Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Google Experience Launcher updated, renamed to Google Now Launcher

The Google Experience Launcher came out with the Nexus 5, and so far, has stayed exclusive to the device. Sure, you can sideload it to many devices currently on the market, but officially, it’s a Nexus 5 feature. Could it soon be coming to more devices?

In the latest update to the Google Search app, which contains much of the Google Experience Launcher, the launcher has been renamed to Google Now Launcher. This may not seem like a big deal, as it’s just a launcher rename, but I can’t see any sort of point in renaming an exclusive launcher only Nexus 5 users see.

The only reason I can think of for renaming the launcher is in preparation for a large rollout. Maybe Google will be putting the launcher up on the Play Store, just like they did with many of their apps. I think that would be great; the launcher is pretty awesome and people should have a chance to easily install it. What do you think? Should Google widely release the launcher or keep it exclusive to the Nexus 5? Tell us in the comments!