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Kevin Barry, the founder and original developer of Nova Launcher has stopped working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing efforts. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
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After Working on it alone for a year, the founder and original developer of Nova Launcher Kevin Barry has stopped working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing efforts. More Info: https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html

However I was ultimately asked to stop working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing effort. Nova Launcher has been an incredible project and has an incredible community. I'm grateful for the years of support, feedback, and enthusiasm. Kevin Barry September 6, 2025
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[–] 71 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I had noticed that Nova had been falling behind for the last couple of years, but I didn't know why. I've been using it for over 10 years.

It sounds like a case of "buy it, kill it" which is pretty sad. If it had been open sourced we might have been able to improve it and keep it alive.

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  • [–] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Yeah, they laid off the whole team behind Kevin. I would quit too, if I saw my creation fall that way.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I stopped using it years ago when it got bought and immediately injected with spyware. Neo Launcher or Lawnchair are very similar to Nova. Lawnchair gets more active development, but I use Neo because it's nearly the same as Nova.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm still using Nova Launcher, can you elaborate on the spyware part?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    They were acquired by Branch Analytics, and right after the APK went up in size by 150% with no visible changes.

    It then asks for location and accessibility (to see notifications) permissions.

    They then got rid of most of the staff, leaving a sole developer.

    No one knows what it sends back home (at least not the last time I read about it, which was years ago).

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