Practically the whole group engaged on Nova Launcher, one of many greatest names in Android homescreen replacements, has been laid off. The group is now all the way down to only one full time developer: Kevin Barry, the launcher’s founder.
Barry mentioned improvement will proceed and that he’ll stay in control of the mission. However group members who had been laid off mentioned work on Nova should decelerate, and Barry has already posted that he must “reduce scope” on the following main model of Nova in comparison with what was initially deliberate.
“Growth will undoubtedly sluggish with much less individuals engaged on the app, however the present plan is for updates to proceed in some type,” Rob Wainwright, one of many laid off builders, wrote within the mission’s Discord.
Nova has been a standby within the Android Launcher group for years, providing a extremely customizable twist on the platform’s commonplace residence display screen choices. The app was acquired by Department, a cell analytics firm, in July 2022. Department is now shedding greater than 100 individuals throughout the whole firm, together with the majority of Nova’s group, in accordance with Cliff Wade, Nova Launcher’s buyer relations lead. There have been beforehand “round a dozen individuals” engaged on Nova, Wainwright mentioned.
The launcher will proceed to work for anybody who’s already utilizing it. And whereas the launcher has been developed by a group for a few years now, it was a one-developer-job initially. “The unique Nova group, for a few years, was simply me,” Barry wrote in a submit immediately, reflecting on the layoffs.