Australian developer Chris Lacy has been busy, this morning announcing the July update to his replacement launcher: Action Launcher. The new update includes a bunch of Android O goodies, but most importantly Google Now Feed is now able to be integrated without root.
Yes, you read that right, the update which is being deployed through Google Play finally supports Google Feed without the need to root your device. The install takes a bit more work, but it’s not overly onerous. To get it working you simply side-loading an APK that you can download from Chris’ website or APK Mirror. As you can see, it works pretty well:
The update also includes a bunch of features that will be arriving in Android O. This includes the app shortcuts, and notification dots so get ready for annoying dots on icons if there’s an unread notification in there – though you can limit this in settings on an app-by-app basis.
Full list of changes in this update:
• NEW: Google Now integration for all! Requires installation of the Action Launcher Google Plugin application.
• NEW: Full Notification Dots support!
• NEW: Long-pressing an shortcut will display a preview of app’s notifications and allow notifications to be dismissed ala Android O. Available when using either Notification Dots or Unread Count.
• NEW: Unread Count support extended to all apps that have a current notification.
• NEW: Android O style App Shortcuts panel.
• NEW: Allow granular control as to which apps display Notification Dots/Unread Count.
• NEW: Android O style widget picker, which displays all relevant widgets for a given shortcut.
• NEW: Directly engage Action Launcher’s Quickedit panel via a shortcut’s long-press popup UI.
• NEW: Dedicated “Icons & App Shortcuts” settings page, which is home to all icon related settings.
• NEW: When Google Pill widget is on the left screen edge and Google Now integration is enabled, display a tinted edge background as per Pixel Launcher.
• NEW: Option to adjust the scale of icon indicators.
• NEW: Revamped interface for selecting the apps that are hidden from app drawers.
If you want to get in on all these goodies, you can download the app from Google Play – but remember this is all hard work by Chris so you’ll have to pay for it, and we should all be supporting creators right?
