Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher
novalauncher.com121 points by KORraN 6 hours ago
121 points by KORraN 6 hours ago
It was sold back in 2022 to Branch Metrics https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/branch-strikes-...
August 2024 everyone working on it was laid off except the original dev https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/9/24217077/nova-launcher-lay...
September 2025 the original dev left after being told to stop work on open sourcing it https://www.theverge.com/news/773937/nova-launcher-founder-l...
Seems like there might be enough coverage that Nova Launcher is ready for a Wikipedia article now. Previously it was deleted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Launcher
"We are a Swedish company building products that help people get online, used by millions of people worldwide."
So I look for them. They have a "Free wifi connection" / "Wifi passwords map" app. It surprises me because it has a good score on Google Play but then I begin to check the reviews, and a bunch of them go like: "Five stars because if you do a good review you can use it for free".
I install it and on starting it and in the first minute: Asks you to create an account but you can't click on the terms of service or privacy policy, the links don't work. I skip it. It tries to change your default launcher. It tries to change your default browser. It asks you to share your home wifi password with them. Pops up adds everywhere. Tries to get a good review from you.
No thanks, not even near.
giving anything to the user in return for a good review should be grounds for disqualification from app stores. (and it should be legally required for app stores to enforce it)
Since they claim to be a Swedish company, it might be worth filing a report with the Swedish consumer agency[0].
I am not a lawyer, and especially not a Swedish lawyer, so I can't say how illegal this is in Sweden or what if anything will happen.
[0]https://www.konsumentverket.se/en/articles/report-to-the-swe...
What an undeserving fate. A beloved app now being passed from vulture to vulture who rip off every possible morsel they can.
When Branch bought Nova, I moved on to use Lawnchair [1], which is open source. Although it has been in beta like forever, with occasional glitches, it works well enough and has enough features to satisfy my customization cravings.
As someone who has multiple mobile apps as side projects, I can tell you that app maintenance is not easy. [1]
And that's why all good apps either come as a largesse of those whose bills are paid by some other initiative. Or have the scale to make money from ads without being intrusive.
My biggest issue with lawnchair (and most launchers really) is that they all are horribly glitchy on my Pixel 6, and also break the app drawer / switching feature.
I literally just want a vanilla pixel experience, but be allowed to change the search engine on the home screen searchbar... This got me into the weeds on the widget and launcher ecosystem and they're all very bad.
I highly recommend Octopi Launcher. It's simple, has customization you might want without requiring it in order to be useful, and works great on various phones.
Also great on foldables, since it lets you have a different home screen for different display sizes.
This is very good to know! I am currently setting up my old pixel 6 to be a permanent Google home terminal. I was thinking about trying Lawnchair, now I'm not so sure.
To be fair, this was probably six or so months ago when I last went through this. Niagra had the launcher / app switching issue, so did Lawnchair, even Nova Launcher (before I knew of what had happened to them). It could have been a general bug for all launchers except the OEM.
The write-up on the link seems promising, at least. I'm sure ads will come to the free version, but they appear to be respecting Nova's legacy and longtime Prime purchasers. Anything is better than the slow decay it has been enduring the last year or two. Can't do much but be cautiously optimistic.
Last update introduced a bunch of ads and tracking plugins. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46686655
It’s becoming evident that open-source is the only thing that can cure Enshittification. Every proprietary application will become enshittified, it’s just a matter of when.
Many open source projects fail to find sustainable funding. If a cure is not financially viable it is not much different than the cure not existing.
So, you're not wrong.
People that work for money will want money, and ultimately can be bought.
People that work for love produce the best they can with limited resources, and are often broke.
I don't think we've found a way to bridge the gap. I've come to generally rely on work people do for love, and I contribute to them, but it's clearly not sustainable unless they have another source of income.
Anyone who solves this will produce immense value.
Haven't heard of Nova in a very long time, this was one of the original customizable launchers for Android wasn't it? If it's gone this long without being open-sourced, it might be time to let go. Been using https://kisslauncher.com/ for many years and have no complaints.
Yeah, I was rocking Nova on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus back in 2012. It was the first time I ever paid for an app. Back then Nova was a huge upgrade to usability, but stock launchers eventually caught up, and by the late 2010s I was really just using it to make my phone look cool. I've heard it's borderline abandonware at this point, which is a shame.
