Earlier this year Nokia sold its devices and services division to Microsoft. A couple of months after the sale was closed the company launched Nokia Z. It is a launcher for Android devices which was initially released as a “pre-beta” to just 100,000 users. Today the company has pushed out a major update for its Android launcher and upgraded its status to “beta,” which means it is now available for download to anyone and everyone as long as they can access the Google Play Store on their device.
Nokia says that it built the Z launcher to enable users to access things important to them “in one second.” It can adapt based on time of day so shortcuts to productivity apps will be front and center during the day, only to be replaced by social networks and music streaming services in the evening.
Today’s update brings faster speed for almost every action that the user can take on the launcher. With improved prediction Z launcher’s algorithm gets more context which it can use to learn the users’ habits more effectively. Apart from support for the Pinyin Chinese language, Z launcher now also has better recognition and response time.
Nokia now allows folks to download the Z launcher on rooted Android devices. The Z launcher from Nokia can be downloaded right away from Google Play Store, albeit in beta.