Affected phones will automatically switch to their default launcher
Long before Google brought us its acclaimed Pixel 7 series (or any Pixels at all, for that matter) we had its Nexus phones. Software like the Google Now Launcher, which debuted in 2013 alongside the Nexus 5, helped define that era. With a focus on prediction, it could suggest relevant info to users in the form of Now cards, much like the Assistant does today. The Pixel Launcher arrived to replace it on new devices in 2016, and now, seven years later, Google is set to finally shutter the Now Launcher for good.
Digging into the Google app’s latest beta, 9to5Google has uncovered a message to users warning them that the Now Launcher is shutting down by the end of April. That gives anyone still using this ancient solution a few weeks to find another launcher. According to Google’s note, if the user does nothing, the phone will automatically revert to its default launcher.
Source: 9to5Google
Google Now was always a whole lot more than just a simple launcher. Debuting back in 2012, the service eventually gave birth to plenty of features that would make their way into other products, as we saw with the integration of cards in both the Google Chrome browser and full-fledged ChromeOS.
The Nexus 5X and 6P were the last phones Google released that ran the Google Now Launcher — and had the Now on Tap feature. Google issued its final security update to that hardware back in 2018, all but signifying the end of the Google Now experiment. And now, in just a few weeks, the other shoe is finally ready to drop.
