Whenever a new version of Android comes out its only natural that most people would love to run the new OS on their Android powered devices even if it’s not a Nexus. Nexus devices always get the latest version of Android faster than their OEMs counter parts (Samsung, HTC, etc), but lose no hope there is still something you can do to get Kitkat 4.4 on you current Android phone. Here are some ways you can get a Kitkat experience on your none Kitkat device in just 3 simple steps.
Using my HTC One with HTC sense 5.5 and Android 4.3 on it, i will give you some tips on how to get that latest feel of Android on your phone. Don’t worry if you run any version of Android 4.1 and higher this trick will work. Please note that all APKs are signed by Google, are safe to install and were not tampered with in any way.
1. Go to Play store and download the latest version of Google Hangout (12.84MB) an app that replaced Talk. This will enable you get SMS and MMS integration which is now built into the hangouts app which will now become your all in one communication tool.
2. Next app to download and install is Google search (19.39MB) , please don’t confuse it with voice search by Google, This app will let you do some of the cool things that Kitkat enables with one more piece of cool software. Essentially you will be able use voice commands like OK GOOGLE to search for anything on your phone’s homescreen. Plus you will get that extra panel left of the home screen dedicated to Google Now. As another option I would recommend to install the Google search app from HERE because Version 3.1.8 is not yet released to most users via Google Play! Double-check you don’t have an earlier version installed.
3. Next you are going to have to replace your launcher with the Google Experience Launcher that you can download from HERE or HERE (11.82MB ) thanks to the guys at XDA developers. Basically this launcher looks and feels like the new launcher on the Nexus phones . Please remember to turn on the ability to side load apps on your phone (varies from phone to phone, but worry not the phone will alert you and allow you to activate it yourself). It’s relatively quick and easy and not a lot of permissions to deal with or worry about. When you done installing press home and select launcher and you are good to go.
For those who are wondering this whole operation will set you back 44.05 MB of data.
Please note that this is not exactly Kitkat but you are going to have the same exact telling it apart from the real one.