KISS is a complete paradigm shift from other phone launchers. It takes some getting used to. It has made me rethink how I use my phone from time to time because I have it set to sort by recently used: I only have a few apps I use regularly it seems.
Not for everyone, but it's my preferred way to use a phone now.
There's still nothing that's as configurable as SweeterHome was. It died somewhere around the Android 2 days.
Haven't used Nova for a while and at first was curious if this was good for bringing it back from unmaintenance. The heavy focus on sustainability and marketing in this blog makes it seem unlikely though.
Switched to Pear when Nova got unstable after a Pixel upgrade and I noticed it hadn't been updated in years. Been working well though will keep any eye on any other recommendations that show up in this thread.
When a company says that they're here to stay after an acquisition that usually means the opposite.
I was having issues recently with my Pixel phone hanging/freezing/going stupid, it was Nova. I changed to Lawnchair yesterday after learning this and works much better and my battery is no longer draining for no apparent reason
> my battery is no longer draining for no apparent reason
Oh man. I just replaced the battery on my 5 year phone - for the sole reason of not having to reconfigure Nova on a new phone :\
You know you can export your Nova configuration and import it on a new phone, right?
I offer a Nova-configuration-transfer service for $49.95. Send me your old and new phones, a printed list of passwords, and a prepaid return envelope.
Nova has been my favorite launcher for years, but after this, I may have to look elsewhere. Even as a paid user, I don't have much confidence that I'm not being sold off for ad exploitation.
I read another post this morning that there was already an update last night with a bunch of tracking code added, and additional permissions required (that didn't trigger anything for the user to know of those additional permissions).
I am a paid Nova user from a decade ago, but haven't used it in ages fwiw.
I guess mine hasn't updated yet. I'm a paid user, but I'll be migrating elsewhere. What a disappointment.
I recently switched to a OnePlus 15 and Nova Launcher had a really annoying 0.5-1 second delay every time you went back home.
I've been a paid Nova user and used it on every android device for the past 10 years or so.
I ended up migrating to the stock OnePlus launcher and it's actually surprisingly good, other than you have to disable the stupid google recommended page every time you reboot the phone, so I'm still open to alternatives.
Trebuchet (a "launcher", heh) is the stock Lineage one, and it is genuinely fine. App screen, home screen, nested folders. Nothing more you really want.
Unfortunately it's built/bundled with Lineage, and you can't find a standalone APK for it anywhere
Unfortunately OnePlus has been doing sketchy things too. I wouldn't trust them with your data.
Like what? I just checked and it shows that the system launcher on OnePlus has used exactly 0 data.
let me make your day. this will fix the problem 100% -> https://old.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/1p3pcnt/guide_fix_...
I couldn't believe it myself but by basically force closing the settings menu the drawer animation will be gone until you reboot :)
That's an OxygenOS 16.0 bug; worked fine on 15.0, and broken on all (~five?) launchers I tested on 16.0. (currently on Octopi Launcher, and just live with that annoying delay until it Hopefully™ gets fixed)
see my reply above for a fix
Damn, what a funky "fix". Thanks! (luckily I can take the simplified version since I already use button navigation)
Thanks for the lawnchair recommendations, y'all. It's been real, Nova Launcher. Sleep now my sweet prince.
What a throwback. Nova launcher sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure where to place it in my head. When I saw the logo I was immediately transported to memories of using lineage OS and bricking my new Samsung Note 4. I was trying to customize every button combination to do something smart back then. The good old days when I had the time to fix the phone after every update. I've since moved to the apple ecosystem... Set and forget.
> I've since moved to the apple ecosystem... Set and forget.
Careful, you'll get blasted for that in these parts. Until about 7 years ago, I had been an Android absolutist. Custom ROMs, launchers, you name it. I sneered at those Apple-loving simpletons. Then, after missing several important phone calls in a day due to the phone 'app' not working properly, I got fed up and got a Nexus 6, the official Google phone and the reference implementation for Android. The phone was big and ugly, but at least I was still using a "real" operating system.
Then, as I went through the app store looking for some needed apps, I realized that I couldn't find what I wanted. What I downloaded and installed turned out to be scams and hijacked the phone as ad-riddled malware. It slowly dawned on me: The Play Store is anarchistic, lawless hellscape.
