There are plenty of Android launchers in the Play Store but one of the most popular is Apex Launcher. For those of you that haven’t used Apex before, it takes the “stock” Android launcher experience (as found in the Android Open Source Project, or on Nexus devices) and adds a range of customisation options for you to play around with, including:
- Customizable homescreen grid size and up to 9 homescreens
- Scrollable dock with up to 7 icons per page and up to 5 pages
- Infinite & elastic scrolling (homescreen, drawer and dock)
- Fancy transition effects (tablet, cube, etc.)
- Hide elements as you want (persistent search bar, status bar, or even the dock)
- Customizable icons and labels for shortcuts and folders
- Just to name a few
The developers at Android Does have just released a new update, taking it to version 2.0 and adding a range of new features to both the free and the paid versions of the app.
Free Version
New features:
- Added vibration duration option
- Improved activity picker and wallpaper chooser
- Re-organized and improved settings menu
- Disabled auto update checks by default
- Removed permissions for notifications
- Various fixes and improvements
- Updated translations
Paid Version
As you’d expect, the paid version gets all of the new features list above, plus:
- Folders in the app drawer
- Integration with Apex Notifier
- Notification badge style options
- Default on for external notifiers
Badges for your notifications
There’s one new feature I think deserves a little more than a simple mention – integration with Apex Notifier.
Apex Notifier is an extension that allows you to show badges on top of certain icons to display pertinent information, like the number of unread emails, missed calls, unread SMS messages, etc.
Users can change the colour and size of the badges, and choose the apps for which you’d like to them to appear. The extension is also compatible with DashClock.
[app]com.anddoes.launcher[/app]
[app]com.anddoes.launcher.pro[/app]
[app]com.anddoes.notifier[/app]
What’s your preferred launcher replacement? Do Apex’s new features sway you? Let us know in the comments!
The update on free version eliminated the hide dock feature. why??? what a terrible change to this launcher. uninstalling and going with Nova.
Right at the top of the DOCK SETTINGS page is a slider. Set it to OFF
Unfortunately Bill, that turns off the dock feature completely. We want to be able to hide the dock and bring it up with a swipe when needed
Nova launcher is better :p
Actually I always prefer Apex but Nova Prime was on sale for so went with that. Been waiting for a deal on Apex and I’d jump straight back.
Although, really, the difference was always really marginal.
Both are miles better than TouchWiz though!
I have both paid version and I prefer Apex