Nexus 4 got the Android 5 OTA update but still see old app drawer

[steevithak]

My Nexus 4 received the OTA Android 5 update yesterday. It took about 20 minutes total for the download, install, and "optimizing apps" process to complete. Afterwards, everything works and it looks pretty much like the Android 5 screen shots that I see online with one glaring exception. The app drawer is still the same black-background and same rising, fade-in animation as it was on Android 4.x but all the screen shots I see online show a new app drawer with a white background and a side-to-side slide animation. Is this an indication that something has gone wrong with my update or is the new app drawer not available on the Nexus 4 for some reason?

 

[steevithak]

Update: Google Nexus phone support seemed to think this was a bug. They took some information over the phone about the problem and assigned a specialist to look in to it. Meanwhile, I filed a bug on the Android bug website and got a reply indicating that this is expected behavior and that the Nexus 4 Android 5.0 OTA update does NOT include the new app drawer functionality. Haha, so still don't know what's going - might be expected, might be a bug.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central, and thanks for the info! Keep us updated.

 

[nexxus89]

I was actually just popping in here to ask the same question. I did the update yesterday on my Nexus 4. Everything went smoothly and has updated as I expected, other than the app drawer. I too have the old "black" app drawer after update.

 

[theduder]

By default the Google Launcher isn't installed on older phones. If you had it before, it will get downloaded along with your other apps.

This happened both with my N7 and N4 after flashing Lollipop. Doesn't seem like a bug. Unlike the N5, this device didn't ship with that Launcher.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...id=com.google.android.launcher&token=zFm2i-zP

 

[HawaiianLaker]

Yea, the google now launcher came out with the nexus5 and kitkat. Nexus 4 and other older phones/tablets didnt get the new launcher with kitkat either. same with the update to lollipop from kitkat. 99.9% sure this is by design.

 

[thebarak]

I found this page looking for the same answer to the same question. Now that I know, I will happily stop worrying about my black app drawer.

 

[zorak950]

Yeah, there are plenty of exceptions, but often they won't remove things in updates to old devices even if new devices don't have them, the thought being that people will be confused/angry if they're forced to change. Thus the N4 has kept its original launcher even though current Nexus devices ship with GNL.

 

[Paul Handy]

My Nexus 4 received the OTA Android 5 update yesterday. It took about 20 minutes total for the download, install, and "optimizing apps" process to complete. Afterwards, everything works and it looks pretty much like the Android 5 screen shots that I see online with one glaring exception. The app drawer is still the same black-background and same rising, fade-in animation as it was on Android 4.x but all the screen shots I see online show a new app drawer with a white background and a side-to-side slide animation. Is this an indication that something has gone wrong with my update or is the new app drawer not available on the Nexus 4 for some reason?