The new owner of Nova Launcher may offer a version containing ads

Last year, Nova Launcher founder and sole developer Kevin Barry announced He left Branch Metrics, Nova’s parent company at the time – which followed an announcement from 2024 that nearly everyone was working on the project He was laid off. But the launcher is getting a new life: in a blog post TuesdaySwedish company Instabridge, which makes an app that helps people connect to Wi-FI hotspots, announced it has acquired Nova Launcher.

“Nova will not be shutting down,” according to Instabridge. “Our immediate focus is simple: keep Nova stable, compatible with modern Android, and actively maintained.” However, Instabridge says it is “evaluating ad-based options” for the free version of the launcher. But the latest Nova Launcher update has Facebook and Google AdMob ad trackers in its code and users on Reddit have already reported vision advertisements, As I mentioned Robot body.

If ads are added to the player, the paid experience, Nova Launcher Prime“It will remain ad-free.”

Instabridge is also “evaluating” open source for Nova. When he announced his departure in September, Barry said: He was “Requested to stop work on Nova Launcher and open source efforts” despite the branch’s former CEO He said publicly That “if Kevin ever leaves, the code is contracted to be open source and put into the hands of the community.”

“Responsible open product sourcing includes licensing, security, tool building, contribution workflow, and brand management,” says Instabridge. “We don’t have a decision to participate yet, but we will be transparent once we do.

Barry, Instabridge and Branch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.