If you’re still stuck on Jellybean or KitKat with your Android device, but want the Google Now pane swipe, that’s now possible, thanks to an XDA developer, who modified the Nova Google Companion.
A couple of weeks ago, we posted about how it is finally possible to get the Google Now pane swipe onto your Nougat and Marshmallow devices using the ‘Nova Google Companion’ app in combination with the Nova Launcher, which is now also possible with phones still running Lollipop.
Now, with very little effort, the Nova Google Companion can also be used on Androids still running Jellybean and Kitkat. XDA member “ Nikhilkumar038 ” has provided a workaround that will allow the Nova Launcher – and the Nova Google Companion (which is essentially the Google Now panel) – to be used on devices powered by Android 4.2 Jellybean and Android 4.4 Kitkat. The method requires users to decompile the app and lower the SDK level from 21 to 19.
The steps required to do this are as follows:
But if you’re like us, and don’t need the hassle of decompiling and recompiling the APK, another forum user in the XDA thread has already done these steps so that you can grab the modified Nova Google Companion APK.
In order to get the Google Now Pane swipe, you’ll need the Nova Launcher beta, currently on v5.3 beta3, and those on Lollipop or higher are also required to download the unmodified Nova Google Companion APK which must be sideloaded.
Source: XDA via Android Community
