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My biggest peeve with macOS Tahoe is the App Launcher redesign. It seems like a clear regression in usability. By moving from a high-density, full-screen exper

My biggest peeve with macOS Tahoe is the App Launcher redesign. It seems like a clear regression in usability. By moving from a high-density, full-screen experience to a constrained, scrolling window, they’ve increased the interaction cost for launching apps via the mouse. It feels like a 'unification tax. Sacrificing desktop utility to align with non-Desktop modalilties. Does anyone see a functional upside here, or is this purely aesthetic consistency?

Ringz 9mo ago
Yep. I hate it. Its easier to open the Finder and use the shortcut to open the application folder.
dajt 9mo ago
I was shocked when I first hit this. I'm also confused as to why the settings app constrains the window size but I think it did that in the previous version too - not a justification! I complained about it to a team mate and he thought it was fine and I was weird for using the app launcher and not cmd-space. Although on Windows I always use win-r to run stuff. Tahoe UI changes and LG are such a mistake and Apple being Apple will probably just double down on it.
deafpolygon 9mo ago
It’s consistency with the rest of Spotlight. I imagine they want to enhance it, but getting people to use it might be the first step.
data-ottawa 9mo ago
I don't know why it's so laggy when you open it. First time you open and scroll it jitters and not all app icons are loaded, so they kind of chunk and overlap. You get worse icon pop-in if you add your app folder with grid view to the dock. These aren't stored on the network, so it's baffling they take so long to load the icons.
VerifiedReports 9mo ago
The removal of Launchpad was an inexplicable blunder. The OS now provides no way to organize your applications. Why would I want my dev tools, audio apps, 3-D-modeling apps, and office apps all jumbled together? It's as if Apple is trying to catch up to Microsoft in the race to regress.
- egypturnash 9mo ago
  You can still make subdirectories in /Applications.
  - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
    This is not reliable; it messes up some applications.
    - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
      I love how someone downvoted a fact.
- halapro 9mo ago
  They want you to search. I probably have 200 apps on my phone and their automatic categorization is good enough for me. Most common ones I just search anyway.
  - EagnaIonat 9mo ago
    It works great on phone, on the operating system there are numerous applications that you don't care about.
    - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
      Exactly, so why would you want to make users scroll through all of them? Mac OS comes with something like 80 apps out of the box. I have over 200 on my system, and I'm pretty stingy with space. I immediately delete stuff I try and don't like. So the noobs who know nothing about Spotlight typically come back with some absurd suggestion like "put a shortcut to the Applications folder in your dock." Um.. no. Not even close.
zapzupnz 9mo ago
Maybe they didn't want people seeing their awful new icons at large enough sizes that the seams would be showing...
concinds 9mo ago
> It feels like a 'unification tax. Sacrificing desktop utility to align with non-Desktop modalilties No. Launchpad is just the iOS springboard brought to Mac, with big icons and folders and pages. When it was added people complained of "iOS-ification". This time they made a proper, unique Mac equivalent, integrated in Spotlight and built around the keyboard. It's not as good, the window was too small in 26.0, doesn't support uninstallation like Launchpad, but it's definitely less iOS-like.
- rick_dalton 9mo ago
  I think you have it backwards. The new app launcher is unequivocally more like iOS. Like iOS' app launcher it: 1. does not support making your own folders which launchpad had 2. has groups per app type like "Creativity" or "Productivity" which are literally taken verbatim from the iOS app drawer/launcher page. Both designs are obviously inspired by iOS but I don't see it as a mac optimized version at all.
vehemenz 9mo ago
This is a weird one. I think their reasoning was that most people don't use Launchpad, so they integrated it into Spotlight to eliminate redundancy. I much prefer the new app launcher in Tahoe, but it was created at the expense of Launchpad, which some people actually relied on. I don't know why they couldn't have kept both options.

Ringz 9mo ago

Yep. I hate it. Its easier to open the Finder and use the shortcut to open the application folder.

dajt 9mo ago

I was shocked when I first hit this. I'm also confused as to why the settings app constrains the window size but I think it did that in the previous version too - not a justification! I complained about it to a team mate and he thought it was fine and I was weird for using the app launcher and not cmd-space. Although on Windows I always use win-r to run stuff. Tahoe UI changes and LG are such a mistake and Apple being Apple will probably just double down on it.

deafpolygon 9mo ago

It’s consistency with the rest of Spotlight. I imagine they want to enhance it, but getting people to use it might be the first step.

data-ottawa 9mo ago

I don't know why it's so laggy when you open it. First time you open and scroll it jitters and not all app icons are loaded, so they kind of chunk and overlap. You get worse icon pop-in if you add your app folder with grid view to the dock. These aren't stored on the network, so it's baffling they take so long to load the icons.

VerifiedReports 9mo ago

The removal of Launchpad was an inexplicable blunder. The OS now provides no way to organize your applications. Why would I want my dev tools, audio apps, 3-D-modeling apps, and office apps all jumbled together? It's as if Apple is trying to catch up to Microsoft in the race to regress.

egypturnash 9mo ago
You can still make subdirectories in /Applications.
- VerifiedReports 9mo ago
  This is not reliable; it messes up some applications.
  - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
    I love how someone downvoted a fact.
halapro 9mo ago
They want you to search. I probably have 200 apps on my phone and their automatic categorization is good enough for me. Most common ones I just search anyway.
- EagnaIonat 9mo ago
  It works great on phone, on the operating system there are numerous applications that you don't care about.
  - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
    Exactly, so why would you want to make users scroll through all of them? Mac OS comes with something like 80 apps out of the box. I have over 200 on my system, and I'm pretty stingy with space. I immediately delete stuff I try and don't like. So the noobs who know nothing about Spotlight typically come back with some absurd suggestion like "put a shortcut to the Applications folder in your dock." Um.. no. Not even close.

zapzupnz 9mo ago

Maybe they didn't want people seeing their awful new icons at large enough sizes that the seams would be showing...

concinds 9mo ago

> It feels like a 'unification tax. Sacrificing desktop utility to align with non-Desktop modalilties No. Launchpad is just the iOS springboard brought to Mac, with big icons and folders and pages. When it was added people complained of "iOS-ification". This time they made a proper, unique Mac equivalent, integrated in Spotlight and built around the keyboard. It's not as good, the window was too small in 26.0, doesn't support uninstallation like Launchpad, but it's definitely less iOS-like.

rick_dalton 9mo ago
I think you have it backwards. The new app launcher is unequivocally more like iOS. Like iOS' app launcher it: 1. does not support making your own folders which launchpad had 2. has groups per app type like "Creativity" or "Productivity" which are literally taken verbatim from the iOS app drawer/launcher page. Both designs are obviously inspired by iOS but I don't see it as a mac optimized version at all.

vehemenz 9mo ago

This is a weird one. I think their reasoning was that most people don't use Launchpad, so they integrated it into Spotlight to eliminate redundancy. I much prefer the new app launcher in Tahoe, but it was created at the expense of Launchpad, which some people actually relied on. I don't know why they couldn't have kept both options.