Google Will Reportedly Remove Google Now Launcher From Play Store

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.

nova launcher

[Anonymous Coward]

What a launcher supposed to be!

Re:

[Stephen Chadfield]

I use Nova launcher. Similar to the stock Sony Xperia launcher with some nice additional touches. I can't think of anything about it that annoys me.

Not unexpected.

[msauve]

Google: "Look, shiny!"

Google has the attention span of a 3 year old human.

Re:

[Luthair]

Yea stupidly the Pixel launcher swapped the Now cards to the right instead of the left? I guess no consistency and everyone doing their own thing is what happens when you let people choose what they work on and don't hire adults.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Or maybe change based on telemetry and user studies are what happens when companies actually pay attention and users will always bitch about every change regardless if it makes sense or not.

Re:

[Desler]

Except that telemetry and user studies never captures data from all users so it is highly susceptible to selection bias.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Except that telemetry and user studies never captures data from all users so it is highly susceptible to selection bias.

That is your own bias speaking. Being susceptible to selection bias depends on entirely what kind of data is being gathered. The swipe left vs swipe right debate depends on if someone is left handed or right handed, and the result is unbiased across a random selection of people who provide telemetry.

It's funny you seem to think the number one gurus of the data analysis space haven't thought of it.

Nexus Phones

[Luthair]

So what about the Nexus phones which cannot currently install the Pixel launcher?

Re:

[Desler]

Do you the attention span of a flea? Read the whole summary. It's not that long.

Haven't used the default launcher for a while now.

[mmell]

Google's default launcher is not configurable enough for my tastes. I can change the wallpaper and color scheme, but there were many aspects of the launcher which were (apparently) hard coded. It's almost as though they took a cue from Microsoft and decided "Our stuff is just too cool! There's no way anybody would ever want to change anything here except for the display size of fonts."

Been using ADW launcher for several years now. The update from 1.3 to 2.0 caused me some heartburn, as features and abi

Predictive app launchers

[xanadu113]

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..?

Re:

[xanadu113]

Does Nova Launcher do predictive app launching based on time or context..?

This was expected.

[Gravis Zero]

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." ;)

Major Improvements?

[thegarbz]

Best I can tell the Google Now Launcher hasn't had any changes let alone major improvements for the past 2 years.