Back when I had my Nexus One, my favorite launcher hands down was ADW. I loved it. I loved the animations, the speed, the configurability - ADW was my jam. But as time went on, ADW and I grew apart, support for the app waned (apart from the release of ADW EX), and Android's stock launcher began to mature and gain features. But I never lost my soft spot for ADW.

It turns out that way back in 2011, work had begun on a version 2.0 of ADW, entering the alpha stage, but it was never finished. The creator has reemerged five years later to finally make ADW Launcher 2.0 a reality - and I think you're in for a treat. Even if ADW 2.0 (Beta) doesn't rip you away from Nova, I'm already having a really fun time rooting around in this wonderful, colorful, and highly configurable launcher. Take a look at this quick demo video to see just what ADW feels like.

ADW Launcher 2.0 contains a huge number of configuration options for everything from your app drawer, icons, customizable and downloadable themes, folders, the app drawer, support for ADW templates, homescreen layout, gestures, I mean, I could go on and on here - you really should just dive in for yourself and check it out. It's insane. It's clear that ADW Launcher 2.0 is a product of intense labor, a labor of love of the creator, and it brings the memories of ADW flying back from five years ago for me. I already bought the in-app pruchase to upgrade to ADW premium for $3.99. Premium gets you:

More desktop transitions

More app drawer styles

Filters and compositions for icons

Unlimited custom widgets

The ability to put any widget on the top panel (where the search bar is)

Replace the bottom panel (quick launch bar) with any widget)

Allegedly, and almost certainly believably, even more.

Here's a gallery of yet more features and menus.

You can get ADW Launcher 2.0's beta by opting in on the Play Store - a link on the ADW blog is here. You can also get the APK directly from APK Mirror right here. ADW's brand-new suite of plugins (for Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box) and add-ons (extension pack, notifier) are already on the Play Store, linked below.