Nova Launcher to officially shut down as Nova’s developer, Kevin Barry, leaves the company that owns Nova

Amazed reading the headline? Nova Launcher was claimed as one of Android’s best customization tools, and users have relied on it for a long period now. It allows users to tweak their home screens, gestures, and app drawer. Unfortunately, Nova Launcher is said to soon shut down as its creator has departed from the company that owns Nova.

Branch acquired Nova Launcher in 2022. At that time, the CEO of Branch was Alex Austin, who mentioned about open-sourcing Nova in the future, while in one of his Reddit comments, he also mentioned that if Kevin (founder and original developer) were to ever leave the company, it is contracted that the code will be open-sourced and put in the hands of the community. But it appears that nothing like this will happen now.

On 6th September, Kevin Barry announced that he has left Branch and is no longer involved with Nova Launcher. He mentioned that for the past year, he was the only one working on Nova, while for the past several months, he was preparing the open-source release of Nova Launcher.

This work included cleaning up the codebase, reviewing licenses, removing or replacing proprietary code, and coordinating with legal to ensure a proper release. But he said that, “I was untimely asked to stop working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing effort.”

Nova’s loyal fans are quite disappointed with this announcement, as the departure of Kevin Barry points out that Nova Launcher could soon be shut down. The fans have expressed their displeasure regarding this on social media platforms. For now, Nova Launcher still works and is downloadable, but without active development or an open-source release, it is expected to come to an end soon.