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.
While this may be good for funding the development of both apps, there could be some downsides to it.
... what would an analytics company want with the app? TeslaCoil Software has promised that the core user experience including the user's privacy will remain the same, and any changes made to the app will be optional. You can't expect a company to just acquire an app's rights, and let it continue in its existing state, would you? What's the point of it, if they don't get anything out of it?
The Play Store
listing for Nova Launcher says that it has had over 50 million downloads. Even if just 10% of those users are actively using it, I think it's safe to say that Nova Launcher boasts a very large user base. That means, Branch, could potentially benefit from this as well, right? This is virtually a gold mine for telemetry.
An
announcement made on Nova's website sheds some more light about the acquisition.
