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Action Launcher v37 adds new ‘Desktop shortcuts’ based on Android P, performance & battery improvements, more

Third-party launchers are a fun and easy way to customize your Android experience, and one of our personal favorites is Action Launcher. This week, the popular launcher is picking up a fresh update with some handy new features and improvements.

With Action Launcher v37, the biggest new feature is that of “Desktop Shortcuts.” This new feature adapts Android P’s new look for the long-press gesture on the homescreen to give users a customizable new menu. Rather than simply showing options for settings, wallpapers, and widgets, Action Launcher now lets users customize several different options for this menu.

You can easily toggle options for accessing system settings, lock/unlock the desktop, and even set up custom shortcuts for things such as battery usage. You can even set up a shortcut for applications installed on your device.

Want to add a lock/unlock desktop toggle? A shortcut to quickly load device battery stats or access your favorite file manager app? You can do all this and more via the new Desktop shortcuts and its accompanying creation UI.

This update also notably improves some pain points of the launcher. For one, that includes performance when applying settings. Previously, this process had to restart the app entirely, but now it’s a more seamless experience. Further, v37 includes some battery and memory usage improvements when using the Unread Count feature. Action Launcher is also now using finalized Android P APIs and includes some style enhancements for the latest developer previews as well.

The full changelog for Action Launcher v37 is available below, and the update is rolling out now on Google Play, with a hotfix for improved stability on Samsung devices.

  • New “Desktop shortcuts”, which takes Android P’s new-look desktop long press UI, adds color & allows you to fully customize its shortcuts.
  • Android P style “Dock dash”.
  • Use Android P’s default icon size, font & number or rows/columns.
  • Drag All Apps folders to desktop.
  • Vastly improved experience when changing settings.
  • Performance improvements & bug fixes.

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