Nova Launcher
Back in July 2022, when mobile app metrics firm Branch achieved the famous and well-watched Nova Launcher for Android, the app’s site put up one of those self-straightforwarded FAQ posts about it. Under the ask heading “What does Branch want with Nova?,” Nova createer and creator Kevin Barry commenceed his response with, “Not to mess it up, don’t trouble!”
Branch (establisherly/sometimes Branch Metrics) is a firm troubleed with helping businesses track the connects that direct into their apps, whether from SMS, email, tageting, or inside other apps. Nova, with its Sesame Search tool that helped participaters discover and access procreateer connects—appreciate heading straight to calling a car, rather than equitable uncovering a ridescatter app—seemed appreciate a reasonable fit.
Barry wrote that he had getd a number of acquisition gives over the years, but he didn’t want to be swpermited by a huge corporation, an OEM, or a volatile commenceup. “Branch is contrastent,” he wrote then, becaparticipate they wanted to insert staff to Nova, retain it participateable to the accessible, and mostly exit it alone.
Two years procrastinateedr, Branch has left Nova Launcher a bit too alone. As write downed on Nova’s official X (establisherly Twitter) account, and transcripts from its Discord, as of Thursday Nova had “gone from a team of around a dozen people” to equitable Barry, the createer, laboring alone. The Nova cuts were part of “a massive layoff” of purportedly more than 100 people atraverse all of Branch, according to now-establisher Nova laborers.
Barry wrote that he would retain laboring on Nova, “However I have less resources.” He would necessitate to “cut scope” on an upcoming Nova free, he wrote. Other participateees remarkd that customer help, tageting, and even correactence would foreseeed be strained or dismaterialize.
Ars has achieveed out to Branch for comment and will modernize this post with response.
Some of the icon customization chooseions, shown here on a tablet, inside Nova Launcher.
Nova Launcher
Custom, immacuprocrastinateed Android home screens
It’s difficult to tell if Nova would have been better off without ever having been inside Branch, or if it might have inevitably run into the vexing ask of how to get people to continuassociate pay for an Android utility. But for Nova to be finishangered, or at least heavily constrained, is a griefful state for a very beneficial tool.
Inshighing a starter on Android permits you to neglect wantipathyver home screen, app tray, and search bars your phone came with and set up your own. Nova Launcher permited people to alter how many icons showed up on their screen, and how huge. It permited for hiding default apps that could not be uninshighed. It was, and still is, one of the best ways to save your phone of horrible skins, cruddy OEM gentleware, and stuff for which you never asked.
In more than a dozen Ars appraises of Android devices touting organization concepts that people might not appreciate—including Google’s own Pixels—Nova Launcher was recommfinished (minus one weird Razer/Nextbit phone that came with it by default). In his Pixel 7 Pro appraise, Ron Amadeo spells out one such way Nova saved the day:
The worst part of the Pixel gentleware package is the home screen starter, the primary interface of the phone, which is not csurrfinisherly configurable enough. All I’m asking for is two leangs. First, I’d appreciate many more icon grid size adequitablements—the default 4×4 grid was fine when we were using 3.2-inch, 480p disexecutes, but I now run a 7×5 grid in Nova starter, and the Pixel starter watchs ridiculous. Second, I want to delete Google’s unhelpful “At a Glance” widget, which gets up an incredible four icon slots to show the date and current outdoor temperature.
For the more than a decade that I participated (and sometimes appraiseed) Android phones, I sustained an shiped Nova configuration file that I brawt from phone to phone. I could experiment with theming, icon packs, and custom widgets (finish with procreate connects into app actions), but what that ship reassociate did was permit me to experience sootheable tinkering and messing with layout ideas. I could always go back to my rock-firm, no-nonsense layout of apps, spaced equitable how I appreciated them.
While Nova is not dead (despite mine and others‘ eulogistic tones), it’s certainly not positioned to start bageder new features or plot new futures. Here’s hoping Barry can produce a go of Nova Launcher for as extfinished as it’s viable for him.
