Nova Launcher has been updated to version 5.0 beta, and it brings in some features from the recently leaked Pixel Launcher. This includes the swipe up gesture to open the app drawer.
And if you want the new G logo style search bar, you can have that in Nova Launcher too, complete with the month, date and day displayed on the homescreen.
Head to Nova Settings > Desktop > Search Bar style. Pick the bar style with the G logo. And scroll down and select the logo style and pick the colorful G logo.
There are some changes to the app drawer too. The search bar in the drawer is now integrated with the drawer.
Previously it was slightly detached from the app drawer.
The new search view has three tabs: Frequent, Recent and New/Updated apps.
Nova Launcher 5 also adds a new screenlock gesture called “timeout”, which locks the screen after 5 seconds.
There are a couple of new double-tap-swipe gestures, where you have to double tap and swipe up or down on the screen to perform an action.
Nova Launcher’s dock background has a new option, which lets it appear behind the navbar. Obviously this only works on devices with onscreen navigation buttons (Nexus devices for example). And this only works with 2D backgrounds and not the 3D-style platform.
If you want to try these features now, you will need to either opt in to the Nova Launcher Beta program (auto updates from Google Play), or manually download the APK from the developer’s portal. Links for both can be found on the Nova Launcher website.
