Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
- Nova Launcher has announced layoffs have reduced its team down to just one member.
- The app is still available but there’s no longer resources for customer support and really anything beyond development.
- Reportedly work continues on Nova 8.1, but its future is a bit uncertain, to say the least.
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.