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Chris Lacy's new SwirlWalls app offers dozens of mesmerizing live wallpapers
It'll cost you $5, though
Veteran Android developer Chris Lacy is back with a new app, a live wallpaper called SwirlWalls. As the name implies, it contains numerous swirly whirly animated wallpapers for your phone, and the animation reacts to swiping and scrolling on your screen. It's all very bright and busy, and if that's your aesthetic, SwirlWalls can be yours for $5.
Action Launcher v46 is rolling out now with enhanced customization and automatic cloud backups
One of the best custom launchers gets even better
Apple may be adding more flexibility to the homescreen layout with iOS 14, but Android's ability to set custom launchers remains unmatched. Action Launcher has long been one of the most popular options for replacing default home screens, and now developer Chris Lacy is releasing version 46 with some handy new features.
ActionDash acquired by market intelligence firm, most premium features now free
Don't worry, the purchase doesn't affect Action Launcher
Action Launcher developer Chris Lacy published a Digital Wellbeing competitor last year, ActionDash. While it's lacking the same tight system integration, the app has more features to offer than Google's project, and it even runs on Android versions older than 9 Pie. Over the weekend, Lacy announced that he has decided to sell ActionDash after receiving an offer from SensorTower, which will continue developing the app.
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ActionDash comes from the same dev who brought us Action Launcher, and the latest update to the Digital Wellbeing add-on bumps it up to version 5.0 with a couple of new features. The most intriguing of the new additions is Fresh Start, which kicks you back to the launcher homescreen after you've locked your phone while in another app. There are also some new focus mode options to play with.
At today's announcement of Android Q Beta 5, Google revealed that it was going to move custom launchers off of the new gesture navigation system as of Beta 6, defaulting to the old three-button method if you use one. While that might sound like a reason to worry, this change is merely an "an unfortunate, yet short-term inconvenience" in Action Launcher developer Chris Lacy's words. Google has confirmed it will bring gesture support for third-party launchers "in a post-launch update" for Android Q.
ActionDash, the app from Chris Lacy (developer of Action Launcher), has recently reached v3.0, delivering even more Digital Wellbeing-like features to older or unsupported phones. A handful of big new features come with this major version update: Focus mode, app usage limits, and a persistent notification called Usage Assistant that provides ongoing stats. ActionDash 3.0 also brings a fully black dark theme, support for Android Q's dark theme system toggle, and non-premium users can now enjoy the dark gray theme.
Google soft-launched Digital Wellbeing with Android Pie, but it's still only available on a few phones. If you're sick of waiting, developer Chris Lacy has launched a new app that brings similar features to any Android phone. ActionDash tracks how you use your phone like Digital Wellbeing, but it includes more goodies like a dark mode, daily summaries, data backup, and more.
Action Launcher is one of Android's most popular replacement launchers, and this has a lot to do with how quick Chris Lacy has recently been to update his app with the latest features of Google's Pixel Launcher. It's much more than just a port, however, and also has original features that its loyal users swear by, such as covers and shutters.
Chris Lacy has had a busy few months updating his popular Action Launcher. Since a major overhaul in June, the app has added numerous features that mimic the way the Pixel launcher works in Oreo, bringing features such as the Google Feed, notifications dots, and shortcuts to almost any Android device. The last update, to v27, included new theming options and a Pixel-inspired weather widget. The beta for v28 is now starting to roll out, and it comes with full support for adaptive icons and a light navigation bar.
Is your home screen feeling a little drab? A bit on the boring side? You might need more color, more customization, and a dash of Android O style. That's Action Launcher, and it has even more of those things today. A new version of Action Launcher is rolling out with ample new customization options and a weather widget.
Chris Lacy's Action Launcher got a massive update recently, introducing new branding, more free features, an animated Android O style clock widget, and more. Together with its already useful feature set, including shutters and covers, it's cemented its place as one of Android's best launchers. The latest Beta is now available, as announced by Lacy on his blog, and it includes a number of features that Google has added to the Pixel Launcher in Android O, such as notification dots and a new UI for app shortcuts and widgets.
A new version of Chris Lacy's Action Launcher is rolling out today, and it brings an all-new feature that makes it a snap to search your apps. Well, I guess it technically makes it a swipe. Quickfind is a built-in search box in the app list that's accessible with a simple gesture. That's not all that's new—there are a number of other thoughtful tweaks and changes in v3.6.
Chris Lacy's Link Bubble floating browser was a cool idea right out of the gate, but you might notice that development has been slow. Today Lacy explains that his little indie dev company simply doesn't have the resources to do what needs to be done with the app, so he's sold Link Bubble (and TapPath) to an unnamed US startup. What does that mean to you? For starters there's a huge update today.
Action Launcher v3 came out a few months ago with a ton of refinements and a slimmed down feature set. I thought it was quite a nice app, but the lack of certain extras irked some users. Developer Chris Lacy has been hard at work pushing updates to the launcher since then, and today is a big one. Action Launcher v3.2 adds so much stuff I'm going to use our snazzy new multi-column layout for the changelog.
YouTube is a somewhat respectable internet destination, but that doesn't mean you want to turn a kid loose on it. HomeTube is the newest app from Chris Lacy, and it aims to make it easier for kids to watch the YouTube vids you deem appropriate. You can even give it a shot for free.
Developer Chris Lacy's last release was Link Bubble, an app that loads web pages in Chat Head-like bubbles that float on the screen until you need them. The newly released TapPath seeks to refine the mobile browsing experience even further by assigning different actions depending on how many times you tap a link.
Most third-party home screens simply add on features to the standard launcher experience, but Action Launcher has always been a little more innovative. While it has a lot of neat stuff like Shutters and the Quickdrawer, it has been missing one of the basic features of a custom launcher – unread counts. Well, now it has arrived, albeit in beta form.
Android fosters a wide and varied app ecosystem, enabling companies both large and small to produce compelling software. The ability to write an app and easily distribute it to most of the world has given rise to independent developers like Chris Lacy, the man behind Action Launcher, Tweet Lanes, and most recently, Link Bubble. Chris took some time to answer a few questions and tell us a little about his experiences developing apps for Android.
Link Bubble is already a pretty great app, but developer Chris lacy is apparently not content to rest on his laurels. There is already a Play Store beta program you can join to get the latest tweaks and features. Just a few steps and you're in.
We're lucky to have capable mobile browsers on Android these days, but the experience of poking around on the web is still flawed in a number of ways. You're often stuck bouncing between two or three redirects because of apps, mobile sites, and link shorteners. Then there's the fundamentally modal experience of only having one thing up on the screen at a time. The result is lots of wasted seconds waiting for links to actually resolve at the final destination. Link Bubble from Chris Lacy changes that by loading links in the background with an awesome floating browser. This app has finally launched, and here's what you can expect.