After a rather successful period of limited availability and a partnership with Mozilla to be the primary interface of Firefox OS, EverythingMe is now expanding its availability to practically anywhere in the world. This means that fans of the search-centric contextual homescreen can now enjoy get the app from its official Google Play Store source instead of having to dig around for unofficial APKs.
With Android, it is sometimes too easy to take an app that is restricted to certain devices or regions and make it available to a wider audience. That is something that the developers of EverythingMe realized after it went gold in February. They said they were met with many requests to install EverythingMe outside of the US, UK, Germany and Spain and they willingly gave some a copy of the app. One thing led to another and the APK eventually leaked out to the general public. It came to a point that 26 percent of EverythingMe’s users came from territories not officially supported by the app. But rather than enforce stricter preventive measures, the developers did the opposite. They worked quickly to improve the launcher and make it available globally sooner rather than later.
The EverythingMe that we reviewed last April is substantially the same as this latest version but there have been some noticeable changes in certain areas. Search is EverythingMe’s bread and butter and that has been improved. It is faster and reaches deeper into apps. It’s also a bit smarter in presenting results, pushing your more used apps higher in the results than those you use less. The Smart Folders selection list has also been revamped considerably and now matches the overall design of EverythingMe. Unfortunately, the ability to create your own Smart Folder has been removed. But with the plethora of folders to choose from, you will probably never feel the need to make one. Much of the app remains the same, and that is a good thing since everything you might have loved in the older version are all still here.
EverythingMe’s decision to harness the power of pervasive and all encompassing search is something that many launchers, like the new Nokia Z Launcher and Samsung Terrain Home, are now trying imitate. Its integration of web results is what endeared it to Mozilla. And its own flavor of contextual presentation is definitely an interesting feature of the homescreen. But not everyone might be enamored by EverythingMe, especially when it comes to the homescreen’s lack of customization knobs and controls. But for those who have long fallen in love with launcher or are curious to put its ideas to the test, EverythingMe is now available on Google Play Store for free and for all.
