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I just swipe down for Spotlight and use that as an app launcher, so I'll probably love the app drawer. I'm equally baffled by people doing it any other way :-)

I just swipe down for Spotlight and use that as an app launcher, so I'll probably love the app drawer. I'm equally baffled by people doing it any other way :-) Do you organise your applications on your computer by category as well?

frosted-flakes 6y ago
Sometimes, yes, but most of the time I launch them from the taskbar or the "frequently used" list in the start menu. The difference between a phone and a computer is that one has a keyboard, and the other doesn't. Ever since the end of the BlackBerry era, typing on my phone is a slow, error-prone activity, so searching takes longer than the two taps it takes to just select it manually (typing on a BlackBerry was slow too, but at least it was error-free). I have all my apps categorized in folders in my app drawer (I use Nova Launcher, which lets you create folders there). Then I have two home screen pages, one with all my most-used applications, and the other with all my media players: podcasts, music, Kindle, Libby, YouTube, etc. I use large icons (4x5 per page), so it makes it both easy to find and select any app.
oarsinsync 6y ago
I definitely used to back in Windows 95-2000 days. It was one of those things people like me who cared too much and wanted to share screenshots of their beautiful desktop / wallpaper / skins / etc used to do. I don’t anymore. Eventually the regular reinstalls became too much effort re-setting all of my endless customisations. Trained me well for the modern era of “photos app not working right? Have you tried erasing all contents and settings and not restoring from backup?”
wayneftw 6y ago
I organize them by category and I can tap twice faster than you can swipe, type, tap. This way is easily faster if you have a reasonable number of apps. Typing to find things would only be faster if you had more than say 220 apps. Even if I have to tap, swipe, tap - that would be faster than swipe, type, tap.
- vxNsr 6y ago
  Also this encourages you not to have more than 9 apps in a single category. I break this rule often, but I do try pretty hard not to.
  - willis936 6y ago
    Then you need multiple pages of apps. I keep 15 top apps in thumb hotspots and 11 folders in (mostly) more tucked away spots. One page, all apps. The apps in each folder are alphabetized. The folders definitely go into 3+ pages in some categories, but I often search if it feels like hunting down an app in a folder is more work.
tzs 6y ago
You can also do it by voice. Tell Siri to "open AppName" and it opens the app named AppName. It does have trouble with some apps, though. Authy does not work at all when pronounced the way I expect it to be pronounced ("auth" as in "authorize"). Siri just says that there is no app named "Offie". And no, I do not pronounce "th" anything at all like "ff". If I try pronouncing Authy as "oathy" is works maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. For nearly everything else I've tried, though, it is fine.
- sixstringtheory 6y ago
  This post, parent and GP basically describe my evolution for organizing and launching apps. Taking the time to manually organize all my apps just isn't worth it any more, especially after a few updates/restores exploded it all. Now, I keep the first home page clean with only the essential apps, and everything else is pushed off into the memory hole on the right with spotlight/siri wrangling it all for me. Excited to see how this might improve with widgets and app library!
- antipaul 6y ago
  Did you try training Siri? (Enable siri text) and then tap it when it says this app not found, and change "offy" to "Authie". After a few times, it should recognize your prompt
  - tzs 6y ago
    I'm not sure what setting that is. I've tried hitting the "tap to edit" thingy to edit the command it head from "open Offie" to "open Authy" several times, and it doesn't seem to really help much. It's not that much of a problem on my phone or iPad, because I can just ask it to open Authenticator (Microsoft's authentication app). When I set up TOTP for a site, I scan the QR code in both. It's on my Apple Watch that it is annoying. Microsoft Authenticator on the watch doesn't do TOTP. It's just for authenticating with Microsoft sites. So on the watch I need to use Authy if I need a TOTP code for a site. On the watch, I don't see any option to edit a command that Siri gets wrong.
    - 6y ago
jasonv 6y ago
A use case: all the apps I use for Instagram photo editing in a folder. I don’t always remember what some of them are, or what they’re named, so keeping them together is helpful. Don’t trust App Library to organize those the same way.
zimpenfish 6y ago
That's how I did things but something somewhere during the iOS 14 has broken Spotlight search for me - I can't search for apps any more (well, I can, but it gives me the app store page or a website.) It is most aggravating and utterly perplexing. Whilst I like the app library for hiding all the stuff I don't use, it's a massive pain to use for finding apps...

