Ever since I heard the news about Nova Launcher’s development being stopped, it broke my heart. Even though I no longer use Nova Launcher on my phone, it was the very first launcher I tried during my early Android days.
Launched back in 2011 with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Nova quickly became a favorite. At that time, most Android launchers offered only bare-minimum customization, came with ads, and often felt laggy. Nova stood out by delivering smooth performance with deep customization options — something it maintained right up until today.
In 2022, Nova Launcher was acquired by Branch, a mobile metrics company. However, things didn’t go well. In 2024, Branch laid off the entire Nova team, keeping only Kevin Barry, the founder. Recently, Kevin revealed in a blog post that he has been “asked to stop working on Nova Launcher.” This puts the future of the app in doubt, and sooner or later, it may be shut down or even removed from the Play Store.
That might sound sad for longtime fans, but if you own a Samsung Galaxy device, you don’t need to worry. Samsung already gives you one of the most powerful customization toolkits — Good Lock. Just install the Good Lock app from the Play Store or Galaxy Store, and you can download different modules based on your needs.
From icons and the volume panel to the keyboard, status bar, recent apps screen, and even the lock screen, you can tweak your phone almost as much, or even more, than what Nova offers. I recently tweaked my Galaxy S23 to look like Nothing OS with the help of Good Lock; you can check it out later.
For the time being, if you’re still using Nova Launcher on your Galaxy phone or any other Android device, you can continue to use it, but don’t expect any future updates. There are also good Nova Launcher alternatives you can consider switching to, such as Niagara Launcher, Microsoft Launcher, Minimalist Launcher, and Olauncher.
While none of them may fully replace Nova’s unique blend of speed and customization, they keep the spirit of Android personalization alive. It feels like the end of an era, but at least Samsung and other app developers are carrying forward the customization legacy Nova helped build.
