Latest Nova Launcher beta now supports Gemini and more!

Google Gemini is trying to take the place of Google Assistant. In other words, becoming Android’s default digital assistant. And although the change is not yet mandatory (and perhaps not even advisable in its current state), it is already clear that the chatbot has immense potential. Nova Launcher has earned its place as one of the best third-party home screen apps in large part by embracing new Android features and APIs, so it makes sense that support for Gemini is already in the works. We’re less than a week away from the debut of Google’s ChatGPT competitor, and the Nova Launcher beta has already started integrating Gemini.

Latest Nova Launcher beta now supports Gemini and more!

Released today, Nova Launcher 8.0.14 beta adds an option to change the Google Assistant icon in the home screen search bar to the Gemini logo.

As Cliff Wade, Director of Customer Relations at Nova, points out on Discord, this change is largely cosmetic. So all it does is change the icon, not the wizard itself. To do this, Wade says he still needs to change the default assistant in the Android system settings. However, Android Police, which has already tested the new version, reports that this button continues to call the Google Assistant. Even after opting for the new Gemini assistant. However, there doesn’t appear to be an option in Android settings to explicitly change the default digital assistant application to Gemini.

Instead, the Google app is set as the assistant. Your account-level settings determine which wizard is displayed.

Meanwhile, the Nova Launcher team has been busy ironing out other bugs in this release. In addition to adding support for per-app language settings and the ability to look up IP addresses, Nova 8.0.14 beta fixes several issues with the user interface and resolves some performance issues:

• Adds Gemini wizard icon option
• Add support for IP addresses in search
• Micro-results can be copied to the clipboard
• Corrections to the positioning of the search bar in the bottom drawer
• Fix for multimedia card interfering with the dock
• Various padding fixes
• Various other bug and crash fixes

Today’s update is Nova’s most significant beta in terms of user changes since the launcher added API integrations for apps like Slack, Discord, and OneDrive in October. The same update also introduced widget-like cards to the app drawer, offering a new place to find quick information.