Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher • Hacker News Board

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#11

Post by thefz » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

> Are you going to add ads? > 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.

> If ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad free. Our guiding principles are clear: keep the experience clean and fast, avoid disruptive formats, and provide a straightforward way to keep the experience ad free.

Seems pretty clear.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#12

Post by londons_explore » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

Nova launcher used to have loads of great features, but it seems now the best of those features have made it to the stock Google/Samsung launchers

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#13

Post by naikrovek » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

the url "nova-is-here-to-stay" says to me that Nova will be discontinued in about 90 seconds.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#14

Post by branon » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 7:55 PM UTC

Haven't heard of Nova in a very long time, this was one of the original customizable launchers for Android wasn't it? If it's gone this long without being open-sourced, it might be time to let go. Been using https://kisslauncher.com/ for many years and have no complaints.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#15

Post by fullstop » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 7:56 PM UTC

I switched to Smart Launcher Pro, and it seems to scratch the same itch. It was more expensive, though.

Nova carried me for almost a decade, and I'll miss it.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#16

Post by gruez » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 8:01 PM UTC

naikrovek wrote: post #13

the url "nova-is-here-to-stay" says to me that Nova will be discontinued in about 90 seconds.

"Nova Launcher's Incredible Journey"

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#17

Post by mwkaufma » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 8:02 PM UTC

Immediate uninstall.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#18

Post by microflash » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 8:05 PM UTC

What an undeserving fate. A beloved app now being passed from vulture to vulture who rip off every possible morsel they can.

When Branch bought Nova, I moved on to use Lawnchair [1], which is open source. Although it has been in beta like forever, with occasional glitches, it works well enough and has enough features to satisfy my customization cravings.

[1]: https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#19

Post by mbirth » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 8:13 PM UTC

bastard_op wrote: post #10

herrherrmann wrote: post #4

Ugh, quite annoying. My next phone might be an Android (instead of the current iPhone), and I was looking forward to returning to Nova Launcher, after having used it many years ago as my favorite launcher. This feels like a big no-go now. What are other good customizable launchers on Android nowadays?

I've been using lawnchair as a launcher that is open source (apache) since the first news broke months when the previous dev/owner warned people what was coming, and it works just fine. Not quite as versatile as Nova Launcher, but with 100% less adware now that the new adware company is running up in people with a bait and switch. Enshittification is real!

Early on, Lawnchair implemented a blacklist to hide apps they deemed “bad”. They only removed it after lots of protest from users. That has “burned” this launcher for me.

Re: Instabridge has acquired Nova Launcher

#20

Post by fooqux » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC

herrherrmann wrote: post #4

Ugh, quite annoying. My next phone might be an Android (instead of the current iPhone), and I was looking forward to returning to Nova Launcher, after having used it many years ago as my favorite launcher. This feels like a big no-go now. What are other good customizable launchers on Android nowadays?

Depends what you want, I guess. The nice thing about Android is we still have many options.

I recently moved to AIO Launcher and I've been really enjoying it. I'm sure it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea though.