It's curtains for Android Nova Launcher

One of the most popular third-party Android phone customiser applications, Nova Launcher, is shutting down.

Nova founder and original developer of Nova Launcher, Kevin Barry, announced the sad news on his personal blog.

In 2022, Alex Austin-owned Branch, an analytics firm, acquired Nova Launcher, but things haven't been smooth sailing for the app. After multiple company-wide lay-offs, Nova Launcher was reduced from an efficient team of 12 members to just one, Kevin Barry, in August 2024.

Since then, Barry, a one-man army, tried to launch a open-source Nova Launcher for independent developers to continue run the app.

To avoid legal complications, Barry tried to clean up the app's codebase, reviewed licenses.

He also removed and replace proprietary code, and coordinated with legal to ensure a proper release of the open-source version of Nova Launcher before he could hang up the boots.

But, not to be. Recently, Barry was asked to stop working on Nova Launcher and the open-sourcing effort.

Going forward, Nova Launcher, though available on the Google Play Store, will no longer support any further updates.

"Nova Launcher has been an incredible project and has an incredible community. I'm grateful for the years of support, feedback, and enthusiasm,' Barry signed off on his blog.

Android fans are mourning the loss of their beloved custom Android launcher app.

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