Apps

Lights out for Aviate Launcher as of March 8

by Mihail Nikolov / Feb 05, 2018, 7:06 AM

Lights out for Aviate Launcher as of March 8

Aviate Launcher's adapting nature didn't help it against Yahoo's decision to end it.

Aviate Launcher is nearing its end! As of March 8, Yahoo's take at launchers will live no more, as support and future updates will be discontinued. The news were reported in a Yahoo blogpost, thanking all of Aviate's users for supporting and using the launcher over the years.

This should come as no surprise, as the launcher's last update was back in May of 2017, suggesting its inevitable sooner-than-later end. Aviate was launched back in 2013 after a pretty successful start-up campaign, raising over $1.8 million. A year later, in 2014, Yahoo bought both the launcher and its developers, ThumbsUp Labs, for the staggering $80 million. Aviate Launcher was advertised as "intelligent homescreen for Android devices", its main goal being to suggest the apps you might want to use. It took in mind factors such as time, location and others in order to give you the information best suitable for the moment. There weren't much options regarding homescreen customization – as we mentioned, the emphasis was put elsewhere.

Despite its incoming death, users who've already installed Aviate will be able to use it, but won't see any content in the Smart Stream.

source: Yahoo via AndroidAuthority

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2 Comments

1. airisoverrated

Posts: 55; Member since: Jun 08, 2012

Aviate was a great home screen. Such a shame Yahoo bought them. It was all down hill from there. They removed functionality like the ability to manually select your mode, couldn't schedule mode changes as opposed to GPS based, and forced integration into Yahoo's ecosystem. And I actually check Yahoo news.

posted on Feb 05, 2018, 7:48 AM 1

2. CableTelcontar

Posts: 94; Member since: Nov 19, 2014

Loved Aviate until they decided I should see only UK based news and cricket only. Hint, I neither live in the UK nor do I even know how cricket is played.