While there are plenty offeature-rich launchers for Android, it is hard to beat Google’s Pixel Launcher thanks to its superior At a Glance widget experience. It will automatically show the battery level of connected devices, pull the timer and stopwatch info from the Clock app, and more. But the Pixel Launcher is not perfect: one annoying issue is the app drawer opening animation not being as smooth as it should be. This is especially evident if the “Always show keyboard” option is enabled when the app drawer is accessed with a swipe-up. However, Google could finally fix this issue in the next quarterly Pixel Feature Drop.
Spotted by our tipster Eduardo, the Pixel Launcher’s app drawer opening in the firstAndroid 13 QPR3 betais noticeably smoother. This is most obvious if the “Always show keyboard” option is enabled. On Android 13 QPR2, the keyboard pops up after the app drawer has appeared, which can be annoying when you are in a hurry to search for an app. In Android 13 QPR3, the keyboard appears at the same time as the app drawer, like it always should have.
Left: Pixel Launcher app drawer opening animation in Android 13 QPR2; Right: Smoother animation in QPR3
The faster and smoother app drawer animation is also present inAndroid 14 DP2. While this might seem like a small change, it has a huge usability impact.
Thanks to the smoother animation in QPR3 beta 1, the keyboard will appear earlier while accessing the app drawer, leading to a better experience. Google is alsotesting a new popup animation for the Pixel Launcher, which was first spotted in Android 14 DP2.
You can get an overview of other smaller design changes and everything else that’snew in Android 13 QPR3 here. To experience these changes on your Pixel,join the Android 13 beta programand install the latest QPR beta. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until the next quarterly Pixel Feature Drop lands, which is in June 2023.
