How to install the Google Now Launcher on any Jelly Bean device

By Rajesh Pandey

Last year, Google released a brand new launcher with the Nexus 5 — dubbed Google Now Launcher. While launcher does not look radically different from other similar offerings on the Play Store it offers quick access to Google Now with a simple left swipe on the homescreen.

If Google Now is of not much use to you, this feature might not seem a biggie. However, if it does, the ability to access Google Now in an instant with all the relevant cards already present is a boon. Sadly, Google has only made the launcher available for the Nexus devices running Android 4.4 KitKat. While there are ways to install the launcher on other KitKat running devices, Jelly Bean users have been out of luck so dar.

As it turns out, it is pretty easy to get the Google Now Launcher, with its one swipe access to Google Now feature, up and running on any Android 4.1 or higher device. The step is pretty trivial and only requires users to download and install this modified Google Home APK on their Android device. If you get any error saying installation from unknown sources is blocked, head over to Settings -> Security and enable the ‘Unknown Sources’ option.

Keep in mind that you will not be getting the transparent status or navigation bar, as seen on Android 4.4 KitKat devices, due to the lack of certain APIs. If for some reason, you keep getting force closes, extract the contents of this ZIP file and copy it over to /system/lib folder. You will need root access for this though. Make sure to restart your device for the changes to take place.

Props to geoworld_200 for his hard work!