I was too old for this shit. I went and got an iPhone and never looked back. I turn it on, it does things. I don't have to worry about it. Yes, the software quality isn't near perfect, and they seem to be gradually enshittifying their app store. But at least they make a token effort to keep things in a somewhat curated state.
It's night and day, far as I'm concerned. I've gotten to the point where I just want my things to work. I don't want to spend hours tweaking and troubleshooting. I realize I'm in a cult compound, but it's better than the Mad Max world outside.
I've used Nova Launcher for years (don't know if I'm paid), but I'll be happy to pay for an ad free version.
I know there is a long history of companies buying another company for a product and then killing it after a period of time. I'm willing to give Instabridge the benefit of doubt... for a while. If they do decide that Nova Launcher is not a fit, I hope they open source it so that current users are not left on the lurch.
I switched to Smart Launcher Pro, and it seems to scratch the same itch. It was more expensive, though.
Nova carried me for almost a decade, and I'll miss it.
That's what I switched to as well after evaluating a half dozen or so other ones.
I agree, it's fine. It's missing a couple of niceties that I enjoyed with Nova, but nothing I can't live without.
They recently added a bottom dock option, and I was very happy to have that back.
Ugh, quite annoying. My next phone might be an Android (instead of the current iPhone), and I was looking forward to returning to Nova Launcher, after having used it many years ago as my favorite launcher. This feels like a big no-go now.
What are other good customizable launchers on Android nowadays?
I've been using lawnchair as a launcher that is open source (apache) since the first news broke months when the previous dev/owner warned people what was coming, and it works just fine. Not quite as versatile as Nova Launcher, but with 100% less adware now that the new adware company is running up in people with a bait and switch.
Enshittification is real!
Early on, Lawnchair implemented a blacklist to hide apps they deemed “bad”. They only removed it after lots of protest from users. That has “burned” this launcher for me.
For those curious, see this gem of a closed PR:
I found this discussion (linked to in the PR) more illuminating: https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/7azc2i/comment/dpg...
I tried Lawnchair out when figuring out what I was going to replace Nova with. I didn't end up choosing it, but if I had known they tried to do this (even if it only made it to the alpha channel) I wouldn't have even bothered to try it out.
9 years ago. I've been using the launcher and it works great. Does everything I needed from Nova and it's open source. Every project has hiccups.
I'm certainly not going to say nobody should use it.
But I assume the dev then is the dev now. That he was OK introducing something like that, even 9 years ago, tells me that his values and my values are very far apart.
I did actually evaluate it (before I knew this history) and it didn't meet my needs, so I chose something else purely on technical grounds anyway.
Much less popular but I switched to Kvaesitso from Nova about a month ago and it's been amazing and it's open source. Much more opinionated than Nova but it matched how I used Nova so I really enjoy it.
I paid for "Square Home" a couple years ago and I'm very happy with it. It's highly customizable. The Windows Phone style layout probably isn't for everyone but it works well for me.
Depends what you want, I guess. The nice thing about Android is we still have many options.
I recently moved to AIO Launcher and I've been really enjoying it. I'm sure it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea though.
After many years of Nova, switched to Olauncher. I'm a happy person.
On any Android phone I immediately install Niagara. Best launcher by far. Makes everything so efficient and beautiful.
Niagara is amazing. It's quite different from other launchers, so either it works for you or doesn't. It perfectly matches what I was doing before, which was searching for apps by name to launch them.
Doesn't KISS do this? I'm curious why Niagara when KISS is probably lighter/smaller.
> Open sourcing a product responsibly involves licensing, security, build tooling, contribution workflow, and trademark stewardship.
You can scratch at the very least contribution workflow from that list; anyhow, the original author had already spent months preparing the open source release, ironing out legal and dependency issues, so everything should already be there or pretty close, at least on the technical side of things (arguably one of the biggest sides)
It's 2026, why are people still using custom launchers?
Serious question from a former Nova Prime user.
I don't want a big search bar on my home screen, and there's no way around it with the Pixel Launcher except use a different launcher.
Honestly... I just wants a launcher with tabs to sort apps in categories (no not app groups).
Nova Prime almost gone, before that Apex Launcher...
