Nova Launcher is shutting down as founder departs and open source plans are canceled
Nova Launcher, one of the most widely used customizable home screen launchers for Android, is being discontinued. This move comes despite previous internal efforts and public promises to open source the project. The shutdown was triggered by the departure of Kevin Barry, Nova's original founder and sole developer for the past year, who announced he has left Branch and is no longer involved with the app.
While Barry had been preparing the codebase and coordinating with legal teams to release Nova Launcher as open source, Branch leadership ultimately stopped the process, despite commitments to hand the code to the community if he left. This reversal disappointed many users who had hoped for a community-driven future for Nova.
Branch acquired Nova Launcher in 2022, and its then-CEO, Alex Austin, had made public assurances about open source plans and ongoing support. Since its launch in 2011, Nova accrued more than 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store. Following these developments, longtime fans have started a Change.org petition to protest the shutdown, already collecting over 1,500 signatures. For now, Nova Launcher remains available for download, but users should expect the app will gradually become obsolete and may face issues without updates or an open-source release. Thankfully, viable alternatives are available.
- Application Launcher
- Freemium • Proprietary
Related news
External links
- So long. And thanks for all the TempehKevin Barry • Official source
- Nova Launcher is shutting down, and Android fans are heartbrokenAndroid Authority
- Nova Launcher’s creator steps away, leaving its future in doubtAndroid Police
- Nova Launcher's Sad End: Founder Says Development Is OverAndroid Headlines
- Nova Launcher is shutting down – it’s time to look for an alternativeCybernews
Comments
Lawn Chair is my go to , even tho I purchased Prime, wasted money Ig
Nova launcher is/was amazing launcher, years of development ruined, it may not be used by everyone but it's failure can be the example of corporate greed
Wow, Nova [Prime] is what made Android useable for me. Weird to think Nova could actually vanish... As far as I'm concerned it's basically an essential android app. I started using it on my HTC Evo 4G LTE which I want to say was 2012, I got it on release week and Nova was one of the first app's I installed, all the way up until I switched to iOS because the iPhone 16 really impressed me with its physical camera button and better than android accessibility features. The two things I miss from android are Nova and MacroDroid. Apple Shortcuts are a pathetic excuse of a replacement for MacroDroid mostly because Apple overly limits what third-party developers can add into it.
This is REALLY bad news ... 🙁 I've been using Nova Prime (yes, the paid version) as my default launcher non stop for the past ten years ...
Time to look for a new one, I guess... Hopefully Lawnchair is similar enough, feature-wise I'll test it and see
What a sad day. He could not even complete his efforts to open source it.
Thankfully, just this summer, Lawnchair received some of the Nova's essential features and landed in Play Store again. But the situation still fells shady and unfair to the creator. Hope it will turn out for his best eventually.