frosted-flakes 6y ago

Sometimes, yes, but most of the time I launch them from the taskbar or the "frequently used" list in the start menu. The difference between a phone and a computer is that one has a keyboard, and the other doesn't. Ever since the end of the BlackBerry era, typing on my phone is a slow, error-prone activity, so searching takes longer than the two taps it takes to just select it manually (typing on a BlackBerry was slow too, but at least it was error-free). I have all my apps categorized in folders in my app drawer (I use Nova Launcher, which lets you create folders there). Then I have two home screen pages, one with all my most-used applications, and the other with all my media players: podcasts, music, Kindle, Libby, YouTube, etc. I use large icons (4x5 per page), so it makes it both easy to find and select any app.

oarsinsync 6y ago

I definitely used to back in Windows 95-2000 days. It was one of those things people like me who cared too much and wanted to share screenshots of their beautiful desktop / wallpaper / skins / etc used to do. I don’t anymore. Eventually the regular reinstalls became too much effort re-setting all of my endless customisations. Trained me well for the modern era of “photos app not working right? Have you tried erasing all contents and settings and not restoring from backup?”

wayneftw 6y ago

I organize them by category and I can tap twice faster than you can swipe, type, tap. This way is easily faster if you have a reasonable number of apps. Typing to find things would only be faster if you had more than say 220 apps. Even if I have to tap, swipe, tap - that would be faster than swipe, type, tap.

vxNsr 6y ago
Also this encourages you not to have more than 9 apps in a single category. I break this rule often, but I do try pretty hard not to.
- willis936 6y ago
  Then you need multiple pages of apps. I keep 15 top apps in thumb hotspots and 11 folders in (mostly) more tucked away spots. One page, all apps. The apps in each folder are alphabetized. The folders definitely go into 3+ pages in some categories, but I often search if it feels like hunting down an app in a folder is more work.

tzs 6y ago

You can also do it by voice. Tell Siri to "open AppName" and it opens the app named AppName. It does have trouble with some apps, though. Authy does not work at all when pronounced the way I expect it to be pronounced ("auth" as in "authorize"). Siri just says that there is no app named "Offie". And no, I do not pronounce "th" anything at all like "ff". If I try pronouncing Authy as "oathy" is works maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. For nearly everything else I've tried, though, it is fine.

sixstringtheory 6y ago
This post, parent and GP basically describe my evolution for organizing and launching apps. Taking the time to manually organize all my apps just isn't worth it any more, especially after a few updates/restores exploded it all. Now, I keep the first home page clean with only the essential apps, and everything else is pushed off into the memory hole on the right with spotlight/siri wrangling it all for me. Excited to see how this might improve with widgets and app library!
antipaul 6y ago
Did you try training Siri? (Enable siri text) and then tap it when it says this app not found, and change "offy" to "Authie". After a few times, it should recognize your prompt
- tzs 6y ago
  I'm not sure what setting that is. I've tried hitting the "tap to edit" thingy to edit the command it head from "open Offie" to "open Authy" several times, and it doesn't seem to really help much. It's not that much of a problem on my phone or iPad, because I can just ask it to open Authenticator (Microsoft's authentication app). When I set up TOTP for a site, I scan the QR code in both. It's on my Apple Watch that it is annoying. Microsoft Authenticator on the watch doesn't do TOTP. It's just for authenticating with Microsoft sites. So on the watch I need to use Authy if I need a TOTP code for a site. On the watch, I don't see any option to edit a command that Siri gets wrong.
  - 6y ago

jasonv 6y ago

A use case: all the apps I use for Instagram photo editing in a folder. I don’t always remember what some of them are, or what they’re named, so keeping them together is helpful. Don’t trust App Library to organize those the same way.

zimpenfish 6y ago

That's how I did things but something somewhere during the iOS 14 has broken Spotlight search for me - I can't search for apps any more (well, I can, but it gives me the app store page or a website.) It is most aggravating and utterly perplexing. Whilst I like the app library for hiding all the stuff I don't use, it's a massive pain to use for finding apps...