Action Launcher v42 brings bigger, better themes and deeper ActionDash integration

MrMobile theme on Action Launcher
MrMobile theme on Action Launcher (Image credit: Ara Wagoner / Android Central)

I'm a live wallpaper user, and have been for over a year now, and once I made the jump to KLWP, Action Launcher slipped out of my regular rotation because when you're using Action Launcher with a live wallpaper, your color options in Quicktheme were based on the live wallpaper's icon if you're lucky and aren't extracted at all if you're not. Today, that changes, and I can return to Action Launcher with v42 thanks to the new theme support and the addition of the standard Material palette to the default Quicktheme options.

In addition to the new Material color options in Quicktheme, dark themes — including AMOLED black themes — have been extended in Action Launcher. I'm going to cheer for dark themes because they're awesome and you should use them. #DarkThemesNow #DarkThemesForever

v42 also adds deeper integration with ActionDash, greying out app icons for blocked apps during Focus Mode or apps that have hit their time limits. This is something that the Pixel Launcher does with Digital Wellbeing on Pixel phones right now, but the ActionDash/Action Launcher combination will be accessible to a far larger pool of devices.

This new update is rolling out today to all users through Google Play, and after playing with the Material palette in Quicktheme for about a day, it's almost everything I've ever wanted. There are a few improvements still to be made, but we have 16 more choices than we did before, and that's worth celebrating for this theme.

Free at Google Play

Ara Wagoner

Ara Wagoner was a staff writer at Android Central. She themes phones and pokes YouTube Music with a stick. When she's not writing about cases, Chromebooks, or customization, she's wandering around Walt Disney World. If you see her without headphones, RUN. You can follow her on Twitter at @arawagco.