Since the last update added the larger multiwindow size and enabled virtually every app on the play store for multiwindows, I use windowed apps constantly. I have a vast array of apps I use throughout the day, side by side. It's fantastic.
The biggest hassle was having to goto the app drawer constantly to open apps, just to then minimize them until they were needed. That got me thinking that an app launcher would be great to keep minimized instead. I pondered creating one on my own, but thankfully there is a perfectly suited one already on the play store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gradrix.quicklaunch
No ads, no IAPs. Super simple interface with just enough customization to tweak it to your tastes. I just keep this app open in window mode, on the task bar all day, and I never need to hit the home screen or app drawer to open an app.
I've started using it and like it - thanks for the tip! I'm using Nova Launcher so don't have the app drawer at the bottom of the screen, but instead have an icon on the desktop. The app saves returning to the desktop each time to open a new app. As you say easy to use and just enough customisation to do what you want it to do.
Related
it's amazons free app of the day. pretty neat function, im using it to replace the long press for multitasking. runs smoothly
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I thought about posting this too when I downloaded it earlier today. But then I tried it out and found that its really not for me.
Agreed, I looks like a great idea, but doesnt function as good as it could. Not for me either.
I downloaded Wave Launcher and I'm attempting to make use of it. My current setup is ADW.Launcher EX, Folder Organizer, and Beautiful widgets. I really liked this setup, but I'm looking for a new look for my phone. Having five Folder Organizer widgets on the desktop is pretty sweet. I can get to the 20ish programs I use all on one home screen via the folder organize widgets.
I was hoping to use Wave Launcher to re-do my setup so make the home screen more "empty" and clean.
The app is very easy to setup, but its use seems a bit limited. I was hoping to be able to have multiple Wave Launchers so that if I swiped from the left side of the screen it would like X apps, if I swiped from the right side of the screen it would display a different set of Y apps, and if I swiped from the bottom it would bring up a different set of Z apps. Unfortunitally, the app only allows for one swipe location and one set of apps to launch.
I am going to keep it installed, and I am going to try to make it work for me. I can free up some screen real estate via Wave Launcher, though I'm not sure what to launch with it. Should I put in my most used apps? It does make them a bit harder to launch versus having links on the screen or a Folder Organizer widget on the scren. So should I put some apps I don't use often into the wave launcher so that they don't use screen real estate as either links or a folder organizer widget.
Long story short... this launcher seems to be a great idea. A swipe motion brings up a "waved bar" with links on it. However, those links are harder to "choose" since you have to slide your thumb / finger into the right place, so folders might work better. However folders take up screen real estate. So... its a good idea, and it might work out for me. I wish that there were more options like the ones lacking that I listed above.
We'll see what I come up with over the next few days.
DK
SwipePad is A LOT better!
https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.conduction.swipepad.android
I too got this from amazon but while I was playing angry birds it kept popping up alot and pissed me off so... I uninstalled it for now!
I just keep forgetting it's there. until it comes up at the worst possible moments.
facetubespam said:
SwipePad is A LOT better!
https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.conduction.swipepad.android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 it was slow to start but they keep making it better with the add-ons and speed increases
Sent from my GreyBlurred Bell Atrix
+1 for swipe pad, nothing comparable so far.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Swipepad drove my cpu usage up to 100%, ive been using wave launcher and it has been working fine. I really like how it looks like the palm os wave which is what i came from. Pretty nifty.
this app was making Contacts appear when I clicked PowerAMP. Had to uninstall Wave Launcher then reboot phone so PowerAMP operates properly.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G using Tapatalk
Wave Launcher
mario925 said:
this app was making Contacts appear when I clicked PowerAMP. Had to uninstall Wave Launcher then reboot phone so PowerAMP operates properly.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can customize the size and location of Wave Launcher's gesture-area, try "Bottom Left - 20%" in the "Gesture-area presets" setting.
Upcoming version of Wave Launcher will allow 3rd party apps to disable / enable Wave Launcher. (Currently supported by the upcoming version of WidgetLocker) It will also include a quick disable/enable option via the notification bar.
