Paranoid Android(PA), the developers of many innovative features such as Peek and Hover, have decided to take a leaf out of Android L’s Recent implementation and create their own variant of Recent. The recently launched 4.5 Alpha build has been released and you can test out this freshly baked Recent if you so desire. As usual, a word of caution to the wise, the Alpha tag means that there are issues to be fixed therefore flashing the 4.5 build means that there is a high possibility that apps or features do not function as intended. For the flashaholics out there, you probably wouldn’t mind giving this new build a spin as long as you know the usual bug reporting procedures.
PA’s approach to redesigning is a way similar to L’s implementation as it makes use of the cards layout to display information about apps and swiping up and down to navigate to the desired app. The difference however is that where L’s recent animation is similar to flipping through a stack of paper (Rolodex effect), PA’s animation approach is more alike to that of shuffling through a deck of cards. The Recent button also doubles up as a clear all but active app when Recent is displayed, and another tap of the Recent dismisses the current app.
As of now, in the words of the PA developers, the revamped Recent is a preview of PA’s vision on the Recent redesign. Based on PA’s track record, it would be rather interesting to see how they implement their vision, as chances are it is bound to be revolutionary. The radical redesign of Android L could very well mean that custom ROMs in generally could receive some rather interesting/unique features when developers are better able to play around with the system and PA will probably be one of the first to do so. As of now, simply getting a fully functional Android L running on my devices what I am more interested in.