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
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).