How to Get Android Oreo Adaptive Icons on Your Smartphone
Android 8.0 Oreo is out for quite a while, bringing some unique and useful features as well as improved customization. Aside from the other improvements of the ecosystem, this time Android Oreo introduces an Adaptive Icons feature. It unifies the shape of the icons and creates a more-consistent and better-looking UI, which looks and feels fantastic. For now, Google Pixel and Nexus users are the only ones who enjoy this feature.
However, when we talk about customization, we all know what Android is capable of. That means that there is a way how can you make your icons to look like Android Oreo. So, stay with me for the rest of the article, and you will learn an easy way to get Android Oreo Adaptive Icons on your smartphone.
Adaptive Icons Explained
First, let’s make it clear what the Adaptive Icons feature means. We all know how Samsung’s icons look like. They are in shape of rounded rectangles with the same size, which creates a consistent look and feel. However, some 3rd party apps have different icon shapes and sizes. These icons immediately pop in our eyes and devastate the seamless UI.
Android Oreo Adaptive Icons feature automatically converts these different-shape icons to unified-shape ones bringing back that seamless UI and keeping the experience smooth. Furthermore, users can even choose different shapes to give their Android phones a unique look.
Now, we can jump to the procedure for making this feature available on your smartphone.
Install Nova Launcher
If you read my posts regularly, you are probably familiar with Nova Launcher. However, it is a highly customizable home screen launcher that brings the latest Android features even on older devices. It is not an exception when we talk about Adaptive Icons.
The Adaptive Icons feature is a still in an early phase of development. So, to get it, you will need to install the beta version of Nova Launcher. For that purpose click on the following link to open the official Nova Launcher site where you can find the download link Nova Launcher Beta Program. When you open the website, search for the link “Download the latest Beta APK,” and click on it to download the APK file. Also, here you can join the Nova Launcher Beta program and get the betas directly from the Google Play Store.
After you’ve got the APK file, open it, and install the launcher. Keep a note that if you are using a previous version of Nova Launcher, you do not need to uninstall your current version of the launcher. Just tap on install and wait for a couple of seconds until the process finishes.
Setting Adaptive Icons in Nova Launcher
- Enter the Nova Launcher Settings by holding a long press on your Nova home screen, and then selecting the gear icon.
- Now, tap on the “Look & Feel” tab, and aside from all the standard sections, you will notice the “Adaptive Icons” option.
- Click the “Adaptive icons” toggle, and it will allow you to enter the option “Adaptive icon style.”
- Click on “Adaptive icon” Here you can choose the shape you want for all of your icons. To make sure that all your icons will use that shape, enable the “Reshape legacy icons” toggle. This will shrink incompatible icons and make them corresponds to the look of the others.
Test The Results
Once you’ve finished with the previous instructions, return to your home screen to check if all the icons are in that unified shape that you’ve chosen. Also, open the app drawer to test the results there.
If this procedure didn’t work for you, make sure that you are not using some custom icon pack. To make an Adaptive Icons feature functional, Nova Launcher requires you to set the system icon pack.
Wrap Up
Try this easy way to get Android Oreo Adaptive Icons on your smartphone and enjoy the Android Oreo UI with Nova Launcher.
Aside from this customization feature, Nova Launcher offers a dozen other impressive functionalities that can make your Android look and feel awesome. If you are interested, here I got 2 more articles about customizing your Android with Nova Launcher. How to Theme Your Android Using Nova Launcher and How to Enable Google Now Page in Nova Launcher Home Screen. Feel free to check them out, and share whether you find them useful or not. Also, if you know some other ways how to customize Android devices using Nova Launcher, let us know about them.
