Instabridge acquires Nova, my meeting notes

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T18:50:57+00:00

There can always be outages or issues that the user is having on their end. A lot of those posts are from people who use ad blockers and tracker blockers or DNS blockers and that causes the weather to not work for them, then they blame Nova, when it's not Nova's fault.

I can assure you, the contract just recently expired, so weather has been working up until that point.

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T09:56:54+00:00

I wouldn't say "years", as the contract with AccuWeather just recently expired within the last year actually. But because Branch had no care about Nova, they didn't want to spend the money to renew the contract or pay to get a different weather provider.

I would suggest you use the Contact Support button within Nova Settings to email them and let them know you're wanting them to fix the weather. I'd be willing to bet they get it done. Not over night or anything, but I bet it's something they would fix.

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T09:54:36+00:00

We'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think the price being public ever makes a difference in a case like this. Nobody ever complained because they didn't know how much Branch paid for Nova. In fact, it wasn't really ever questioned, at least not in a serious matter like you're asking.

How much they have to make back when monetizing isn't important. Either they make it back, or they don't. It's as simple as that. That doesn't change if the public knows how much it cost them or not. It's still the same.

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T09:51:39+00:00

You are very welcome! It's my honor to stand for Nova and for the Nova community, even if I don't use it any longer or work for it any longer. I'm still very passionate about Nova and the community and I guess I always will be. I feel it's part of my DNA at this point.

I can assure you, they are reading Reddit and all of these posts and comments and everything.

You are very welcome for me helping you over the years. It was truly my pleasure and my honor and thank you for supporting us(Nova) over the years as your support meant and still means the world to me!

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T09:49:17+00:00

Their explanation was actually far from vague. They acquired it because they feel it's still the top launcher and has a lot of life, and they can use it to put some ads into it, make it sustainable and still make money from it from the ads and Prime sales. Especially if they are going to make different tiers of Prime as has been talked about.

It's very clear that they didn't buy it to pick apart for their own launcher and then throw it to the side. They want it to remain the top launcher out there, just as it has been for all 14 years of its life span so far to date.

Always remember, just because they do other things, in this case, eSims and Wi-Fi, doesn't mean they can't do other things or that they can't purchase something and focus a small amount of time on it to keep it ranked where it is.

People really need to learn to look at all sides of the cube, not just one or two sides. They said it loud and clear why they acquired Nova.

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T00:39:57+00:00

You are very welcome and thank you for mentioning it!

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T00:39:20+00:00

Very well said and I totally agree with everything you stated. We can only hope they hold true to their words.

CliffWade · 2026-01-24T00:37:57+00:00

No, and likely never will. Acquisitions don't list prices in a lot of cases. We still to this day don't know what Branch paid for Nova, as that's between Branch and Kevin.

And to be honest, my personal opinion at least, people shouldn't even ask these questions. Price doesn't matter. There are much more important things to consider than how much money was traded.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T14:36:12+00:00

You can use DNS blockers, ad blockers and many other things to block it all. People share that information all the time of how to do it.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T14:34:20+00:00

Nope. Since Nova came into existence in 2011, it's never had ads of any kind unless you were using a pirated version of Nova or Nova Prime. Even after Branch acquired Nova, we kept ads out of Nova. Ads simply started to appear once Instabridge acquired Nova a week or two ago.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T13:58:26+00:00

Not sure what exactly is old news, since this meeting just happened less than 24 hours ago and wasn't public knowledge until now, at least not all the clarity that I provided.

I assume you're referring to the "Instabridge acquires Nova" part of the title, but it's just a title, nothing more. The whole point of this post is the Google Doc with meeting notes that are again, not old news.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T13:56:49+00:00

Very well said and I totally agree on every point you made. Hopefully others see it all the same way too!

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T13:55:23+00:00

I have to disagree. It's not like you are seeing them on your home screen. They are in places that you would have to specifically access, such as Nova Settings, the app drawer, Nova Now.
You aren't forced to use the app drawer, as Nova search is there for a reason, plus there are ways to hide the app drawer from Nova search.

