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Re: What is an App Launcher?

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Andy Burns wrote:
> Nuno Silva wrote:
> 
>> I'd actually do super+R, "notepad", followed by return or enter.
>> 
>> Also, same for "write" I guess.
> 
> "Write" is gone for most users ...

I don't remember "write" but I started on Windows with an IBM AT clone.

Since I came from the days of the punched tape and punched card, I've been
using various forms of "ed" (aka vi, vim, gvim) since the dawn of the PC.

As for Nuno's quite apropos question of "Isn't the home screen a separate
application in itself? Or perhaps it's the home screen that provides the
launcher? "

Yes. For sure. The home screen is not only a "separate application", but
it's a system default, so you must set a home screen as your default.

Regarding the changing of the launcher when Nuno aptly mentioned "I have
Zeam launcher on an android device, I wonder what happened to
it... wait, it still exists? (On the install I have, it needs to be
restarted to refresh its app launcher with new installs.)"

The restart is only because it's an old launcher using old API's 
(How do I know that? I looked it up just now. That's what I found.)

Modern launchers keep a live database of installed apps and they now update
instantly.

The nice thing about default apps is you can swap them out at will. For
example, you can change your home screen to anything today, and change it
to something else tomorrow. Of course, certain customizations (like icon
placement) may very well change in between, but you should be able to get
back where you were if the launcher supports icon placement backup/restore.

Regarding Nuno's rather interesting technical question of "Now is there
some home screen app that allows creating shortcuts in a
more advanced/manual way, instead of being limited to a list of
launchable apps or shortcuts generated by other apps?", I've written a lot
about this. 

Android doesn't give the users a *direct* way to create one-tap shortcuts
to activities (which are screens that show up inside any given app). 
 <http://xdaforums.com/t/tutorial-illustrated-mostly-privacy-based-one-tap-shortcuts-so-that-you-can-access-in-a-single-tap-any-buried-android-setting-or-app-activity.4625951/>

And, while almost every launcher gives users the ability to create widgets
that open up activities within apps, widgets suck for a variety of reasons.

I've documented how to create one-tap shortcuts here and elsewhere though,
so the answer to Nuno's question is as simple as installing Muntashirakon.
 <https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager> (apk)
 <https://muntashir.dev/AppManager/en/> (doc)

If an app "does something" by showing a screen (aka, an activity), then
Muntashirakon App Manager will allow you to create a shortcut to it.

You put that shortcut into your shortcuts folder, which I keep in my dock.

To further elaborate on Nuno's example of "Say, if I want a
shortcut to open a specific file with a specific application, bypassing
any "open with" screens. It'd be quite easy to edit a shortcut to do
this in Windows 4, how can this be achieved on Android?", I hesitate to
mention Nova Launcher because of its history of riches-to-rags, but some
launchers like Nova Launcher, Apex Launcher, Hyperion Launcher and Smart
Launcher allow you to create shortcuts that point directly to custom
intents to perform those tasks, so we're always looking for a better
launcher.
 <http://xdaforums.com/t/nova-launcher-used-to-be-the-best-free-android-launcher-until-now-so-whats-better.4474961/>

However, it's likely better to just get a text editor which can open any
file, and then set a shortcut for that text editor to open that file.
 <http://xdaforums.com/t/how-hard-can-it-be-to-find-a-simple-text-editor-that-edits-any-text-file-stored-anywhere-you-want-it-to-be-stored-on-your-internal-or-external-sdcard.4529815>

As always, anything I say can be wrong (and probably is), so please 
fix where I err or omit so that we end up with more knowledge overall.
-- 
On Usenet, friendly kind-hearted people help each other out daily.

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Thread

What is an App Launcher? croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> - 2026-08-04 14:57 -0700
  Re: What is an App Launcher? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-04 16:29 -0800
    Re: What is an App Launcher? Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-05 12:41 +0100
      Re: What is an App Launcher? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-08-05 12:45 +0100
        Re: What is an App Launcher? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-05 09:59 -0800
        [OT] Windows NT and Write (was: Re: What is an App Launcher?) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-14 13:10 +0100
          Re: [OT] Windows NT and Write Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-08-14 13:27 +0100
            Re: [OT] Windows NT and Write Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-14 08:42 -0800
            Re: [OT] Windows NT and Write Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-15 10:12 +0100
  Re: What is an App Launcher? Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-08-05 08:36 +0100
    Re: What is an App Launcher? Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-05 12:52 +0100
    Re: What is an App Launcher? croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> - 2026-08-05 09:59 -0700
      Re: What is an App Launcher? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-08-05 18:29 +0100
        Re: What is an App Launcher? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-05 10:10 -0800
      Re: What is an App Launcher? Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-08-05 19:27 +0100
        Re: What is an App Launcher? "R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> - 2026-08-05 21:52 +0200
          Re: What is an App Launcher? Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-08-05 21:59 +0100
            Re: What is an App Launcher? "R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> - 2026-08-06 09:03 +0200
  Re: What is an App Launcher? Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-08-05 20:47 +0200
  Re: What is an App Launcher? "R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> - 2026-08-06 14:26 +0200
    Re: What is an App Launcher? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-06 08:01 -0800

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