Aviate launcher now available on the Play Store

Yahoo! owned Aviate launcher for Android has been around for some time now but so far it was in the beta stage and more importantly, was only available through invites. The launcher is now available on the Play Store for free for anyone with a supported device to download.

The Aviate launcher has a different appearance than most other Android launchers that mimic the look of the stock launcher. There are no multiple blank homescreens for you to fill with icons or widgets. There are three screens, the leftmost showing your Today view (by default), the middle one showing five of your most used apps (that you chose) and the right one showing other apps that are grouped in different categories.

The leftmost screen has different modes, from Today view, to Transit, Listening, Work, Home and Nearby and each one shows related data and apps that fit the bill that are installed on your device. The Listening mode, for example, shows all your music apps and the launcher switches to it from the default Today mode when you plug in headphones. The Today mode shows the time, date, weather, calendar events and top news stories (from Yahoo! News).

The screen also changes throughout the day between the different modes depending upon your location (you can specify work and home locations and it’ll switch automatically when you move in).

The rightmost screen automatically categorizes some of your apps but you can also swipe again and see all your apps in an alphabetical list.

The main homescreen is very simple with just five icons at the bottom and the wallpaper filling the rest of the screen. You can swipe up to bring up your favorite contacts and people you contacted recently. You also have buttons to make a call or send a message from there.

Overall, the Aviate launcher is very different than other launchers out there but if you don’t mind trying something new, it’s actually pretty decent and works well.

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