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.

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        • CallMeButtLove@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          3 months ago

          “This app is not available for your device because it was built for an older version of Android.”

          Pixel 7 here, am I missing something?

          • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
            13·
            3 months ago

            The Play Store link (Lawnchair v2) has not been updated in years. There is a ground-up rewrite (Lawnchair v14) which is being worked on slowly but is currently only able to be sideloaded from their site, and is apparently still missing most of the features from v2.

            From what I gather, though, development is happening at a snails pace with “when I feel like it” updates.

      • Vibi@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        9·
        3 months ago

        It was my go to launcher for years, but this weekend I decided it was time to see what else there was. I ended up on Niagara Launcher and have been liking it! Took about a day to get used to it- it’s definitely different. There’s not really an app drawer, and as far as I can tell there’s only one home screen and one place for widgets (you can have more than one, but you flip through them). I like how simple it is and how quickly I can get to everything.

        • Sunny' 🌻@slrpnk.netEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          I loved Niagara when I used to use it. Just wish the premium version didnt swallow my whole wallet… God damn that price is steep for a launcher…

          • Vibi@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            4·
            3 months ago

            I feel that! I ended up buying the premium license. I figure if I use it as long as I use Nova, it’ll pay for itself. Also will hopefully help the creator and prevent them from selling it to some advertising firm.

      • misery mansion@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        3 months ago

        I went back to action launcher which I really like.

        I basically have one home screen with links to my most used stuff.

        It has covers which I believe originated here but was later possible on Nova. Basically you make folders of apps that you can tap to open, but you can set that to swipe instead so that the tap just opens the first app in the folder

        So for example I listen to podcasts way more often than music from my phone, so I have a folder for audio where I can tap to open podcasts or swipe to open the folder and get to music.

        I then have a slide in drawer that has the weather and my calendar and that’s basically it. Very rarely need to go to the main app list once this is set up. I will likely never change this as I don’t really use that many apps regularly.

      • clover@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5·
        3 months ago

        I used to use nova and switched to Niagara a couple of months ago. It very different but super sleek

      • jaxiiruff@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        I switched to smart launcher and bought lifetime cause I feel like its actually a really great option I never heard of or tried until I stopped using nova. Lawnchair is good too but for now im sticking with smart launcher.