https://www.ghacks.net/2022/07/19/nova-launcher-and-sesame-search-have-been-acquired-by-branch/
Nova Launcher and Sesame Search have been acquired by Branch, an analytics
company

The popular home screen app for Android devices, Nova Launcher has been
acquired by Branch Metrics, a company that specializes in analytics. Sesame
Shortcuts, which supported integration with the launcher app, has also been
acquired.

What does Branch do?
Branch has a massive database with over 300 billion deep links in apps, and
provides a platform for developers to manage and measure these links into
their apps. Here's an example (quoted by Nova): A link in an email or
social media that a user interacts with and opens in another app is likely
a Branch link.

The future of Nova Launcher
The company wants to improve the mobile app discovery and navigation
experience, and sees potential in Nova and Sesame. And as for changes that
users can expect, Nova Launcher will be introducing new features on an A/B
testing basis, to analyze which design users prefer. Nova 8 will offer
on-device shortcuts, and contact search powered by branch, the data for
searching and indexing is saved on the device and does not leave it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher

NewsKrawler wrote:

> https://www.ghacks.net/2022/07/19/nova-launcher-and-sesame-search-have-been-acquired-by-branch/
> Nova Launcher and Sesame Search have been acquired by Branch, an analytics
> company

Seems like 7.0.57 is slated to be the last known good version of Nova.
<https://novalauncher.com/apk/NovaLauncher_7.0.57.apk> Dec 14, 2021

Branch is already integrated into the latest Nova Launcher it seems...
<https://novalauncher.com/beta>
Changelog
8.0.2 BETA Jul 21, 2022
Branch Search for Shortcuts and Contacts
Branch search is powered by a library used by Nova.
Its internal identifier is 'io.branch.search'

But I'm not sure about the previous 8.x beta... 8.0 BETA Jul 15, 2022

NewsKrawler <newskrawl@krawl.org> writes:

> https://www.ghacks.net/2022/07/19/nova-launcher-and-sesame-search-have-been-acquired-by-branch/
> Nova Launcher and Sesame Search have been acquired by Branch, an analytics
> company

Any suggestions for a replacement launcher? Comments of that ghacks
story mention Pear Launcher which I haven't tried.

I have tried a few others, so far Hyperion seems to have the features
I'm interested in which are just some home screens, widgets, app drawer,
app drawer folders and tabs, largish dock. Well, with Hyperion app
drawer folders and tabs are in the payola Plus version so I haven't been
able to try those features yet.

BTW, I noticed the Nova APK has gone from 8 MB to 12 MB. Makes you
wonder just what they added to it and how that code is going to benefit
the users. Well, kidding of course, about benefiting the users.

Anssi Saari wrote:

> Any suggestions for a replacement launcher? Comments of that ghacks
> story mention Pear Launcher which I haven't tried.

I agree with everything Anssi Saari said (& I usually do agree with him).

As of the Branch acquisition, I'm also suddenly in the market for a new
launcher, unless Nova can be kept at the pre-Branch version of 7.0.57 as
shown on this beta page.
<https://novalauncher.com/beta>
<https://novalauncher.com/apk/NovaLauncher_7.0.57.apk>
Name: NovaLauncher_7.0.57.apk
Size: 8687535 bytes (8483 KiB)
SHA256: 05AE72221D8D4F3D6A111A3220A0C87040806AF4E53053EF64F2DE426990893E

> I have tried a few others, so far Hyperion seems to have the features
> I'm interested in which are just some home screens, widgets, app drawer,
> app drawer folders and tabs, largish dock. Well, with Hyperion app
> drawer folders and tabs are in the payola Plus version so I haven't been
> able to try those features yet.

I had tested all the launchers labeled as the best a few years ago, which
is when I had settled on Nova free as the best for me. What I care about
mostly is being able to organize the home screen on any grid I like.

Pretty much that's all that I needed.

> BTW, I noticed the Nova APK has gone from 8 MB to 12 MB. Makes you
> wonder just what they added to it and how that code is going to benefit
> the users. Well, kidding of course, about benefiting the users.

Take a look at this screenshot I just made for you moments ago:
<https://i.postimg.cc/c6yTHdt0/nova01.jpg> Nova version history size

You can see the size changes in those nova versions I just got with wget.
6,115,724 NovaLauncher_4.1.0.apk
6,184,440 NovaLauncher_4.2.0.apk
6,214,892 NovaLauncher_4.2.2.apk
6,461,014 NovaLauncher_4.3.1.apk
6,460,703 NovaLauncher_4.3.apk
7,714,471 NovaLauncher_5.0.apk
7,732,227 NovaLauncher_5.0.1.apk
7,913,119 NovaLauncher_5.0.2.apk
7,904,935 NovaLauncher_5.0.3.apk
8,045,409 NovaLauncher_5.1.apk
8,046,033 NovaLauncher_5.1.1.apk
8,072,083 NovaLauncher_5.2.apk
8,145,332 NovaLauncher_5.3.apk
8,285,284 NovaLauncher_5.4.apk
8,273,808 NovaLauncher_5.4.1.apk
8,775,403 NovaLauncher_5.5.1.apk
8,754,535 NovaLauncher_5.5.2.apk
8,755,223 NovaLauncher_5.5.3.apk
8,822,287 NovaLauncher_5.5.4.apk
10,149,544 NovaLauncher_6.0.apk
11,110,717 NovaLauncher_6.2.12.apk
10,975,529 NovaLauncher_6.2.18.apk
10,975,531 NovaLauncher_6.2.19.apk
12,415,042 NovaLauncher_6.2.3.apk
11,106,623 NovaLauncher_6.2.6.apk
11,102,526 NovaLauncher_6.2.9.apk
8,644,075 NovaLauncher_7.0.48.apk
8,644,079 NovaLauncher_7.0.49.apk
8,674,983 NovaLauncher_7.0.50.apk
8,674,979 NovaLauncher_7.0.51.apk
8,676,475 NovaLauncher_7.0.52.apk
8,677,379 NovaLauncher_7.0.53.apk
8,677,371 NovaLauncher_7.0.54.apk
8,686,647 NovaLauncher_7.0.55.apk
8,686,643 NovaLauncher_7.0.56.apk
8,687,535 NovaLauncher_7.0.57.apk
8,674,979 NovaLauncher_8.0.apk
12,549,867 NovaLauncher_8.0.1.apk
12,580,956 NovaLauncher_8.0.2.apk

BTW, if you know of nova versions that wget missed, please let me know.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which in this case is agreeing with Anssi on the need for a new launcher
and to back up his assessment, I listed all the Nova launcher file sizes.