Is Nova Launcher the solution for badges?

[DianaJ]

My question is around badges. I am able to turn them on for my email and txt message apps but the behavior is what I don't like.

For instance: say I have 20 unread emails. I see the badge #20. I open the email app and read one email and then return back to the home page. I want to see the badge at 19 but instead, it is cleared entirely.

Can this be done with either Samsung OS or Nova Launcher? (or something else?)

 

[Hadron]

It can be done with Nova Launcher - or at least it can with with Nova Launcher Pro and the TeslaUnread plugin. I believe that without TeslaUnread it will follow the Android 9+ default behaviour, based on notifications rather than true unread counts, which is what you are seeing.

Try it without, but if you need TelsaUnread to get the behaviour you want you can find it at apkmirror (it's no longer in the Play Store, as explained below, but it still works fine if you install it). I use it as it's far better than Google's typically half-cocked implementation of unread counts.

Explanation of badges in Nova and TeslaUnread status can be found here.