I like a number of people received the update notification and simply went ahead with this without really checking what this included. I am incredibly unhappy about what the update has done to my icons and home screens. It may seem trivial to developers to reinstall icons etc, but I have a very busy life and finding the time to do this for 40-50 apps is time consuming and should have been made very clear in an email or text prior to sending the update to peoples phones.
Is there any way I can return to the old version please?
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Me too I am quite “upset” for what’s happened, but it’s also true that I hadn’t read carefully the e-mail. 
I think that it’s more simple re-add all the icons and widget than downgrade smartphone…
Probably it’s better add few apps at a time: take it like clean process to dismiss the old apps.
Well, let this be that your lesson. Next time, read the patch notes. 
Hi @slitemere, I’m really sorry it wasn’t clear for you that this update would wipe your homescreen. We should have communicated the impact of the new launcher on the update.
I’m really afraid that if you downgrade you will also have to reinstall the apps on the screens. I am going to consult today if there is an official way in which we can support the old launcher on 1.8. Currently there are some workarounds that you can find in the forum to get back to the old launcher or icon side.
Thanks for bearing with us.
Where are the patch notes? Maybe are not so visible…
There are patch notes, but none of them told about loosing the home screens. And if there were a hint in the tutorial, it says, you can get it back. Yes, you can get empty sceens, but not the icons.
I’m not trying to make excuses, but we tried to communicate that the home screen would be wiped on the release notes on our support site, and in the owners’ newsletter that was sent yesterday.
There is a lot to explain and read, and I understand every user can’t be expected to read everything. If you have suggestions on how we can better communicate this in the future, please let us know!
I will now move that text in the support section release notes to the top of the article to emphasize it.
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I use Apex 
But I lost all widgets in Apex too, but at least all icons are in their positions.
It’s like crying about spilled milk, but it seems to me as an issue of translation. The english version says clear: "Due to the new format of the launcher, this update will erase the icon shortcuts on your Home screen. You will have to put your icons back after you complete the update"
The german version is quite different: " Aufgrund des neuen Designs für den Launcher wird dieses Update die bisherigen Verknüpfungen auf dem Home-Bildschirm entfernen. Nach Beendigung des Updates können die Verknüpfungen einfach wiederhergestellt werden."
If I try to translate, the second sentence will mean: “After you complete the update the “links” (icons) could be restored easily” which I understand as: I can click on a link or a file and the icons will be reloaded as they were before the update. Its passive, not an active doing like in the english version.
It is not difficult to rebuild the icons, allthough a lot of users here complain about that, so it is not wrong to say it’s easy, but it will take some time. I can imagine, that many users thought about which icons should be on which place (its amazing, how much apps are on the phone although I think that I only install apps, that I really need), and this work is now gone.
I don’t want to queue in the group of update bashers, I only want to point out to careful provide the updates including the information about possible changes and also in different languages. It’s convenient to have the text in german, I would never read the english text if there is a german text, but in this case it would have been the better idea.
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I have not received the owners newsletter - so I wouldn’t have been directed to the release notes. The first I knew about the update is when the launcher appeared on my phone telling me
J
You sent out a newsletter, like you do with every update, and I and many others did read it before updating. Nevertheless, you still get many confused, unhappy or angry reactions. There seem to be many people who simply can’t be reached by these e-mails, for one reason or another.
From my point of view, with each and every update sent out so far, you ran into a huge storm of the exact same questions coming from your customers: “My Play Store doesn’t work”, “My Google keyboard is broken”, “Why did you change xy without telling me”, etc.
Doesn’t this bother or annoy you, having to deal with the same issues over and over again, despite a multitude of newsletters and knowledge base articles? I can only guess how much additional load this puts on your support people.
I think you really should do something about this, the most important thing being your updater.
The updater application still has serious user experience issues, especially for those having Google Apps installed. (disclaimer: I never installed Google Apps, so please correct me if your updater already does one of the things I’m about to propose)
- When an update becomes available, your updater should be able to display a detailed changelog on demand.
(For the 1.8 update, a link to your website showing some screenshots of the new UI would definitely have helped a lot!) - Before executing an update, your updater should inform the user of any important things he or she has to know concerning this particular update, if there are any. (This would e.g. include a warning of the home screen wipe, allowing the user to take screenshots of his / her home screen configuration before proceeding.)
The user should then have to confirm his updating decision before the actual update starts. - If the user has Google Apps installed, the installer should at least offer him to reinstall these automatically during the update process. The proper way would be to just take care of it silently without any user interaction.
I can’t stress this enough: the whole “re-add the widget”-reinstallation process is just terrible UX-wise and causes everyone a lot of hassle. It would be great if you could get rid of it for future updates.