Nova Launcher now includes Facebook and Google ad tracking
Nova Launcher, a popular third-party app launched in 2011 as an Android home screen, has been found to have added Facebook and Google ad tracking functionality. Since its acquisition by another company, Nova Launcher has been in the midst of a flurry of trouble, including the departure of its creator from development. Users who long for the app are lamenting its current state.
Android | PSA: Nova Launcher added Facebook and Google Ads tracking
Data from Exodus Privacy, a website that analyzes and records which trackers and permissions are embedded in apps, shows that the January 2026 update to Nova Launcher increased the number of trackers from two to six and the number of permissions from 30 to 36. Two of the new trackers were advertising trackers from Facebook and Google.
In response to this change, internet users left comments such as, 'It's the end of an era,' and 'It's sad to see the launcher I've been using for years in this state. Everything has been terrible since they were acquired.'
Nova Launcher is a leading launcher app with over 100 million installs. It was developed by Kevin Barry in 2011 and has been developed primarily by Barry. However, in 2022, the company was acquired by Branch , and by 2024, almost all of the staff were laid off, leaving Barry to continue the business alone.
It turns out that even Barry had left development by 2025. Barry revealed, 'When Branch acquired us, Alex Austin, who was the CEO at the time, promised us that the code would be open sourced if I left development. However , I have now been asked to stop development of Nova Launcher and the open source initiative,' suggesting that Nova Launcher's management policy has completely changed. Austin has already left Branch, and someone else is now CEO.
In addition, since the January 2026 update, the provider of Nova Launcher has changed to a company called Instabridge Sweden AB, so some have pointed out that it may no longer be owned by Branch.
When did this happen?
by u/lonewolf-phoenix in NovaLauncher
On January 20th, Nova Launcher officially announced that it had been acquired by Instabridge.
Instabridge acquires Android launcher app 'Nova Launcher' - GIGAZINE
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in Software, Smartphone, Posted by log1p_kr