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Google Will Reportedly Remove Google Now Launcher From Play Store (androidpolice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Police: Google currently has two launcher apps in the Play Store; Google Now Launcher and Pixel Launcher. In a few months, there will only be one. According to an email forwarded to us by a tipster, Google has alerted GMS partners of its intention to remove Google Now Launcher from the Play Store in the coming weeks. OEMs that use GNL have options, though. The email (which you can see below) explains that the Search Launcher Services library for OEMs that has been in testing is now available. That's what Sony used to integrate the Google Now panel (now just the Google Feed) into its stock launcher a while back. That means OEMs can slap the Google Now panel on whatever launcher they want. Google plans to remove GNL from the optional GMS package on March 1st, meaning no devices with the launcher pre-installed will be approved after that. Existing devices can continue using GNL, though. It will technically still be updated via the Google app. However, the listing will go away by the end Q1 2017 (i.e. now-ish). That affects people who just installed GNL on their devices from the store. You can keep using it, but don't expect any major improvements.
What a launcher supposed to be!
Google: "Look, shiny!"
Google has the attention span of a 3 year old human.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
So what about the Nexus phones which cannot currently install the Pixel launcher?
This sucks. I just checked out "Pixel Launcher" in the Play Store, it has low ratings, and the first review with any content says "Horrible: so many add, just slows my device down".
No wait, this is just some third party spam app capitalising on the fact that Pixel Launcher does not exist for non-Pixel devices. The fact that Google is enabling this shit by stopping all development on openly available Launchers for all Android devices makes me start wishing Tizen or other alternatives had managed to be more than just a poor attempt by Intel and Samsung to gain some control of the mobile ecosystem.
Been using ADW launcher for several years now. The update from 1.3 to 2.0 caused me some heartburn, as features and abilities which used to be free are now only available in the paid version. It took me a week of trying every alternative I could find before I ponied up the nominal fee to run in the paid version of ADW 2.0. To be honest, the tiny investment was well worth the price.
While it make sense due to them supporting 2 launchers is kind of redundant, the only problem I saw is that at least on my device I can't find a Google developed Pixel launcher in the market. Google Now launcher is available, and I had used it in my previous phone, but Pixel launcher is not.
Even a search by Google or Google Inc returns all the Google developed apps and Pixel launcher is magically missing from it.
... people actually use Google Now?
You don't have to follow path to greatness. You can stay in your liberal shithole with sand n1ggers and smelly indo-chimps all over it. Or betrer yet migrate to Canada.
2 launchers, multiple messaging apps, which one do I use for video calls? Etc. It's still a mess.
Since the EverythingMe launcher shut down, they recommended people use the Google Now launcher for predictive app launching. Can anyone recommend a replacement before the Google Now launcher vanishes..?
-Myke
To really understand, you need to know that in fending off hoards of shitty apps, all the "launchers" we backed off a cliff and fell to their doom... only to awaken and sensing something had changed. It turned out their mortal forms were no more and they were compelled to kill each other off because "there can be only one." ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Best I can tell the Google Now Launcher hasn't had any changes let alone major improvements for the past 2 years.
Joke is on you. America was never not great. Sure there are problems (nobody's perfect), but a lot of people seem to take for granted the great things they already have and can enjoy.