After practically everybody engaged on the Nova Launcher, one of the recognizable names in Android launchers, was laid off last year, founder Kevin Barry, Nova’s sole remaining developer, stated this weekend that he has left Nova’s guardian firm after being requested to cease engaged on the launcher and an effort to open-source it. Nova Launcher’s web site currently shows a 404 error, although the launcher continues to be available on Google Play.
Cell analytics firm Department Metrics acquired Nova in 2022. The corporate’s CEO on the time, co-founder Alex Austin, said on Reddit that if Barry had been to depart Department, “it’s contracted that the code might be open-sourced and put within the fingers of the group.” Austin left Department in 2023, and now with Barry formally gone from the corporate, too, it’s unclear if the launcher will now really be open-sourced.
Barry declined to remark to The Verge. We’ve reached out to Department for remark.
“I feel the newer management since Alex Austin left has put a special give attention to the corporate and Nova merely isn’t a part of that focus in any approach in any respect,” Cliff Wade, Nova’s former buyer relations lead who left as a part of the 2024 layoffs, tells The Verge. “It’s just a few app that they personal however not really feel they want or need.”
Wade additionally stated that “I don’t imagine Department will do the precise factor any time quickly with reference to open-sourcing Nova. I feel they merely simply don’t care and don’t need to make investments time, until in fact, they get sufficient strain from the group and people who care.” Customers have began a change.org petition to ask for the challenge to be open-sourced, and Wade says it’s a “nice begin” to use that strain. Wade stated he hasn’t personally seen Barry’s contract, so couldn’t corroborate the declare of a contractual obligation to open-source Nova.
Nonetheless, he stated that the group “deserves” for the launcher to be open-sourced. “Department simply merely must do the precise factor right here and honor what they as an organization have acknowledged in addition to what then CEO Alex Austin has acknowledged quite a few occasions previous to him leaving Department.”
Further reporting by Dominic Preston.