Almost entire Nova Launcher team laid off

About two years ago, the very popular and full-featured Android launcher Nova Launcher was acquired by mobile links and analytics company Branch. This obviously caused quite the stir, and ever since, whenever Nova is mentioned online, people point out what kind of company acquired Nova and that you probably should be looking for an alternative. While Branch claimed, as the acquiring party always does, that nothing was going to change, most people, including myself, were skeptical.

Several decades covering this industry have taught me that acquisitions like this pretty much exclusively mean doom, and usually signal a slow but steady decline in quality and corresponding increase in user-hostile features. I’m always open to being proven wrong, but I don’t have a lot of hope.
↫ Thom Holwerda

Up until a few days ago, I have to admit I was wrong. Nova remained largely the same, got some major new features, and it really didn’t get any worse in any meaningful way – in fact, Nova just continued to get better, adopted all the new Android Material You and other features, and kept communicating with its users quite well. After a while, I kind of forgot all about Nova being owned by Branch, as nothing really changed for the worse. It’s rare, but it happens – apparently.

So I, and many others who were skeptical at first as well, kept on using Nova. Not only because it just continued being what I think is the best, most advanced, and most feature-rich launcher for Android, but also because… Well, there’s really nothing else out there quite like Nova. I’m sure many of you are already firing up the comment engine, but as someone who has always been fascinated by alternative, non-stock mobile device launchers – from Palm OS, PocketPC, and Zaurus, all the way to the modern day with Android – I’ve seen them all and tried them all, and while the launcher landscape is varied, abundant, and full of absolutely amazing alternatives for every possible kind of user, there’s nothing else out there that is as polished, feature-rich, fast, and endlessly tweakable as Nova.

So, I’ve been continuing to use Nova since the acquisition, interchanged with Google’s own Pixel Launcher ever since I bought a Pixel 8 Pro on release, with Nova’s ownership status relegated to some dusty, barely used croft of my mind. As such, it came as a bit of a shock this week when it came out that Branch had done a massive round of lay-offs, including firing the entire Nova Launcher team, save for Nova’s original creator, Kevin Barry. Around a dozen or so people were working on Nova at Branch, and aside from Barry, they’re all gone now.

Once the news got out, Barry took to Nova Launcher’s website and released a statement about the layoffs, and the future of Nova.

There has been confusion and misinformation about the Nova team and what this means for Nova. I’d like to clarify some things. The original Nova team, for many years, was just me. Eventually I added Cliff to handle customer support, and when Branch acquired Nova, Cliff continued with this role. I also had contracted Rob for some dev work prior to the Branch acquisition and some time after the acquisition closed we were able to bring him onboard as a contractor at Branch. The three of us were the core Nova team.

However, I’ve always been the lead and primary contributor to Nova Launcher and that hasn’t changed. I will continue to control the direction and development of Nova Launcher.
↫ Kevin Barry

This sounds great, and I’m glad the original creator will keep control over Nova. However, with such a massive culling of developers, it only makes sense that any future plans will have to be scaled down, and that’s exactly what both Barry and other former team members are saying. First, Rob Wainwright, who was laid off, wrote the following in Nova’s Discord:

To be clear, Nova development is not stopping. Kevin is remaining at Branch as Nova’s only full time developer. Development will undoubtedly slow with less people working on the app but the current plan is for updates to continue in some form.
↫ Rob Wainwright

Barry followed up with an affirmation:

I am planning on wrapping up some Nova 8.1 work and getting more builds out. I am going to need to cut scope compared to what was planned.
↫ Kevin Barry

In other words, while development on Nova will continue, it’s now back to being a one-man project, which will have some major implications for the pace of development. It makes me wonder if the adoption of the yearly drop of new Android features will be reduced, and if we’re going to see much more unresolved bugs and issues. On top of that, one has to wonder just how long Branch is for this world – they’ve just laid off about a hundred people, so what will happen to Barry if Branch goes under? Will he have to find some other job, leaving even less time for Nova development? And if Branch doesn’t go under, it is still clearly in dire financial straits, which must make somehow monetising Nova users in less pleasant ways come into the picture.

The future of Nova was definitely dealt a massive blow this week, and I’m fearful for its future. Again.