Google has updated the Google Now launcher with landscape support on phones, which is now back after it was tested in Marshmallow developer preview. You can enable the new feature by enabling the ‘Allow rotation’ option in the settings. Some on-screen elements like the persistent search bar will adjust to accommodate each layout and the items in the dock also rotate individually to stack along the right side of the screen.
According to Android Police, Google also added a new feature in an earlier v5.8.45.19 update that automatically resizes app icons so that they are uniform, even though the developer has not followed Google’s icon design guidelines. This feature was pulled soon after in another update. Looks like the new feature wasn’t meant to go live yet or there might be some problems. Hope Google will bring this back.
You can download the latest Google Now launcher v5.8.47.19 with the new landscape mode from the Google Play Store.