Google is apparently going to revamp the launcher on upcoming Nexus devices that are rumored to be codenamed as Marlin and Sailfish, according to a latest report from Android Police.
Google is doing away with the launcher icon in the new design. Users will now have to pull up the drawer by sliding up a frosted Favorites tray or by tapping an app arrow icon just above it. In order to shut the drawer, you will have to scroll down from anywhere on the screen except the navigation bar and the notification screen. The omission of the app drawer icon will let you hold five apps instead of four.
Next major design change is that Google is also killing the Search bar. Instead you will now see a small tab with the ‘G’ icon on the left side. You will have to tap and not pull the G icon to check out the new version of the launcher. As per the report, Google Assistant is expected to be baked in the new launcher.
It must be noted that this is not the final product and the design is subject to several changes as the launcher is not running on final Android 7.0 Nougat software.