
Google Now Launcher to Be Pulled from the Play Store in Q1 2017 - prashnts
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/02/google-now-launcher-to-be-pulled-from-the-play-store-in-q1-2017/
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bostand
How will this affect devices that came with the Now launcher? Will they still
receive updates or automatically be replaced with the pixel launcher?

Remember the crazy mess Google created when they decided to drop the sms app
in favor of hangout? At some point it seemed like 1B+ people couldn't
send/receive text messages and the Google exec's didn't even knew or cared.

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StClaire
Android phones don't really come with a Google Now launcher, they just don't
put their own skin on their phones over stock android

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skykooler
My Nexus 5 came with the Google Now launcher.

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baobrain
Because that is a Google branded phone.

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badpenny
So did my Moto G4.

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webmaven
As the OP notes, the code for the Google Now and Pixel launchers is in the
Search app rather than in the launcher apps themselves.

So, sideloading the Google Now app as a solution for a new phone after Google
Now is no longer available in the Play store will only be useful as long as
the internal Search app API doesn't change.

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qwertyuiop924
Any suggestions for those of us who like the Now Launcher?

In fact, any suggestions generally? I could go for a lighter launcher.

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Inconel
I'm not sure if it's lighter but after using the Now Launcher for a long time
I switched to Nova Launcher Prime about a year ago on my Nexus 6P and it's
been fantastic.

It has some great additional features, is well maintained and updated, and
I've never experienced any crashed or UI stutters/lag due to Nova. Nova has a
free version with almost all the same features as the paid version, and no
ads, so you can test it out.

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djaychela
+1 for Nova here too - used it for years on a variety of phones, and I've not
found another launcher which works as well with such a good feature set; there
are lots of nice touches in there and the author seems to keep it up to date
with new UI developments (such as the recent update which has some pixel
features added). Well worth the small extra for the full version to help
support it.

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naranana
Clickbait: it's not like Google is removing their launcher from the Store,
it's just Google Now Launcher being superseded by the Pixel Launcher.

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yen223
> it's just Google Now Launcher being superseded by the Pixel Launcher.

Any links for this? The Pixel Launcher is definitely not available on non-
Pixel phones yet.

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Mahn
It would be the only logical implication, but there's no confirmation yet that
Google plans to do this.

