Nova Launcher 5.5 beta introduces Oreo's adaptive icons

Nova Launcher is a fan favorite Android launcher app thanks to its frequent updates, wealth of customization options, and the fact that it brings new Android features to users with older devices. It’s that latter point that’s most relevant to its most recent update, as the Nova Launcher version 5.5 beta introduces a function from the very latest Android software version.

Android Oreo‘s Adaptive Icons have been build into Nova Launcher to help maintain the same icon styles across the UI. The update was outlined by Nova Launcher’s main developer Kevin Barry in a Google+ post, who said that the “option to automatically scale and shape legacy icons for consistency,” had also been included.

Adaptive Icons are a very young Android feature and developers must create icons in accordance with the new guidelines for them to be properly implemented. It’s going take a while for everyone to catch up so that all icons can be unified, which is the reason why the legacy option will be available for the time being.

You’ll find the new icon option under Nova Settings > Look and Feel > Adaptive Icon Shape, where you can select from round, square and other icon designs. In the Google+ post, Barry also said that this is still a work in progress, but noted that he has ideas for how to improve the system in the future.

You can sign up for Nova beta updates here or you can download the latest APK file directly from the official Nova site. And if you want to find out everything that’s new in Android 8.0 Oreo, hit the link.