Nova Launcher gets a new owner and… ads

Nova Launcher’s death in September last year left many Android fans heartbroken, especially as it signalled the imminent end of Android’s tinkering era as it once was. However, despite being “dead,” Nova Launcher received a couple of surprise updates in November. The launcher has once again received updates, but they come along with a change in ownership, and surprise, surprise, ads!

Nova Launcher gets sold, again

Nova Launcher was acquired by analytics firm Branch Metrics in 2022, which retained the founder and original developer, Kevin Barry, to remain involved in the project. Last year, Barry announced that he had left Branch and would no longer be involved with Nova Launcher, signalling its “death,” as he had been the only one working on the launcher for the past year. After Barry’s departure, though, it seems Branch has had other plans for the launcher, as it rolled out a few updates that resolved the app drawer crash issue.

Today, Nova Launcher announced that the Swedish company Instabridge has acquired it from Branch Metrics.

Instabridge claims it wants to be a responsible owner of Nova and does not want to reinvent the launcher overnight. However, the launcher still needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. To this end, Instabridge is exploring different options, including paid tiers and ad-supported options for the free version. The new owners claim that if ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad-free.

However, this is misleading, as ads are already here for some users.

Nova Launcher’s latest update adds ads

Nova Launcher has just received another set of updates, but you might want to skip this one. Lemdro.id user K0Z notes that the latest update (v8.2.4) includes trackers for Facebook Ads and Google AdMob, in addition to the Branch analytics tracker code previously included in v8.1.6 (released in November 2025).

There are also new permissions related to ad services in the new version, namely:

• Advertising ID Permission
• ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID
• ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION
• ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS

Independently, I can confirm that the following strings have been added to Nova Launcher v8.2.4 when compared to v8.1.6:

As the strings clearly reveal, Nova’s new parent company is planning to introduce ads.

Some new strings also suggest that “Ad” would be able to create calendar events and store images in your gallery.

The final cherry on top is this string for a test ad:

Lo and behold, as two separate Reddit users (1, 2) report, they already have ads on Nova Launcher’s app drawer:

In its announcement, Instabridge promises to keep data collection minimal and purpose-driven, and to be clear about what is collected and why. It also claims that it does not sell personal data. It is also “actively evaluating” whether Nova can become open source, but there’s no decision to share on this just yet.

Thankfully, the company also promises to honor existing Prime purchases and that Prime features will continue to work for existing Prime users.

What happens to Nova now?

While the new parent company makes bold claims and promises, only time will tell how things pan out for Nova Launcher. If you look at reviews for Instabridge’s primary app, you’ll see users complaining that the public Wi-Fi Hotspot map app wants to become the default launcher and browser on your phone, which certainly does not inspire confidence.

Instabridge’s primary app is also seemingly riddled with ads, to the point of being unusable.

As a Nova Launcher user, you now have a few options:

1. Be optimistic about Nova’s future and accept future updates, which are likely to include ads, potentially a lot of them.
2. Stick with Nova Launcher v8.1.6 and switch off auto-updates in the Play Store. Note that this version still has Branch analytics.
3. Sideload and stick with Nova Launcher 7.0.57, the last stable release before Branch Metrics’ takeover. Note that this release is from 2021, so you may run into compatibility issues.
4. Switch to a different launcher.

Let us know what you intend to do in the comments below!