The developers at Action Launcher are eager to get Android P’s U.I. elements added to their launcher replacement and have now announced an update to back that up. That’s according to an official announcement from Action Launcher, which says the new update is already rolling out and includes some of the new OS’s most prominent expected changes. This may be the third release of an update to the app this year. But that obviously doesn’t mean the same shortage of improvements that can sometimes be found with other apps that update frequently.
For starters, Android P’s transparent dock search box and tinted dock effect have been added and the dock’s look, including an option for the new OS’s round-style, can be adjusted in settings. Folders can be included in the app drawer as well, now, and those use Android P’s rounded folder style. Additionally, the option to use a Pixel Launcher style search bar in the All Apps drawer is also now available. Perhaps best of all, multiple apps can be moved to and from those folders simultaneously, while sorting options have been added, as well. At the same time, desktop shortcuts such as those created from a browser will no longer show up in the app drawer unless a new setting called “Show desktop shortcuts” is enabled in All Apps options. Customizations continue with the ability to access custom settings from the Quickbar menu. That Quickbar has been adjusted so that if users make it white and use a transparency of 35-percent or more, its icons will be white too – similar to the Pixel Launcher’s U.I. Last but not least, the smart icon scaling options and All Apps drawer shortcut gestures no longer require the premium Plus upgrade variation available via in-app purchase.
It’s worth bringing up that this version of the app also drops support for Android Lollipop and Marshmallow app drawers. Instead, the company is focusing on Nougat, Oreo, and the new Android P features. So users who prefer those will probably want to try and avoid updating Action Launcher. Beyond that, default app gestures have been changed to include an upward swipe to open the All Apps drawer and settings can be accessed with a double screen tap on the home screen. Meanwhile, the app drawer itself will automatically adjust its width to match up with home screen margin settings. Alongside those changes, however, the developers have fixed a ton of bugs and introduced further app optimizations for performance. That includes more than 20 stability bugs and fixes for around a dozen usability bugs. Taking all of the changes together, this may be the perfect time to try Action Launcher out for the first time or give it another look if it just didn’t work quite right the last time.
