Australian developer Chris Lacy’s much loved Action Launcher 3 will be receiving an update tomorrow with a much requested feature – Google Now integration. The only problem for some people is that you’ll need to have root access on your phone to use it.
Chris has pre-announced the update on Google+ with a full Q&A of the reasons for root access and it’s a good read if you’re wanting to get in depth. The short version is that in its current state, with no official Google API for apps to use Now integration, users will have to set Action Launcher as a system app, something that currently only rooted users can do.
The feature will be marketed as an Alpha feature, due to the fact it uses ‘an undocumented API, and could get pulled at any point for any number of reasons’.
Chris says that he has a ‘non-trivial’ amount of users with root access using Action Launcher, so it’s a good way to keep those users happy – but if Google ever does release an API for Google Now integration for non-system apps Chris will definitely implement it.
One last note is that users wanting to use the Quick Drawer feature which uses a swipe from the left, you’ll have to choose between Google Now or the Quick Drawer.
Action Launcher is launching tomorrow morning according to Chris and we’re looking forward to seeing what great new features Chris has cooked up for the launch. That’s the simple version, for a full run down check out Chris’ complete post over on Google+.
