Microsoft Arrow Launcher v1.1.3.21541.apk

Microsoft Arrow Launcher v1.1.3.21541
Requirements: 4.0+
Overview: The early release sports an interface reminiscent of Aviate, but appears less devoted to contextual recommendations. While the current version is fairly basic, the big ideas may still be on the horizon.




The first thing I noticed is that Arrow replaced the stock icons for system apps like Phone and Messages, which isn't in and of itself a bad thing but an unexpected behavior.

The main screen is divided into three sections. There is a row on top for recent apps, a larger area in the middle for frequently used apps, and the bottom row for user-selected quick access apps. One trick up Arrow's sleeve is that you can swipe up from that bottom row, revealing more apps, folders, and recent contacts. It chooses all of these for you to begin with so that the space isn't empty.

There is one page to the left and one to the right, each which serve specialized functions. You can't add or remove pages at this point. Swipe right and you get a running to-do list, which is very simplistic but does offer the ability to add scheduled reminders. Let's hope Wunderlist integration is forthcoming.

To the left is a set of shortcuts to recent and frequent contacts, in case the swipe-up shortcut wasn't useful enough for you. Last but not least, the app drawer is similar to the Android M Google Now Launcher and many others with that style.

WHAT'S NEW

Dear Beta users,
Please helps us test the following:
1) Apps page loading: force stop Arrow and load up Arrow again to see if the Apps page is loading fast enough for you. We have improved the performance of this by 50%.
2) Scrolling in App Drawer, especially in the Widgets tab -- we have greatly improved the scrolling performance there.
3) Crash and memory usage. We have reduced crashes by 20% in this version and improved memory usage.
Thanks very much.