Almost the entire team of Nova Launcher, one of the most popular third-party Android launchers that has already garnered more than 50 million downloads since its release in 2011, has been fired. Only the founder and original developer Kevin Barry remained in the team. This was reported by Android Authority.
Branch Metrics, which acquired the launcher in 2022, laid off more than 100 employees across the company, including 11 members of the Nova Launcher team, out of a total of 12. Despite such drastic changes, Kevin Barry made a small statement assuring users that he had always been the main developer of the launcher and that this had not changed.
The consequences of these layoffs are still unknown. According to Barry, he will continue to work on the 8.1 update and control the direction of the launcher. However, the team’s departure means that Nova is left without a support and PR team.
In addition, Barry also noted that he will have to reduce the amount of planned content in future updates. He also said that due to the layoffs, there is still chaos and many unresolved issues.
The beta of Nova Launcher 8.1.0, which was released in early June, showed several new features. One of the main innovations is Nova Now, a new feed where users can see all cards, apps, and important information.
The new Now feed will also include weather and map cards. In addition, they introduced smart folders that will automatically group apps. It is not yet known when the full release will take place.
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