The arrival of the Pixel phones was said to mark a new era for Google’s foray into the mobile devices business, and one of the first changes may be the removal of their Google Now based launcher from the Play Store as soon as April 2017.
According to an email sent to Android Police, the Mountain View based giant is aiming to retire it by the end of 2017’s Q1, and on March 1st will not be approved for new devices. Now the central question will be what’s going to be the company’s next step after the retirement of the launcher designed for the successful Nexus smartphones line.
Everything indicates that the development that takes center stage in their Pixel line, the Pixel Launcher, will take its place.
As of now, the Pixel Launcher is exclusive to the Pixel and Pixel XL devices but it’s entirely possible that Google will expand its capabilities to allow it to be new devices, but there’s no confirmation that this will be their course of action.
For the Now Launcher, this marks the end of the road. For the time being, the company will continue to offer the proper support for the app, but it will no longer appear in any new devices.
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