Nova Launcher, for years, has been the go-to app for UI customization. The app’s endless customization options made it popular within the community. Unfortunately, the project met its end in September last year when the founder, Kevin Barry, left the project. But then, the launcher made a comeback and received a couple of updates in November, hinting that the development was still in progress. To everyone’s surprise, Nova Launcher is once again receiving updates now, along with a new ownership, and unfortunately, ads too.
Instabridge acquires the launcher
Going back a while, analytics firm, Branch Metrics, took over Nova Launcher in 2022. However, the founder and original developer, Kevin Berry, had control and was involved in the project. Unfortunately, Barry left Branch and clarified that he would no longer be a part of Nova Launcher’s development. Following his exit, the launcher received a couple of updates to address the app drawer crash issues.
In the latest development, Nova Launcher is getting a new owner, the Swedish company Instabridge, which took it over from Branch Metrics. Instabridge claims it’ll be a “responsible owner” of Nova Launcher and doesn’t want to reinvent it overnight. The company notes that Nova needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. To that extent, Instabridge is exploring various options, like paid tiers and possibly even ad-supported options for the free version.
Ads in Nova Launcher
The company notes that if it were to introduce ads, Nova Prime will remain ad-free. However, this seems misleading as ads are reportedly already here for some users. Lemdro.id user K0Z says 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 reportedly new permissions related to ad services in the new version. In the launcher version v8.2.4, folks at Android Authority have spotted strings about ad-integration to “keep Nova free and actively developed.” This suggests that Instabridge is planning to introduce ads to Nova Launcher. Separately, two Reddit users report that they are already seeing ads in Nova Launcher’s app drawer.
For what it’s worth, Instabridge promises to keep “data collection minimal and purpose-driven” and to be clear “about what is collected and why.” It also promises to never sell personal data. The company says that it’s also “actively evaluating” whether Nova can become open source, but there’s no decision on this yet. Lastly, Instabridge, thankfully, is honoring existing Prime purchases. It says that the Prime feature will continue to work for existing Prime users.
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