Nova Launcher is making a comeback, possibly with ads

Nova Launcher is here to stay. Instabridge, the company that acquired Nova Launcher last year, has promised to keep the Android launcher alive for the community. However, changes might be inevitable.

“Nova is not shutting down. Our immediate focus is simple: keep Nova stable, compatible with modern Android, and actively maintained,” Instabridge wrote in a blog post regarding the status of the Android launcher.

The Swedish company continued by saying that it’s not its job to reinvent Nova Launcher overnight. Instead, it claims it wants to be a “responsible owner.”

According to Instabridge, this means keeping performance and customization as one of Nova Launcher’s core principles, fixing bugs and keeping pace with changes in the Android operating system, and listening to the community’s feedback before making big product decisions.

However, keeping Nova Launcher alive almost certainly means that there will be some changes, including ads for users of the free version.

“Nova needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. We are exploring different options, including paid tiers and other approaches. As many of you have already anticipated, we are also evaluating ad-based options for the free version,” Instabridge said.

Nova Prime, the paid version of the Android launcher, will remain ad-free. Ever since Instabridge acquired Nova Launcher, the price of Nova Premium has gone up and was changed to $3.99.

Whether Nova Launcher will become open source in the future has yet to be evaluated.

“Open sourcing a product responsibly involves licensing, security, build tooling, contribution workflow, and trademark stewardship. We do not have a decision to share yet, but we will be transparent once we do,” Instabridge promises.

Lastly, the new owner pledges that no personal data will be sold to data brokers or other third parties. However, one of the developers claims that the latest update of Nova Launcher includes Facebook Ads and Google AdMob trackers.

“From 2 trackers to 6 trackers. From 30 permissions to 36. And two of the ‘trackers’ are for ad stuff, like Facebook Ads,” he said.

Instabridge responded that it will keep data collection to a minimum, is solely purpose-driven, and that the company will be clear about what information is collected and why.

In September 2025, Founder and Creator of Nova Launcher, Kevin Barry, announced his retirement from Branch, the company that owned the Android launcher at the time, and said that he would no longer be involved in future development.

Everybody thought this would be the end of Nova Launcher. Then, Instabridge stepped in and acquired the Android launcher. The community’s loyalty was one of the reasons why the company acquired Nova Launcher.

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