Back in July 2022, when mobile app metrics firm Branch acquired the popular and well-regarded Nova Launcher for Android, the app’s site put up one of those self-directed FAQ posts about it. Under the question heading “What does Branch want with Nova?,” Nova founder and creator Kevin Barry started his response with, “Not to mess it up, don’t worry!”

Branch (formerly/sometimes Branch Metrics) is a firm concerned with helping businesses track the links that lead into their apps, whether from SMS, email, marketing, or inside other apps. Nova, with its Sesame Search tool that helped users find and access deeper links—like heading straight to calling a car, rather than just opening a rideshare app—seemed like a reasonable fit.

Barry wrote that he had received a number of acquisition offers over the years, but he didn’t want to be swallowed by a giant corporation, an OEM, or a volatile startup. “Branch is different,” he wrote then, because they wanted to add staff to Nova, keep it available to the public, and mostly leave it alone.

Two years later, Branch has left Nova Launcher a bit too alone. As documented on Nova’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, and transcripts from its Discord, as of Thursday Nova had “gone from a team of around a dozen people” to just Barry, the founder, working alone. The Nova cuts were part of “a massive layoff” of purportedly more than 100 people across all of Branch, according to now-former Nova workers.

  • FleetingTit@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    1 month ago

    Okay, I’m seeing a lot of “alternatives” posted. But to all of you recommending minimal launchers: They are NOT an alternative for Nova.

    I’ve used Nova for near on 10 years now, always trying other launchers for a while. In those 10 years I realized that I want a fully fledged “traditional” launcher, not a list-based one where I have to search for my apps.

    • webhead@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 month ago

      Thank you. I’ve been thinking the same thing. People keep posting things that aren’t remotely close to Nova. I’m beginning to think there’s just nothing else at their level. Lawnchair seems like the closest so far but it’s still not customizable enough and the Google feed implementation randomly broke and I couldn’t get it to work again (amongst other annoyances and performance issues).

    • asexualchangeling@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      I wish there really was an alternative, some I’ve tried have come close-ish, but none are good enough for me to switch for more than a few days before I run into frustration