Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
- Google has taken a massive step towards fixing the animation issues that have plagued third-party launchers on Pixel phones for years.
- The fixes are currently rolling out as part of the March 2025 update.
- In our tests, animations are now far smoother on Niagara and Nova Launcher, however, some issues remain.
Third-party launchers have never felt smooth on Google’s Pixel hardware. Whether by design or due to technical issues, there always seems to be a massive animation quality gulf between them and Google’s own Pixel Launcher. However, with the March 2025 update, the company is finally addressing this issue with third-party launcher transitions.
As detailed in the update changelog, the company has issued two notable fixes: