Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is getting ready to tweak the Pixel Launcher’s animations and have set in Android 15.
- The Pixel Launcher app powers the house display and recents display on Pixel telephones.
- There’s a brand new swipe-to-home animation that’s snappier, a brand new title bar within the recents display, widget suggestions, and extra.
The app that powers your telephone’s house display is named a launcher, and because of Android’s customizability, there are a variety of Android house display launchers from which to decide on. Most individuals stick to the default house display launcher, which within the case of Google’s Pixel telephones is named the Pixel Launcher. The Pixel Launcher will not be as customizable as, say, Nova Launcher, nevertheless it continues so as to add new options with each Android launch. The upcoming Android 15 replace will likely be no exception, as the brand new launch is getting ready to tweak a number of elements of the app launching expertise.
For starters, Google is getting ready to tweak the animation that performs whenever you swipe up on an app to return to the house display. The brand new animation is quicker, springier, and higher highlights the wallpaper zoom impact. Right here’s a display recording that compares the swipe-to-home animation in Android 14 versus Android 15 Beta 1.
Subsequent, the Pixel Launcher is getting ready to enhance its widget suggestions in Android 15. At present, whenever you open the widget selector within the Pixel Launcher, a seemingly random widget will seem on the prime of the web page. There’s no actual clarification for why the Pixel Launcher chooses to suggest a selected widget, however fortunately with the brand new suggestion system, you’ll have extra suggestions to select from. Plus, the suggestions are categorized by kind, making it simpler to discover a widget that fits your private home display wants.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
New widget suggestions UI in Android 15 Beta 1.
In my testing, I noticed three suggestion classes: Necessities, Social, and Leisure. Nonetheless, a fast look via the Pixel Launcher’s code reveals 5 different classes that may seem, together with Well being & health, Information & magazines, Recommended for you, Your Chill Zone, and Climate. Apparently, some widgets from third-party apps have been really useful to me, which suggests the Pixel Launcher could also be using some algorithmic strategy to suggestions as a substitute of simply utilizing a hardcoded listing.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
One other widget-related enchancment in Android 15 is the addition of a “+ Add” button within the Pixel Launcher’s widget selector. This button makes it barely simpler so as to add a widget to the house display, as you’ll not need to press and maintain after which drag the widget. As an alternative, you possibly can simply faucet “+ Add,” and the Pixel Launcher will routinely add your alternative of widget to an empty spot on the house display.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Lastly, the Pixel Launcher in Android 15 can also be getting ready to enhance the recents display UI. The recents display, in case you aren’t conscious, is definitely powered by a module inside the system launcher app referred to as QuickStep. The recents display in Android 14 consists of a horizontal carousel of just lately opened apps. That isn’t altering in Android 15, however what’s altering is the strategy to entry the menu the place the buttons to open the app information web page, enter cut up display mode, and pause an app are positioned.
In Android 14, this menu is accessed by long-pressing on an app’s icon within the recents display. This will not be apparent to some customers, inflicting them to overlook these shortcuts totally. Android 15 would possibly repair that by including a small capsule close to the highest of every app within the recents display. This capsule incorporates the app’s icon, identify, and a dropdown arrow that opens the aforementioned menu. This alteration ought to hopefully make these buttons extra simply discoverable.
The entire adjustments to the Pixel Launcher that I documented on this article aren’t reside but in Android 15 beta 1. With a view to present them off, I needed to allow some flags manually. Thus, it’s potential a number of of those adjustments received’t be launched within the secure model of Android 15, which can drop later this yr. Nonetheless, these delicate adjustments enhance the app launching expertise, so I don’t see why they received’t be rolled out. Because the Pixel Launcher is just shipped on Google’s personal Pixel units, it’s unclear what number of of those adjustments will make their method to the inventory launcher in AOSP, so it stays to be seen whether or not units from different OEMs will get any of those adjustments of their respective Android 15 updates.