Pixel Launcher 2.0 from Android Oreo Available for Non-Rooted Devices

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A couple of months ago we covered a port of the Pixel Launcher that was made available for devices which weren’t able to install it from the Play Store. This port continued to be updated throughout the month but Reddit user AmirZ said they would come back and do another once Android Oreo was released to the public. With that happening earlier this week, we thought it would take longer for this update to come out but luckily that wasn’t the case and version 2.0 of the launcher is now available.

The initial port took a lot of work, but with help from another developer named DeleteScape, they were able to get something working for the public. With the experience gained from before, AmirZ says they’ve been working nonstop these last couple of days and now the initial release of the Pixel Launcher 2.0 update is available. Before, they went with a “don’t fix what’s not broken” philosophy just so there was a final product released. This time though, we have a bunch of extra features tossed in here.

So the developer took the AOSP Launcher3 base and added the following Pixel features on top of it. . .

QSB with transparent rectangle, Google Pill and Date/Weather

Different colours of notification dots

Filter Google Wallpapers and Voice Search from the apps list

Use Google Wallpapers to select a wallpaper when available

Device profiles, margins, icon counts

Disabled partner customization like Motorola’s 4 columns

Google Now feed on the left of the normal workspace

Google Calendar app icon with the date

But as mentioned, there has been a lot of additional work added into this release including. . .

Pull down for notifications

Oreo theme backported to older OS versions with Pixel Blue accent colour

Notification dots backported to Marshmallow

Automatically prompts for notification access so you won’t have to dig through settings menus

Fix Android 8 checks so Nexus devices can use all new features

Show icon shapes on Android 8 without developer settings enabled

Pressing the date widget opens the default calendar app

Keyboard properly closes when returning to the home screen from any app

Symmetrical hotseat

Filter Google Now Launcher from the apps list

Pinch to overview

Samsung Secure Folder compatibility

Backport of circle icons

Just like with the last release of this port, you will need to make sure you do not have the actual Pixel Launcher installed. If you try to install this one on top of it, you’ll get a corrupt package error. This is because this port uses the same package name as the original Pixel Launcher and that was done in order to get the weather widget to work properly. For those interested, you can find the downloads for this release here, the source code is available here and some screenshots are up as well.