Google is preparing a new launcher that will be called Google Experience. At least, that's what it was called in a build from just a couple of weeks ago, and I don't think it will change.
From the looks of it, I'd say it's going to be one of the more important bullet points on the Android 4.4 changelog.
Additionally, there's a chance it may be released to the Play Store, although only Google can confirm this plan. Allow me to elaborate.
The Google Experience name
First up - the name Google Experience. In addition to this [heavily cropped] screenshot, I have looked through the very detailed log file shared by Myce and found that it contains references to a package called com.google.android.gel. The corresponding APK lives at/system/app/GoogleHome.apk, which clearly points to it being a launcher.
Take a look at that package name. gel matches up with the Google Experience Launcherabbreviation perfectly. Additionally, this component of the package com.google.android.gel.GELshows up in several places too. Unless Google decides to rename it at the last moment, I think we're all going to see this name come KitKat's release day.
Internally, things like variables and permissions used to live under the namespacecom.android.launcher2 and now live under com.android.launcher3, meaning the launcher is now internally referred to as version 3.
You can see the AOSP code for version 1 here and version 2 here. Launcher2 replaced version 1 all the way back in Android 2.0 in 2009. Now, 4 years later, we're about to see 3.0.
To me, this only confirms that the Android team is treating this release as significant - we're getting a full new version 3 of the launcher.
WILL IT COME TO GOOGLE PLAY ?
There's another interesting thing happening here. If you take a look at stock Android 4.3, you will see that the current launcher's package name is com.android.launcher. The new one iscom.google.android.gel. Now look at Google's current selection of apps in the Play Store. Almost all of them start with "com.google.android" instead of "com.android."
Take a walk down memory lane to the day Calendar was decoupled from the core OS and released to the Play Store, and you'll notice that at that time the stock com.android.calendar package name was changed to com.google.android.calendar. The same thing happened to the keyboard (com.google.android.inputmethod.latin), Gmail (com.google.android.gm), and pretty much everything Google migrated over.
Having said that, there are exceptions to this rule, though I think the apps that already do havecom.google.android in their package names, such as the Clock in Android 4.3 (com.google.android.deskclock), are just waiting their turn.
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