End of an era: Nova Launcher's parent company lays off practically everyone

If you’ve been an Android user since the early days, odds are you’ve used Nova Launcher at some point. Custom launchers have lost a bit of momentum in recent years, largely due to Google removing native gesture support and other features that previously allowed third-party launchers to integrate seamlessly. Despite this, Nova still has a loyal fanbase, and I often use it on test devices where the default launcher feels too iOS-like, such as on phones from Oppo and Vivo.

Unfortunately, it seems that Nova, as we know it, is about to change, as its parent company has effectively laid off nearly the entire team.

Branch Metrics bought Nova Launcher back in 2022, and at the time, most Android enthusiasts were skeptical about the launcher’s future. It seems that skepticism was well-founded. News of the layoffs comes to us via messages from Nova Launcher veterans like Rob Wainwright and Cliff Wade, both of whom shared the news using official Nova accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Discord, respectively.

It appears that Branch Metrics has laid off over a hundred employees across the entire company, including everyone on the Nova team, except for its founder and original developer, Kevin Barry. That’s a pretty big change from what was previously a twelve-person team. What does this mean for Nova Launcher going forward? Honestly, it’s too early to say.

Officially, these now former Nova Launcher employees seem to echo the sentiment that there’s no reason to panic and that Kevin will continue his good work. However, we can’t help but feel that this is just typical PR speak meant to smooth over the situation, and that the more likely truth is that even Branch Metrics itself probably isn’t quite sure what to do with Nova Launcher going forward.

For one, there’s no longer any customer support or PR — it’s now a one-man show. According to Kevin, while it’s hugely disappointing to lose so much of his team, he continues to work on Nova Launcher and has already wrapped up some work on Nova 8.1. That’s a positive sign, but it’s also worth mentioning that he clarified it will have a “cut scope compared to what was planned.” He also noted that there’s a lot of chaos and still many unknowns to sort out at the moment.

At the very least, with fewer resources, it’s inevitable that development time will slow down and that Nova Launcher will evolve at a much slower pace. If we had to guess, this likely means there will be limited support beyond just minor bug fixes and patches once Nova 8.1 actually launches.

We’ve reached out to Branch Metrics for more clarification about the layoffs and the future of Nova Launcher, and we will update this article if and when we hear back.