And every other launcher seems to just love to just present a search bar to find your apps and use some magic sorting algorithm to sort your apps...
I want predictable, user ordered apps in tabs so I can open one by heart with my eyes closed.
Why? To avoid using Google search. It's been an inferior search product for years. Last time I used the default launcher on a pixel, I couldn't change it to a better search product, so I changed launcher.
Are launchers needed at all? I find the default GrapheneOS interface to be serviceable and I did not know what a "launcher" was until fairly recently.
It depends on what you're looking for. I have a Pixel 9a with Graphene on it and wanted to customize my icons which I don't think the stock launcher allows. Went with Lawnchair and set it up mostly the same as the stock Pixel launcher otherwise.
Nova launcher used to have loads of great features, but it seems now the best of those features have made it to the stock Google/Samsung launchers
> We will keep data collection minimal and purpose driven, and we will be clear about what is collected and why. We do not sell personal data.
I don't believe this at all. If they aren't lying, then why did they add new trackers?
Time to say goodbye, I guess. It's been a while and things kept going south. Hello Lawnchair, my old friend.
I was thinking what else deteriorated from best to worst.. Poweramp.
Immediate uninstall.
> Are you going to add ads? > Nova needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. We are exploring different options, including paid tiers and other approaches. As many of you have already anticipated, we are also evaluating ad based options for the free version.
> If ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad free. Our guiding principles are clear: keep the experience clean and fast, avoid disruptive formats, and provide a straightforward way to keep the experience ad free.
Seems pretty clear.
the timing of this
Related:
Nova Launcher added Facebook and Google Ads tracking
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46686655
(lots of good discussion about alternatives in this thread by the way)
It blows my mind how many stories hit the front page, every day, that bottom out on whining about proprietary software. I've literally been talking about the Win10/11 whining for 3+ years, and yet EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK THERE ARE MORE.
Lawnchair is *EXCELLENT*. I say that as a former Nova Launcher user. And Lawnchair is fully OSS and actively developed.
I just cannot fathom people who enjoy this non-stop BS rollercoaster and are happy to be passed from OG dev, to scummy publisher, to ??? publisher. And all just be happy about that instead of ... why am I even typing this shit. The people that care, care and use OSS or migrate when the writing is on the wall. The people that allow themselves to get jerked around and just take it are going to keep just taking it. And whining about it, while changing none of their behavior.
(Totally not related; see HN and the constant cycle of people shitting on decentralization and then being pikachu-shocked when proprietary centralized services do what they always do).
(Though, it's nice to finally, finally see a predominance of anecdotes of Linux experiences that aren't based on 3 year old distro ISOs. EDIT: 3 is generous, I saw people talking about a 20.04 LTS spin less than a year ago and acting like that was indicative of Linux on Desktop).
To be fair, I'm probably just way off base here. A company whose focus is absolutely not an Android Launcher surely won't enshittify or sell it in due course. Surely. Surely, surely, surely. Right? Like last time?
Lawnchair blacklists/used to blacklist apps they did not like. That does seem user friendly.
I'm really behind on this stuff but what does this mean for Sesame. It's all just dead now, right?
I take it the stock android launcher these days is not good?
It's fine, and it works. I have a Pixel, though, and there's no way to disable the google search box on the homescreen. I will never use the search box, yet it dominates a good portion of my screen.
I think the only reason not to use stock.. I guess once of the main reasons people look elsewhere. And I don't actually need fancy features.
Probably there are more annoyances, but I never get to those since the search just kills it quick.
Is there a way to disable "swipe right for news feed"? I hated that inclusion in the Pixel launcher.
Yeah it can be turned off in stock launcher (at least I did on my Pixel 9 Pro XL).
I hate that search box, it's ridiculous that they force it on users. On the plus side looking up how to get rid of it led me to Lawnchair which I have been happily using for many years at this point.
It's "fine". In fact, a lot of the features that Nova pioneered has made its way into the stock launcher.
But it does what it does and that's all. It's been a long, long time since Google believed in the concept of options or customizability. If you want to do something outside the default, well you can go straight to hell. Which is fine, I guess, since we still have great options for launchers out there.
the url "nova-is-here-to-stay" says to me that Nova will be discontinued in about 90 seconds.