Nova Launcher causes problems
Nova Launcher has been receiving regular updates again since November, ahead of its recent sale by Branch Metrics to Swedish company Instabridge. The new owner has started preparing a free version with ads. Those updates now seem to coincide with technical problems that many users are encountering.
The latest version of Nova Launcher is 8.2.8. This update first appeared as a beta and has been rolling out to the stable version via the Google Play Store since last Saturday. On Reddit, several users report that the launcher crashes immediately after installation. For some users, after reopening the app, the message "Nova Launcher continues to crash" even appears, rendering the launcher unusable.
Several users have tried standard solutions, such as reinstalling and re-enabling the app, but to no avail. As a temporary solution, they recommend installing an older APK version of Nova Launcher and disabling automatic updates in the Play Store. Not everyone suffers from this bug, but the problems seem to occur mainly during the initial installation process.
Besides the crashes, users report another problem. On several devices, app icons disappear from the home screen after you close an app or unlock your phone. This bug is reported on smartphones from several brands, including the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy and OnePlus. This indicates that the problem is not limited to one specific device or Android version.
The timing of these bugs causes additional concern among fans of Nova Launcher. The update in which ads have also been prepared marks Instabridge's first major move as a new owner. Instabridge has said it will not show ads to users of the paid Nova Prime version and wants to be "responsible owners". Still, another change of ownership raises questions, especially since Nova Launcher was already acquired by Branch Metrics in 2022 and has now changed hands again.
For now, it remains to be seen if and how soon the problems with Nova Launcher will be resolved.
