Introducing Smart Launcher 5
After 2 years of hard work, today we are proud to announce the most important Smart Launcher update ever.
Smart Launcher was born 6 years ago, when smartphones were just “phones” and screens were shorter than 3.5". Today the average dimension of a screen is 5" and devices have incredible hardware with powerful CPUs and Neural Engines. We understood we needed to renew Smart Launcher, so we redesigned every part of the launcher from scratch.
We named this new update:
The new Design
Our vision was to make Smart Launcher ready for the future
We focused our attention on some key aspects to better address the future trends.
Because of the dimension of new devices, some UI elements have become difficult to reach with a single hand. The design of the launcher has moved to the bottom the items you usually interact with the most, while it reserves the upper area to information and visual contents.
The new design is based on a unified visual language we created and named Acrylic Design System. It provides a set of styles, components and guidelines in order to give the user a coherent and consistent experience and interface.
What’s new
Listing the whole changelog would be impossible (over 200.000 lines of code have been changed) but we will try to summarize the most important features of this update.
Ambient theme
Objects in real world are never black or white, they reflect colors and adapt to lights. We applied this idea to the Smart Launcher UI and we got a new, more materic look and the ability to automatically match the wallpaper in use.
Adaptive icons
Adaptive icon is a new icon format introduced with Android Oreo 8.0.
Smart Launcher 5 has been designed to exploit the advantages of the new format and is the first launcher to introduce Adaptive icon backward compatibility for every device running Android 4.0 or higher!
And if you’re already running Oreo and you miss the classic not-adaptive icons we have a good news, you can have your old icons back!
Search bar and Search page
We have moved the search bar at the bottom and we have given it a new look fully integrated into the design of the launcher. The search page has been rethought as a starting point for any interaction with the device. The new layout shows more contents and allows to perform some actions like adding a new contact and performing calculations!
New drawer layouts
The new category bar has been moved to the bottom to be closer to your thumb. However, you can choose between 3 different layouts. You can have the category bar on the side, on the bottom or you can disable it for a more “classic” look.
New clock widget
The new built-in clock shows info about alarm, next event and weather.
Freeform widget mode
You can now resize and move widgets in the home page without grid snapping for a complete control over your home screen.
Redesigned UI for preferences
Preferences have been restyled and reorganized to be more readable and easy to understand.
New wallpaper picker with backup
The wallpaper picker has been redesigned to show more contents from different picture sources. We included an option to backup your previous wallpaper before trying a new one.
Automatically sort icons by color
Sorting apps by color helps both to find icons more easily and to make your app grid look fabulous!
Backup with preview
A short text is often not enough to recognize a specific backup. New backups, created with Smart Launcher 5, include a preview that makes it easier to find the backup you want to restore.
Integrated notification plugin
The notification plugin has been integrated in the launcher and is now more stable and reliable.
Share your home screen
Take a picture of your home screen and share it attaching some info about your set up. We expect to expand this functionality with advanced editing tools in the future.
How will the upgrade be distributed?
The standard version of Smart Launcher 3 will be automatically upgraded via Play Store. Smart Launcher 3 Pro as app aside will remain available on Play Store and who purchased it will be able to continue using it or to download SL5 with unlocked Pro features from Play Store.
Will it be a free update?
Yes. You will receive the update to SL5 and you will be able to enjoy the new experience while maintaining the features you paid for. However we decided to include an optional in-app purchase to unlock some new features introduced with SL5.
The name of the new in-app purchase is Feature Pack 2018 and this will unlock some new features like:
More control over Adaptive Icons
15 extra adaptive icon shapes and soon new customization options.
New Ultra immersive mode
This new mode will hide the navigation bar to maximize the screen space. You will find that Smart Launcher is perfectly usable without the navigation bar and you will love the extra space for your wallpaper!
Multiple widgets in the home screen
Add more widgets to your home screen and manipulate them freely.
Custom icon sorting
Our users have been requesting for years the ability to manually order icons in the app grid, so here it is!
When will the distribution begin?
We will make Smart Launcher 5 available for everyone on 29th March.
This update means a lot to us. It literally required years and we really hope you will appreciate it :)
