ADW Launcher 2.0 official: time for Android fun

The excess of settings available with ADW Launcher 2.0 is absolutely insane. It's as if the creators of this app decided to take everything Google recommends about keeping in line with their Material Design language and threw it directly out the window. You can do basically anything you want with this launcher, up to and including making your Android smartphone or tablet look like a masterpiece – or an absolute mess. That's on you.

In this launcher you can do most anything you can imagine with your Android home screens and app displays and everything outside of apps themselves. You can make your own widgets. You can arrange home pages so that they can only hold one app. You can get a collection of templates from creators around the world.

This updated version of the app – if you've been following along – has a whole barrel of updated features. There's a new set of desktop transitions. You can use dynamic UI coloring using wallpaper colors. There are new icon effects where you're able to choose image filters and compositions.

There's a new way to add and manage templates – it's a template manager! There's a "Custom Widget" object that allows you to edit widgets and make them yourself. You can also download the ADWExtensions pack for extension options beyond what's included with the basic app.

You can change the type of the content in the bottom panel of your device's home screen. You can make it hold apps (as it likely does now) or hold a widget.

You can – as always – edit every single icon of every single app you have.

All of this is allowed without rooting or hacking your device in any way at all.

This update comes 5 years after the Alpha version of ADW 2.0 was released. Now it's in beta. BETA now. Imagine that. Have a peek at this Google Play opt-in page to get in on the Beta, then download through the link.