DeathKoil said:
I downloaded Wave Launcher and I'm attempting to make use of it. My current setup is ADW.Launcher EX, Folder Organizer, and Beautiful widgets. I really liked this setup, but I'm looking for a new look for my phone. Having five Folder Organizer widgets on the desktop is pretty sweet. I can get to the 20ish programs I use all on one home screen via the folder organize widgets.
I was hoping to use Wave Launcher to re-do my setup so make the home screen more "empty" and clean.
The app is very easy to setup, but its use seems a bit limited. I was hoping to be able to have multiple Wave Launchers so that if I swiped from the left side of the screen it would like X apps, if I swiped from the right side of the screen it would display a different set of Y apps, and if I swiped from the bottom it would bring up a different set of Z apps. Unfortunitally, the app only allows for one swipe location and one set of apps to launch.
I am going to keep it installed, and I am going to try to make it work for me. I can free up some screen real estate via Wave Launcher, though I'm not sure what to launch with it. Should I put in my most used apps? It does make them a bit harder to launch versus having links on the screen or a Folder Organizer widget on the scren. So should I put some apps I don't use often into the wave launcher so that they don't use screen real estate as either links or a folder organizer widget.
Long story short... this launcher seems to be a great idea. A swipe motion brings up a "waved bar" with links on it. However, those links are harder to "choose" since you have to slide your thumb / finger into the right place, so folders might work better. However folders take up screen real estate. So... its a good idea, and it might work out for me. I wish that there were more options like the ones lacking that I listed above.
We'll see what I come up with over the next few days.
DK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also use it for:
direct-dial contacts.
Any Android shortcut, not just apps.
Show recently-used apps
Show its built-in app-drawer (by swiping or by long-pressing the gesture-area
I'm response to LoirG I use the wave launcher to open folders from folder organizer which helps open space on NY homescreen. Wave launcher is one of my more valuable apps. It has a learning curve but the limits are almost endless
Sent from my rooted 1.8.3 Honeyglow themed Gingerblur Atrix
Hey guys,
I've been giving a GSM RAZR a thorough going-over this past week for an upcoming review, and in doing so have found a few interesting hidden features. Thought I'd start a thread about 'em, since I haven't seen anything mentioned here (Or elsewhere).
- First up, installing an alternate launcher automatically sets the new launcher as the default. Odd that Moto would do this. Also odd is that the long-press home task switcher/app drawer is specifically part of the Blur Home, so you get whatever task switcher your new home app feels like defaulting you to (Usually Android's standard one).
- You can still create shortcuts to the Blur Home's app drawer and app drawer groupings in alternative launchers (Long press on empty home space/add shortcut/app groups), so you can - for example - use Launcher Pro or ADW with the Moto app drawer by placing a shortcut to 'All Apps' in the dock.
- The above shortcut business also applies to stock Blur Home, letting you use the app drawer groups like folders. That's not really 'hidden', though.
Next up, we're going to need to install Launcher Pro. I'm not a huge Launcher Pro fan, since its development seems to have dried up, but this works regardless of whether Launcher Pro is your default launcher or not. As above, however, installing a new launcher will automatically set said new launcher as the default, and short of uninstalling it or installing a third launcher/a home switcher app, you cannot set Blur Home as the default again.
You can get around that by placing a shortcut to the Blur Home itself on the Launcher Pro desktop. It'll also pop up in 'recent apps' once you have Launcher Pro installed. Strange.
Anyway, the reason we want Launcher Pro installed is that it gives you many more options when placing shortcuts on the desktop of any launcher. Under shortcuts (Or in Blur Home's case, Shortcuts/App Actions/) is a new category called Activities. This lets you place a shortcut to any part of an app that can be called as a separate activity. Effectively, you can place a shortcut directly to one part of another app - although, be warned, some of these turn out to be shortcuts to 'Force Close', or 'Reboot the phone' because the OS doesn't expect these apps to be opened in this manner. Some are genuinely useful, however, and some are a little more interesting..
Of note:
- You can create a shortcut directly to Universal Inbox, rather than having to tap Messaging, then Universal Inbox. Yay!
- You can get directly to the Albums view of the crappy stock music player, or the Folders view of the gallery, avoiding those awful splash screens you get when launching either of these normally.
- You can get directly to different views in the calendar, like the Diary/Agenda view.
