Android is the most versatile mobile operating system out there. Google’s OS allows you to customize your experience any way you like, even if you don’t choose to root your phone, flash ROMs, etc. If you don’t like the stock messaging app, you can always replace it with a third-party one, and the same applies to other parts of the OS, including your e-mail app, gallery app, camera app, etc. Now, some of you probably don’t like the launcher that comes on your device, well, luckily, Android has a solution for that as well, as there are tons of third-party launchers available out there, and Nova Launcher is quite probably the most popular one, or at least amongst the most popular ones.
This launcher has been around for a long time now, and we didn’t even realize how long until the man behind the app revealed on Google+ that the launcher is now 5 years old. In addition to announcing that Nova Launcher is celebrating its 5th birthday, Cliff Wade announced the availability of Nova Launcher 5.0 in order to celebrate launcher’s birthday. This celebratory update brings tons of goodness to the application, as it introduces a number of new features and polishes the experience even further. Nova Launcher received a number of Pixel features with this update, like the swipe up to open the app drawer (a feature that has been available in the Beta version of Nova Launcher for a while now) and a new Pixel style search bar. In addition to this, Mr. Wade also included Android 7.1 Nougat launcher shortcuts, new swipe gestures, new ‘Timeout’ screen lock method and a couple of more features.
Do keep in mind that the update is already rolling out through the Google Play Store, but it might not be available to everyone straight away, though chances are it will become available for you soon, if it is not already. In addition to all this, it is worth mentioning that there are two variants of the Nova Launcher app available in the Google Play Store, a free one, and a Prime one which brings along some additional features, it unlocks various gestures, and so on.