Version 2 Launcher - what is it?

[shk]

Hello,

I have just updated to kola nut 1.8.5 and everything seems to be working fine. It is the first time I have updated my fairphone. I was not on 1.8 before.

I just have a question about this sentence in the main forum post about the update:

@anon12454812

Users who want keep using this version 2 Launcher (introduced in 1.8) in the future can download the APK file here. Visit this link with your mobile browser to install the v2 Launcher directly on your device.

As i never had version 1.8 on my phone, I never experienced this ‘version 2 launcher’.
What is this? Is it something I might want to install? Is it possible to install and then revert back if i dont like it?

Thanks

[paulakreuzer]

Version 2 Launcher was the launcher of the retracted version of kola nut (1.8).
It had bigger icons and some other changes. There was alot of negative feedback so 1.8.5 has the old launcher (v 1) again

[anon41421263]

Continuing the discussion from Version 2 Launcher - what is it?:

I absolutely don’t get the rationale behind closing topics all the time, but hey, I’ll answer by opening a new one.

@shk

Is it possible to install and then revert back if i dont like it?

Yes, that’s perfectly possible. You can just uninstall it from Settings → Apps → All if you don’t like it.

[therob]

Be AWARE: I think your settings of homescreens (incl. all your symbols) will be lost when switching between the versions.
At least this was the problem when updating from Cherry 1.6 (Launcher v1) to KolaNut 1.8 (Launcher v2).
So be aware, that this could happen also to you, and make a screenshot/paper note of your icons.

[anon41421263]

When installing a new launcher and uninstalling it again without removing the old one, at least your old launcher’s settings will remain unchanged.

[paulakreuzer]

Sorry for prematurely closing the topic. I don’t know what went into me but for some reason I only read the topic title and not the content of the post.

Also I forgot to refer you to the topic on how to get the V2 launcher back.

[shk]

thanks everyone. I installed the v2 launcher just to try it out… to be honest it doesnt seems too different at all to the original… i’m not totally sure what the big deal was?

[paulakreuzer]

@shk

i’m not totally sure what the big deal was?

My guess: People hate change.

[anon41421263]

@shk

to be honest it doesnt seems too different at all to the original… i’m not totally sure what the big deal was?

At the time of the 1.8 update, the new launcher’s icon size was bigger which resulted in somewhat blurry icons and in less space per home screen. Apparently they changed the icon size back to the old one?

[Stefan]

Ok, to clarify things:

• Fairphone OS 1.6 (aka Cherry) had Version 1 launcher
• Fairphone OS 1.8 (the postponed one) had Version 2 launcher
• Fairphone OS 1.8.5 (aka Kola Nut) has Version 1 launcher again.

There is a topic, with plenty posts, which explains, why Fairphone decided to go back to the old launcher (Version 1):

New launcher is... optimizable (Feedback)

Dear Fairphone team, I know, updates are important and there are more important things to an update than the look of the launcher… but this is the most used feature of the phone and people spend time to arrange it to their needs, so if you update it, please ADD things and do not take away functionality, such as: number of rows on the home screen the ability to have empty screens all configuratons the user did before (such as arranging his icons and widgets) forgetting the position of page in…

The new launcher (Version 2) however can be downloaded from here. It looks and feels more like the Android 4.4 (aka KitKat) launcher, of course, improved with Edge Swipe.