Nova Launcher’s new owner might offer a version with ads

Last year, Nova Launcher laminitis and sole developer Kevin Barry announced he had left Branch Metrics, Nova’s genitor institution astatine the clip — which followed an announcement from 2024 that astir everyone moving connected the task had been laid off. But the launcher is getting caller life: successful a blog station on Tuesday, the Swedish institution Instabridge, which makes an app that helps group link to Wi-FI hotspots, announced it has acquired Nova Launcher.

“Nova is not shutting down,” according to Instabridge. “Our contiguous attraction is simple: support Nova stable, compatible pinch modern Android, and actively maintained.” However, Instabridge says it’s “evaluating advertisement based options” for the free type of the launcher.” But the newest update for Nova Launcher has trackers for Facebook Ads and Google AdMob successful its codification and users connected Reddit person already reported seeing ads, as reported by Android Authority.

If ads are added to the launcher, the paid experience, Nova Launcher Prime, will “remain advertisement free.”

Instabridge is besides “actively evaluating” unfastened sourcing Nova. When announcing his departure successful September, Barry said that he had been “asked to extremity moving connected Nova Launcher and the unfastened sourcing effort” moreover though a erstwhile Branch CEO said publicly that “If Kevin were to ever leave, it’s contracted that the codification will beryllium unfastened originated and put successful the hands of the community.”

“Open sourcing a merchandise responsibly involves licensing, security, build tooling, publication workflow, and trademark stewardship,” Instabridge says. “We do not person a determination to stock yet, but we will beryllium transparent erstwhile we do.

Barry, Instabridge, and Branch didn’t instantly reply to a petition for comment.