I have recently switched to an Android phone coming from an iPhone 5 and I totally didn't miss my apple (except for one tiny app I loved the most in iOS - Plant Nanny! - helps me get motivated to drink enough water) due to many cool Android apps which just fits my need. Plus, Google apps runs better with Android as expected.
However, since smartphones stormed the planet, I am missing one feature which was usually part of the default settings ages ago - TADA! - the
categories. Today's vanilla feature of the Android platform presents apps into a grid of icons spanning into pages as needed - not bad at all - but if you are app-packed, it may take you a few seconds longer to go to that utility app you are looking for.
Good thing, there are tons of launcher/organizers out there made by the geeks of our planet (or are they really from around here?!?). I used to like GO Launcher but later on realized that it has too much features that I don't need. I am just a simple person and the only thing I want is to organize my apps so I can look for specific app I need based on categories - and I wanted it done
automatically.
And when I say categories - I meant this:
Here comes
AppLauncher! It organizes your apps automatically based on Google Play store categories and lets you do more customization if you want.
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| AppLauncher Drawer showing Google Play categories |
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| After selecting a category from the drawer, you will see the narrowed down list under that category - in this shot, it is the Tools category - and I call this view Drawer Interior. |
Those two were all I need. But for those who needs more, there are other features such as Themes, Quick Launch (Paid version), Advanced Shortcuts, and other settings tweak you can find in the app's menu (the three vertical dots lying on the upper right corner of the app when in full-screen view - just in case you are new in Android and needed that guide ^^,)
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| AppLauncher+ Settings |
Let me say walk you through the features.
Theme Settings
This section lets you play around the colors of the application's key areas: the
Drawer, the
Grid, and the
Quick Launch. You can also apply a background image and enable/disable the old layout as you please.
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| AppLauncher Theme Settings |
By tweaking the colors and transparency, you can create different themes as your mood/personality requires. In the following sections, I will feature two themes: Fiery and Girly - please note that these does not come as defaults in the AppLauncher, I just tweaked and named them for easier reference in this article.
Drawer Theme
The "Drawer Theme" decides on the color and transparency of the main Drawer (the one showing category list) and the Drawer Interior (the narrowed down view).
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| A Fiery Drawer |
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| A Girly Drawer |
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| A Girly Drawer Interior |
The following list breaks down the settings:
- Base color - decides the title and the left bar showing the number of apps in a category
- Minor color - decides the color in the background of the category texts
- Label color - decides the color of the labels/texts
- Main color - decides the background color of the Drawer Interior - I don't have a sample shot because I turned on the "Change background image" setting for all the tweakings I did - that's why we can see Ace of One Piece and Asuna and Kirito of Sword Art Online instead. BUT, if you check on the Old Layout sample I have in this post, you will see it - because, right now, the old layout doesn't use Background Image
Apps Grid Theme and Quick Launch
These settings are available in Pro Version.
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| The Apps Grid in Fiery theme |
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| The Apps Grid (center) and the Quick Launch bar (right) in a Girly theme |
There are two (2) main settings common to apps grid and quick launch:
- Background - the color of the icons' background, I set them to red orange and pink to be able to create the fiery and girly theme respectively
- Label - the color of the apps' label/text, I set them to white for both theme I played around with
The Old Layout
The old layout pertains to the initial version layout of AppLauncher where you have the Drawer and the Interior together in one view. See sample screen below.
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| Old layout drawer in girly theme! |
The old layout's color is decided by the "Drawer Theme" settings. Background image is currently not supported in this layout (as of this writing).
Advanced Shortcuts
This setting is available for those who wants further customization in their categories - however, currently, this is only available to pro version. There are three (3) ways to create advanced shortcuts: Categories, Applications, Combined Categories.
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| Advance Shortcuts setting |
Applications
If you want to choose a few apps and make it easily available in one tap, then this is an option for you. In this example, I created a shortcut named "Family Time" which consists of the apps Charades, Logo Quiz and YouTube.
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| An advanced shortcut of applications |
Categories
Creating an advanced shortcut of categories lets you group categories into one shortcut. For example, in the screenshot below, I created a shortcut named "Essentials" which launches a grid of categories I consider essential - the Games, Arcade & Action, Brain & Puzzle, Casual Games and Health & Fitness.
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| An advanced shortcut of categories |
Combined Categoris
I don't have a screenshot, but this option lets you group two or more categories into one shortcut. For instance, if you want
Brain & Puzzles and
Arcade & Action to be grouped into one "
My Favorite Kind of Games" shortcut, then it can be done. You will then see your
Whats My IQ and
Zombie Smash into one category.
The Quick Launch
The quick launch enables you to access AppLauncher at any time while using your Android mobile. In my configuration, I can access the Categories Bar by swiping up the icon from the lower right corner of my screen and the Apps Grid by swiping to the left.
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| Categories Bar accessible by swiping up the icon |
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| Apps Grid accessible by swiping the icon to the left or by tapping the category from the categories bar |
The quick launch can be customized further under settings. The
Icon Size can be changed into small, medium or large size. The
actions can be changed or disabled accordingly.
You can also add categories shortcuts into your home screen. The following image shows all my categories in my home screen with the
Health & Fitness shortcut currently selected.
One more thing, the icons can be customized. This is specially useful if you have installed icon packs.
More Features To Come
As of this writing, I know that the geek behind this great app is currently working on a few more improvements to the current versions.
Visit these links for more information.
Also, just in case you are wondering, my current theme is Fire in the Dark - nothing fancy - its just the images shown under "Here comes AppLauncher" in this article. I know I said I am just a simple person who only wants the auto organization - but since I tweaked the theme for this article, I realized I liked Ace there in my launcher, too. ^^,
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