Action Launcher brings Oreo features to older Android phones

If you have one of the many smartphones that isn’t getting updated to Android Oreo, there’s

still a way for you to try out several of its most noticeable features. Action Launcher, one of the many apps that let you customize Android’s home screens, is now able to bring three of Oreo’s launcher features to older phones: notification dots, adaptive icons, and restyled app shortcuts. They’re supposed to work on phones going back to 2014’s Android Lollipop. I installed the app last night to give it a try, and it does a convincing job of mimicking Oreo. Notification dots appeared on app icons when they had a pending notification, and I was able to press and hold the app’s icon to see what the notification was. It would also pop up, along with app shortcuts, in a box with rounded corners, instead of the split apart options seen in prior versions of the OS. That one’s not a huge difference, but it looks a bit nicer.                                                                                  https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/9/16/16319394/action-launcher-brings-oreo-features-to-older-android-phones