The Pixel Launcher, which Google debuted last year with its Pixel smartphones, has now hit 1 million downloads. Typically this wouldn’t be that impressive, however, considering the Pixel Launcher is only compatible with two smartphones right now – the Pixel and Pixel XL – it means that Google has sold around a million devices. The Pixel Launcher is the default launcher on the Pixel smartphones, which means every single Pixel smartphone sold, counts as an install for this launcher. The Google Play Store lists the Pixel Launcher as between 1 million and 5 million downloads.
Now it’s also important to note that the Pixel Launcher was not the Google Now Launcher listing being rebranded when the Pixel smartphones launched last year – that’s something Google did with the Google Talk app when it changed to Hangouts a few years ago. So these are legitimate numbers, and it does show that the Pixel smartphones might be doing better than some had thought. Now while a million sales doesn’t seem like a huge number, especially in the world of Samsung and Apple. It is a higher number than any Nexus device had. Nexus devices typically sold in the thousands, partly due to the fact that they were sold unlocked in most cases, and the fact that most Android users didn’t really know about the Nexus. The Pixel smartphones likely are doing better thanks to being sold at Verizon, and the massive marketing budget Verizon put behind the Pixel campaign.
The Pixel Launcher is slightly different from the Google Now Launcher that’s compatible with most smartphones. It includes a slightly different app drawer, and no app drawer icon. This is because you swipe up from the bottom of the device to reveal the app drawer here. The Pixel Launcher does have that new Google search button at the top, instead of a search bar, like most other smartphones have, as well as the weather in the upper right-hand corner. Now the features from the Pixel Launcher have already made their way into other launchers like Nova and Action Launcher, so it’s not all that exclusive, but still a nice launcher to check out.