Now, it gets really interesting. Some of the app activities you can make shortcuts to aren't accessible through the apps themselves, the very definition of 'hidden'. Some of these are obviously hidden because Moto cheaped out on the firmware and bundled things like an FM Radio app into the stock Music player, which doesn't work because the RAZR doesn't have an FM Radio to the best of my knowledge (Even if it did, the app doesn't do much beyond demand you insert headphones and endlessly scan for channels).
- There's a debugging tool for the homescreen, which has settings for things like 'orientation changes', acceleration factor, and 3D widgets. None of these seem to work, unfortunately.
- The most interesting - profiles for the homescreen. If memory serves, a few previous Moto phones had this, and it has of course been an element of Sense for some time. You can choose from Home, Work, and Other, and they do work - widget layouts will be saved. It tends to force close when switching back to one layout from another, and occasionally changes the wallpaper to the Droid 3 stock with the three lines (Funnily enough, that wallpaper isn't in the wallpaper gallery for the GSM RAZR) but it does work.
I'll chuck some screenshots up shortly, and additional features as I find 'em.
One of my favourite apps atm:
SwipePad: Hyperspace Jump
"Open a shortcut to anything with a single swipe from within anything
SwipePad is a launcher panel overlay. With a single swipe action, you can launch anything from within any app."
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.conduction.swipepad.android&hl=en
May I suggest an app called GestureControl. I used to use swipepad but GestureControl takes it to a whole new level. It has a launchpad for apps and can use custom gestures to launch certain apps. I am using it on my 4G Xoom running team EOS nightly 72. The app is worth the price and is still in development. There should be a lite version in the market or in XDA. It can also hide your status bar.
Since we all love our giant devices, I figured I would bring a bit of a recommendation to those who may not already know.
For a couple years now, I have been using an app called SwipePad on all of my android devices. This app allows you to launch apps with a quick swipe from the edge of the screen. You choose a swiping "Hot spot" (location for the gesture to begin), determine which apps should appear there, and viola! You can either set specific apps to appear, or you can have it set to recently opened apps. The app is free, but there are a couple of bonus add-ons for $1 each. I personally only purchased the dynamic pad add-on, which lets you change the amount of apps that appear when you swipe.
Now, I know that this is a really popular app already, and im sure most of you have heard about it before. There are 2 reasons i bring it up though. For those who dont know about it, this app is INCREDIBLY handy, especially on a bigger device like the Z Ultra.
The second, and in my opinion more important reason, is that swipepad has introduced a theming engine for this already awesome app. I just so happened to stumble upon some themes made by dev FlyingRhinoCMG. I also happened upon his Google+ community for swipepad themes. He does AMAZING work. Not only that, but he takes requests. I asked him for a Super Mario theme as perhaps an idea, and he had one made by the time i got home from work the same day. He only charges a buck for the themes, and they are well worth it. If you havent used swipepad, or you have but wanna spice it up, please take a moment to check both out. Links Below.
SwipePad - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.conduction.swipepad.android
SwipePad Themes - https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=FlyingRhinoCMG
Theme Community on Google+ - https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/101937177419262658145
TL;DR? Click these links, try these apps. Cheers!
Xblast Tools also not has an "AppBar" option where you can put shortcuts to the bar, and can be launched from just about within any app too
I've been using this launcher for about a month or so now, and I REALLY love it!! If anyone else likes Windows 10 inspired launchers, this is the best one I've found. It is very true to the name. It looks and operates like Windows 10. There are absolutely NO ADS, or in-app purchases. It has a lot of features, with more on the way. The developers are very friendly, and prompt with their responses. Third party icon pack support is included as well, so you can have the layout you want.
Here's a play store link to the app in case anyone wants to try it out. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.InternityLabs.Launcher.WinX
I have added screen shots showing the home screen and various windows for functions, and options. This launcher does support live wallpapers, I tested that out as well. The live wallpaper I used is about 10 years old, and there were no errors or interruptions to my regular everyday usage. I spend a lot of time on my phone changing my layout and themes, and this works perfectly for that.
Items that have been moved to the recycle bin can be deleted directly from there. There is also a screen shot showing apps that have been hidden from the app drawer. You can resize the app drawer as well.
Changed my theme