Action Launcher v45 brings users a bundle of gifts for Quicktheme and ActionDash

Press pause on your distractions
Press pause on your distractions (Image credit: Ara Wagoner / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Action Launcher v45 is rolling out to users now along with an ActionDash update.
  • Quicktheme now can pull colors from live wallpapers, but there's a few caveats to keep in mind.
  • New ActionDash integrations allow you to see your usage in a widget or pause apps for the rest of the day.
  • Support 2020 is here with 5 new supporter wallpapers, including a darling winter scene and a trippy rainbow ride.

Christmas came early for Action Launcher users this year, as v45 rolls out today with new enhancements to ActionDash, Quicktheme, search, dual apps support, and the new Supporter badge for the new year. Action Launcher is also touting Android 10 gesture compatibility with v45, but that's contingent upon our phone being a Pixel that got the most recent batches of "feature drops", so if you're on a Samsung Galaxy S10 that just got One UI 2.0, I'm sorry to say you're still probably stuck using three-button nav with this latest update.

As for updates everyone can use, we have two improvements to the integration between Action Launcher and ActionDash, Chris Lacy's supercharged take on Digital Wellbeing. The first is a widget you can put on your home screen or Quickpage in order to see how much time you've spent on what so far today. The second is a shortcut in the app actions that allows you to pause an app for the rest of the day so that you don't keep checking Twitter out of habit before you go see Rise of Skywalker, or mute a game that you can't afford to be distracted by today.

Be wary when pausing apps this way, though. As far as I can tell, once you pause an app with that little hourglass icon, there's no way to unpause it.

Source: Chris Lacy / Action Launcher

The 2020 Supporter badge is here and the 5 wallpapers you receive with it are darling. I'm getting a Thor Love and Thunder vibe from the rainbow one and the winter one is perfect for the chilly scenes outside our doors this month. Then again, some of us might need to try escaping the cold right now, which is perfectly fine, because v45 also brings new support for Live wallpapers in Quicktheme.

This has been something that we've been asking for a long time — thanks, Chris! — and it's nice to see it's finally here. Unfortunately, due to the way that some live wallpapers are coded, your mileage may vary. For instance, when I tried to pull colors from KLWP, it didn't really work that well, but it got the colors pretty accurately from Tapet. If all depends on how the apps is coded and how it appears to other apps like Action Launcher.

The v45 update is rolling out to users now, so let me know if your live wallpaper does or doesn't work with the new Quicktheme!

Ara Wagoner

Ara Wagoner was a staff writer at Android Central. She themes phones and pokes YouTube Music with a stick. When she's not writing about cases, Chromebooks, or customization, she's wandering around Walt Disney World. If you see her without headphones, RUN. You can follow her on Twitter at @arawagco.