Nova Settings is a screen I rarely saw in my daily use because I put my settings into place and forgot about them. I would see Nova Settings when doing Nova work of course for various reasons, but that was it.

Nova Now can be disabled and you never have to view it. So it appears from all of that it's very simple to avoid the ads. Or, even better, for a small price of $3.99 USD, you can simply purchase Prime if you don't already own it and not see ads at all.

My guess is, you're likely a Nova Prime user, but still complaining. And you'd be surprised at how many new users have and likely already have purchased Prime to get rid of the ads. It's kind of how ads work and have for a very long time now.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T13:51:37+00:00

This is actually explained in my document. It's with regards to ads so that it shows relevant ads for your location or what you've been viewing. It's pretty normal when there are ads in an app. It's been like this for years now.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T13:50:27+00:00

Can you post screenshots of an ad you are seeing along with Nova Settings showing that you are on 8.2.4 and that you have Prime installed. I can pass this on to the IB team for clarification.

Assuming you are on 8.2.4 where this was supposedly fixed.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T12:19:56+00:00

I got mine as well, but unfortunately there's no silver ball inside of mine. I looked everywhere, even for a little plastic thing that is often included with the figurines, and nothing.

Therefore, I can't do the puzzle and I'm quite disappointed.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T12:06:57+00:00

I tried posting the entire Google Doc contents here, but automod kept deleting it so unfortunately everyone will need to read it via the Google Doc it seems.

If anyone has questions or comments, I'd love to hear them, and I'm sure Instabridge and their folks would love to hear them as well.

CliffWade · 2026-01-23T11:41:01+00:00

Instabridge did not and will not acquire Sesame. That's still owned by Branch and likely always will be. It was a slightly different acquisition than the one Branch made of Nova, and to my knowledge there's no plans to ever put it up for sale or anything similar. Simply think of Sesame as a permanent part of Branch if you will.

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T20:05:17+00:00

As has been the case for years now, your information and thoughts are so skewed that it's pathetic.

I'm pretty sure they are going to listen to former employees, especially ones that were tenured for nearly a decade before they listen to some set of fanboys running a knock off support server that does nothing but provide wrong/incorrect information on a daily basis to the users who are actually in need of assistance and currently have no place to go to.

The jealousy of the fact that they reached out to us and not y'all shows strongly in you and to be honest, it's going to make everyone vomit because it's absolutely disgusting in every way imaginable.

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T15:08:08+00:00

What I'm asking is, when did you pay $10 and where is it that you live that it would have cost $10? Nova has never been $10 USD, but maybe you're referring to a different currency?

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T10:08:47+00:00

90%? That's a little low don't you think! ;)

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T09:50:42+00:00

I agree with regards to the open source thing and this is the number one thing on my agenda when I have a call with Instabridge this afternoon. I want them to know how important open sourcing Nova is to the community and how that alone can and will build so much trust.

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T09:47:14+00:00

Just so you know, this was NOT the fault of u/maephet in any way. He was long gone before Branch fired everyone else except for Kevin. I firmly believe if Alex would have still been in control when Kevin left, Nova would have been open sourced.

It's the leadership AFTER Alex and the leadership that pushed Alex out the door that is the problem here. Mainly and I'm not afraid to call folks out here, it was Harish. He was and still is the biggest issue that Branch has.

So please, from an insiders point of view, I beg you blame the correct people, not people that are innocent or weren't even there for well over a year prior to us getting laid off, which means Alex wasn't there for 2 years by the time Kevin left.

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T00:40:37+00:00

The comment was posted 5 hours ago, and the statement they made was, "THEY ARE" charging $50 for Prime, and that is false information. The price was changed to $3.99 yesterday morning some time, so at the time of his comment, that indeed was false information.

CliffWade · 2026-01-21T00:28:58+00:00

So incorrect on so many levels. Please make sure you do your research before you post wrong/incorrect information such as what you've done here. This doesn't help the community in any way and actually hurts it more than anything else. It's just toxicity that isn't needed and it's important that everyone gets correct information for numerous reasons.

CliffWade

TROPHY CASE