If there is an app that has managed to get many to put aside those third-party launchers, this is the one of Google when it launched Google Now Launcher with an exclusivity that was the use of the voice command "Ok, Google." An excellent app launcher that behaves very well and that focuses on the basics from Android so as not to detract from the experience that is launching applications, adding widgets to the desktop and that navigation between the different desktop screens that a user has is optimal. Surely if it were not for Nova Launcher, it would be very easy to be the clear dominator in this category in which in the early years of Android we had very interesting options.
One of the options that Google Now Launcher had previously was the landscape or panoramic mode, and it is now when it returns again in version 5.8.45.19. Apart from this greater feature, which will allow a user with a tablet to take advantage of that greater dimension on the screen, Google Now Launcher includes the normalization of the size of the icons of the apps. This new functionality offers a better arrangement of the icons so that visually we do not have a clutter in size of each one of them. Then you can even download the APK to access these news that are added to others.
Landscape mode again
The horizontal orientation for the desktop in this app was first seen in the previous versions of Android M or Marshmallow, but was finally removed from the final version of this new version 6.0 of Android. Now there is an option that allows rotation in the app settings. Activating it will allow the user to rotate the desktop screen, the app drawer and the Now cards so that it can be rotated in any of the modes. It goes without saying that the autorotation mode has to be activated for it to work fully.
When this mode is activated in landscape format, the app drawer receives an extra column of apps. In this update, another of the most important novelties for an app launcher of this entity is the icon size normalization of apps in the app drawer and desktop screens. So the uniformity will arrive for the size of these icons and converge in a style in the design more in line with what, for example, was updated in Nova Launcher when a few months ago it received a similar update in the beta.
A buggy update
It is not surprising that some bugs may appear in this type of release, but there is one that follows from the beta channel from Google Now Launcher. On the Nexus 5X, the horizontal view of the screen has a fairly visible space between what is the favorite apps dock and the virtual buttons for direct access to home, back or recent apps. We must also mention another that has to do with the app drawer in landscape mode, with virtual keys that do not have that grayish tone like the rest of the background.
Those of you who are going to install this app or the new update will also discover a new animation when activating and exiting Now On Tap. The update is available for users who are in the beta channel of the Google app. For normal users, a new update free of those bugs mentioned should be expected in the next few days.
To access the beta program of Google Now Launcher you can approach this link to become a tester. We also have other more comfortable options such as APK download from the website apkmirror.com that is doing a great job to provide all users with all the new versions of the most important apps of the moment.
[Note] You must have the launcher installed to use the APK below to activate the news of Google Now Launcher
Download version 5.8.45.19 of the Google app
I download Google Now Launcher 5.8.45.19 and it is not the launcher, it is the google assistant application.
Is the apk ok?
The APK is fine, all you need to do is have Google Now Launcher installed to update it from the APK shared here. I update the entry to make it clear!
OK thanks!!
I have downloaded the APK and I do not see that the icons make a difference in Google now launcherla, and if the horizontality is normal.