Everyone loves Nova Launcher and tends to forget that there are other, viable, options available on the Play Store. One such option is Action Launcher 3 from the well-known developer, Chris Lacy.
On Friday, Lacy pushed a HUGE update to Action Launcher, which provided a rather long list of changes and feature additions. In addition to these changes Lacy has also removed the “3” from the name while bringing an all-new icon for Action Launcher.
Other than the design changes that have been made to the launcher itself, Lacy has added a new Clock widget. The reason that this new clock widget is so special is that the clock now features an animated second hand. The seconds ticker will move around the clock, regardless of whether you use a Clock widget or have the application on your homescreen.
Official Changes:
- NEW: Action Launcher 3 has been renamed to Action Launcher, and has a shiny new icon to prove it!
- NEW: Use an animating, Android O-style clock icon for the Google Clock app (requires Lollipop or later). This animating clock is also available as a standalone widget.
- NEW: By default, all new installs of Action Launcher will use Pixel Launcher style All Apps, folders and everything in between.
- NEW: Many Pixel Launcher features that previously required Plus are now free for all users. Furthermore, the app is now far less aggressive in prompting users to upgrade to Plus.
- NEW: Full integration of Pixel Launcher’s UI styling for displaying App Shortcuts (previously known as Quickcuts). App Shortcuts display when long pressing an icon from either the desktop or All Apps list.
- NEW: App Shortcuts can be used in combination with Shutters and Covers.
- NEW: App Shortcuts can be dragged and placed as shortcuts on a home screen.
- NEW: Revamped appearance of the icon indicators for Covers, Shutters and App Shortcuts..
- NEW: Smartsize icon resizing is no longer a beta feature, and is enabled by default for all Plus users.
- NEW: Add animated caret indicator when opening/close Pixel style All Apps.
- NEW: Custom system fonts are correctly applied to labels on the desktop.
- NEW: The horizontal screen margin can be adjusted (via Desktop settings, phones only).
In addition to the various new changes being made to Action Launcher, Lacy has also provided a slew of “improvements” to the launcher. These range from optimizations to the launcher itself, to showing new animations after Action Launcher is used for the first time.
If you’re interested in learning more about this latest update, hit the links below and give the new update a chance to take over your homescreen. If you’re already using the new Action Launcher, let us know what you think about the changes in the comments below.
