I flashed the first Android 15 Canary build on my Pixel 8 Pro the second it dropped, fully expecting the usual mix of crashes, broken banking apps, and half-finished UI experiments. I got all of that, of course, but I also ran into something more interesting than another battery graph shuffle: Android is quietly changing […]
Tag: Pixel Launcher
Pixel Launcher’s Android 16 redesign misses the mark
Google has shipped well over 100 million Pixels so far, yet the Pixel Launcher redesign in Android 16 still feels like a half-step. Those users have effectively been beta testing Google’s vision of Android for years. So when a major visual refresh lands, you’d expect a clear direction, some ambition, and maybe even a few […]
Android 11 adds smart app suggestions to Pixel dock
Nearly 90% of smartphone time is spent in apps, and with Android 11, Google wants to predict which ones you’ll tap next. The first Android 11 beta quietly adds smart app suggestions to the Pixel Launcher dock, turning the bottom row into a dynamic, context-aware strip of icons. Instead of static favorites, your Google Pixel […]
Pixel Launcher’s “long names” fix misses the point
The Pixel Launcher’s new “long app names” toggle is exactly the kind of feature that makes you wonder what Google’s priorities are for Android 15. What the new “long app names” toggle actually does In Android 15 Beta 3, Google quietly slipped a new option into Pixel Launcher settings: a toggle to show “long app […]