Nova launcher, the popular Android launcher, has been the favorite launcher of many Android users, including me. I’ve been using the launcher for quite a few years now. While I got used to the launcher over the years, the Nova launcher’s future seems uncertain, because the founder of the launcher and a developer who worked on the Nova launcher have confirmed that the company that acquired the Nova launcher laid off several developers (nearly the entire team of developers) who worked on the famous Android launcher since the beginning.
Nova Launcher Developers Have Been Laid Off!
As we all know, Android is open-source in nature and it allows users to use third-party launchers to customize the interface to their needs and make the user experience better. Nova launcher has been one of the first choices of many Android launchers over the years. The way the developers crafted it to be an amazing choice of launchers, has been nothing but incredible. However, the smooth journey of the launcher is slowed down by a speed bump of layoffs. According to the official reports, most of the core development team of Nova Launcher (except its founder Kevin Barry) has been let go by its parent company on August 7, 2024.
The analytics firm Branch Metrics acquired the Nova launcher back in 2022 and let the core development team of the launcher continue working on it with full control of the project. Most of the users of the launcher didn’t accept it at the beginning citing the privacy issues they might face later. Some of the users moved on to other Android launchers for the same reason.
After the acquisition, I was also skeptical about the launcher’s future but continued using it anyway. I’ve been happy with how they kept working on the launcher and upgraded it several times bringing significant changes including the introduction of Material-You, and other useful features. However, the latest news of over a hundred employees being laid off by the firm has once again made the future of the Nova launcher skeptical.
The company laid off more than a hundred employees, according to the report. However, the majority of the laid-off employees happened to be from the Nova launcher development team.
Nova Launcher’s Future?
As of now, there’s no certain statement on the Nova launcher’s future. However, one of the key members of the development team who has been working on the launcher for over 8 years has said that the app’s development will continue. Since the founder of the launcher, Kevin Barry is the only surviving full-time developer after the layoffs, the development of the launcher will be at a slower pace.
As much as I want to believe that the development of the launcher will be continued, it doesn’t seem possible in the long run because of fewer resources. Also, the statement “the development will be at a slower pace” seems like an attempt to hold back panic among the Nova users. The surviving employee and the founder (Kevin Barry) have said that he still doesn’t know much about the app’s future. For now, the focus remains on finishing Nova launcher version 8.1. We’ll have to see what happens after that.
While I suspected something like this to happen after the acquisition of Nova by Branch Metrics, to my surprise, they continued the app and brought several new features to it. So, I think we can be hopeful for the launcher to be continued somehow. What do you think?
