Thanks for any help

This is probably a wildly niche situation, but I learned about OSU!droid and was interested in trying it with my galaxy tab s6 lite, figuring the s pen would be a pretty perfect way to play.

The only problem is that the main way to hit bursts and streams is to aim at the objects with one hand and tap the side of the screen with your offhand, but the s pen disables touch input while close to the screen.

I did try just connecting my keyboard with a dongle and setting up a key map, but the game doesn't let you launch with it enabled for competitive reasons.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18477295

YouTube is now testing out a welcome feature, a sleep timer, but it only works on mobile and desktop, and only for Premium subscribers.

So, anybody know a good launcher to use once Nova goes offline?

This was seen on two phones, one running near Stock Android 13(Nokia G20) and another on an usual OEM customized variant of Android 14. When I sideloaded two different apps on each phone and attempted to give them Read notification access in the settings, a message came that it was restricted for my security and no way to bypass it.

Is this by design? I don't think it improves security in any way except to restrict the user to Play Store apps. And when ironically, the latter is plagued with so much quality control issues.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18404498

As we wait for Collections to widely launch, Google is rolling out “local recommendations” for the Play Store.

You’ll see a “Want to see local recommendations in Google Play?” prompt. Google explains how “Play can use your device location to recommend apps, offers, and other local content that are relevant in your area.”

Pixel 6 Pro. Yes, I did a factory reset after patching. No, I wasn't aware there was an issue. Yes, I understand there's no fix for this.

My question is, how do I turn off the phone once it is in this state? I've tried holding power alone, power + volume up, and power + volume down for varying periods of time up to 30 seconds each. I've tried in the recovery menu and at the error screen. I've tried catching it during the restart. Can someone help me please?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18334356

Google is making a brand-new weather app for the Pixel 9 - and we've got screenshots.

Android 14, an update released on 22 June under no more description than 'security update' has stopped syncthing being able to write to folders, even the few it allowed me to previously specifically grant access to. I can't add a folder to sync, as it says 'your android version hasn't granted syncthing write access, this folder is locked to read only' and then doesn't even add it.

My specific model, moto g73 doesn't support root or custom ROMs, which I wasn't aware of when I got it, but I have it now and apart from that it's a really good phone, so I hope there is some way to rescue this.

I should have the option to decline their 'security', even if it is buried under many layers of settings, and grant the apps storage permission anyway. Otherwise it is not security, it is them stealing ownership of my device from me.

It should absolutely be Motorola's onus to fix this, not the hardworking Syncthing team, but if you do know some way to get this working again, I would be grateful.

EDIT: Oh, by the way, this update also stopped every file manager app I had, of which I had three, one being the native Android file manager itself, working properly.

Edit2: This only seems to apply to the micro SD card storage, not internal storage. Unfortunately, I've filled up my internal storage and need to use my micro SD card. I was using Syncthing as a backup, so I had a copy in case the micro SD card corrupted everything.

Want to learn/try one of the two alternative Keyboards for Android. Which do you prefer, have had the best experience with?

I use Magisk but I have also heard about APatch or KernelSU. What do you use and what are the benefits of it?

My car's android unit has some quad core processor , and it instantly boots up and reaches the home screen where as my phone takes almost 30 seconds or a minute to reach the home screen despite having much better hardware.

I've only heard of GrapheneOS (and that authy is insecure in the same breath, so I need better 2fa apps).

The biggest thing I can think of that I don't want to lose is the Motorola gestures. I constantly chop to open my flashlight and twist to open my camera.

Besides that, I have never touched the rom before, and I have both wells Fargo and discover banking apps I use semi-regularly. The banking apps I could probably move to just doing their actions on the website, but that difficulty is something I would like to be aware of going in.

I also use Mihon (successor to Tachiyomi) so problems with that and solutions would be nice.

I have a new Phone Plan starting in a couple of days. I have the option to choose a Physical Sim or eSim, both are similarly easy to get going. What are some +/- of both, what should I use? Or does it even matter at all?

One thing I think of but have no conclusion to yet is when my Phone gets stolen, is that a concern then?

Following testing in December, Google is moving Play Store search to the bottom bar with a new tab.Instead of a search bar at the top of the screen when you’re viewing the “Games” and “Apps” feeds, Google Play is switching to a “Search” tab at the center of the bottom bar.

Hi! I am developing an script in termux for anrdoid tv (lineageos) .

Anybody know if is possible close notifications of other apps, for example kde connect, from shell?