Nokia makes launcher for competing Android despite being Microsoft company.

Published: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 by Rad

Nokia completed the multi-billion-dollar sale of its phone-making business to Microsoft back in April. But that doesn’t mean it’s done with phones entirely. Oh no.

Truly epic trolling, Nokia.

The company that transferred some 32,000 of its staff to Redmond in exchange for more than $7.2 billion has just released a launcher (aka an alternative homescreen) — for Android smartphones. So the devices which compete with Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform..

TechCrunch

The launcher, called Z Launcher, depicted in the below intro video, focuses on gestures and contextual relevance in a bid to enhance the Android user experience — adapting which apps, contacts and websites it shows in a shortcut list on the homescreen depending on factors such as time of day, where the user is and what they normally use.

It also represents what are still early steps for Nokia into the Android ecosystem. Back in February, prior to selling its hardware division to Microsoft, the company released a handful of devices running its own Android fork, called the Nokia X Software Platform. Those devices are now the property of Microsoft but the rump of Nokia Oyj is free to build software for Android phones — and clearly intends to do just that.

Android users wanting to kick the tires of Nokia’s newest Android-focused mobile effort can download the launcher from zlauncher.com.

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