{"id":55549,"date":"2013-11-14T21:54:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T19:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=55549"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:01:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:01:58","slug":"google-experience-launcher-available-for-android-4-1-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-experience-launcher-available-for-android-4-1-devices\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Experience Launcher available for Android 4.1+ devices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google is bringing its Google Experience Launcher (GEL) to phones with <a title=\"Android news on Softonic\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/t\/android\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Android<\/a> 4.1 and up. GEL debuted with <a title=\"Android 4.4 KitKat review\" href=\"http:\/\/features.en.softonic.com\/android-4-4-kitkat-review\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Android 4.4 KitKat<\/a> on the Nexus 5 but is now available to other Android devices. The launcher features Google Now integrated into the home screen, bigger icons, and a bunch of other interface tweaks.<\/p>\n<p>The new launcher is bundled with the Google Search app for Android, which means it acts like a third-party <a title=\"Customize Android with different launchers and homescreens\" href=\"http:\/\/features.en.softonic.com\/customize-android-with-different-launchers-and-homescreens\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">launcher<\/a>. You can run this on devices with custom skins like the <a title=\"Samsung releases tons of first-party apps with the Galaxy S4\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/samsung-releases-tons-of-first-party-apps\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Galaxy S4<\/a> or HTC One. When you update the Search app, you will be prompted to choose a default launcher where you can select GEL to take over your home screen.<\/p>\n<p>GEL has been optimized to work on both Android tablets and phones running Android 4.1 and up. The launcher is able to display transparency, but only on devices running KitKat. This means older versions of Android will still feature the blacked out navigation and notification bars.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Google Now news on Softonic\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/b\/google-now\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Now<\/a> has also been updated with new cards for website updates, news topics, and what to watch. Additionally, Google Now now supports recurring reminders.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-55557\" title=\"Google Now combined\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/11\/Google-Now-combined-568x505.jpg\" alt=\"Google Now combined\" width=\"568\" height=\"505\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/11\/Google-Now-combined-568x505.jpg 568w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/11\/Google-Now-combined-256x227.jpg 256w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/11\/Google-Now-combined.jpg 1012w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Voice commands have also been improved, asking users for elaboration if there&#8217;s not enough information to execute a command. For example, if you tell Google to send a message, Google will ask who you want to send the message to and what you want to say. This makes the user experience much better if you haven&#8217;t memorized all the voice commands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Download the latest <a title=\"Google Search for Android download\" href=\"http:\/\/google-search-android.en.softonic.com\/android\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Search for Android<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Via: <a title=\"Android Police\" href=\"http:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/2013\/11\/13\/massive-google-search-3-1-8-update-rolling-out-brings-google-experience-launcher-new-cards-completely-fixes-gel-on-tablets-and-more-apk-download\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Android Police<\/a><\/p>\n<h4>RELATED STORIES<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/google-adds-the-canals-of-venice-to-street-view\">Google adds the canals of Venice to Street View<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/google-play-for-education-targets-the-classroom\">Google Play for Education targets the classroom<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/android-4-4-kitkat-update-rolling-out-to-wi-fi-nexus-tablets\">Android 4.4 KitKat update rolling out to Wi-Fi Nexus tablets<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is bringing its Google Experience Launcher (GEL) to phones with Android 4.1 and up. GEL debuted with Android 4.4 KitKat on the Nexus 5 but is now available to other Android devices. The launcher features Google Now integrated into the home screen, bigger icons, and a bunch of other interface tweaks. The new launcher &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-experience-launcher-available-for-android-4-1-devices\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Google Experience Launcher available for Android 4.1+ devices&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":55557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2340],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-55549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectiongoogle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331811,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55549\/revisions\/331811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55549"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=55549"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=55549"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=55549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}