Renowned Android Launcher Nova's Entire Development Team Laid Off, Leaving Only the Founder to Develop Full-Time

The famous Android launcher, Nova Launcher, has recently been hit with significant news. The founder, Kevin Barry, revealed that the entire development team for Nova has been laid off, leaving him as the sole full-time developer.

Kevin Barry stated that the development of the launcher would continue, with him personally taking charge of the project. However, the laid-off team members have indicated that the development of Nova will slow down, and Barry has also mentioned that compared to the original plans, the next major version of Nova will see a reduction in features.

One of the main developers, Rob Wright, mentioned that with the reduction in the Nova development team, the pace of development will undoubtedly slow down, but the current plan is to continue updates in some form.

Nova is one of the most well-known third-party desktop launchers on the Android system. It was acquired by the mobile analytics company Branch in July 2022. Branch is now laying off over 100 employees, including most of the Nova team, which previously consisted of about a dozen people working on the Nova project.

This development might not come as a surprise, mainly because the Android system, especially the third-party OEM customized Android systems, have become increasingly closed off. At the same time, the functionalities provided are indeed becoming more comprehensive, leading to a decrease in users installing third-party desktop launchers.

Third-party desktop launchers and Android flashing essentially serve the same purpose. Over time and due to various environmental factors, more and more users stop spending time on these customizations, indicating a shrinking market until its eventual demise.

Kevin Barry mentioned that the original Nova team had always been just him for many years, and now he will continue to develop Nova alone.