The future of Nova Launcher looks increasingly uncertain after a number of key layoffs to the dev team behind the popular third-party home screen replacement.
Announced by Cliff Wade over on the official Nova Launcher Discord channel
https://discord.com/channels/466300922767736844/466329173707980800/1271132032931467305
parent company Branch has axed over 100 employees in a spate of mass layoffs from the company.
This has affected key members of the team behind the third-party launcher, and the future outlook is uncertain just two years after Nova was acquired by Branch.
https://novalauncher.com/branch
Another post from the official Nova Launcher X account states that the team has gone from “around a dozen” to just one full-time developer – the original founder Kevin Barry.
@ecksmc well this is too bad. I think I've been using Nova launcher for at least 8 years.
@hallmarc I've been using it on and off myself for about the same length of time as you
I used to have it on all my droids and would be one of the first things I'd do with a new device, install and set up Nova, but last 3/4 yrs i don't & just have it on one device now
“app updates are planned” according to Rob Wainwright via the official Nova X account.
https://x.com/NovaLauncher/status/1821668134677594427
This was expanded with another update on the official Discord confirming that the now sole developer, Kevin, is “wrapping up some Nova 8.1 work” with “more builds” with “cut scope compared to what was planned.”
https://discord.com/channels/466300922767736844/466329173707980800/1271169849984290877