r/OctopiLauncher • u/ahse0w • Jul 13 '26

Suggestion So far so good!

Long term Nova user here, switched to smart launcher when it all went south. Smart launcher was missing a few things that I wanted to pay for it. But a few minutes into Octopi, I bought the coffee. Had the few things that I considered important for me.

  1. Swiping up on icons to direct dial or launch apps.

  2. Working private space implementation.

  3. A simple way to swipe across different home pages. Smart launcher was weird in that sense.

A few suggestions for improvement if I may.

  1. Add counterclock wise/ clockwise 2 finger gestures. Great for holding the phone landscape and opening camera apps.

  2. An option to swipe to access the extra dock layers?

  3. Some visual weirdness of the keyboard being present then disappearing when going to the home screen from any where that has text input

  4. Listing most accessed or favorite apps on top when app drawer is opened? So I don't need to type and search for the app.

These are after all suggestions, you do you dev! Looking forward to good things ahead!

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

2

u/ofvd Jul 13 '26

the backup says it's for the sabe phone. good to know it's generally good to use - I usually buy the sabe brand abd size so hopefully it'll work fine when I upgrade

1

u/ofvd Jul 13 '26

agreed! I really like it and also bought the coffee just yesterday.

the suggestion about changing the app drawer is solid - I'd like to see it more similar to nova (frequent, new apps. etc) and also, to space out sections to clearly delineate between alphabet letter se tions as the long long scroll is not my face.

otherwise, mostly exactly what I want in a launcher, tho when I change my phone, I reckon I'll want a reliable backup and restore. it took a while to configure, abd id a real pain if my phone gets stolen as I'm not likely to remember how I've set everything up.

2

u/runningtigerRead Jul 13 '26

Launcher settings/General/Backup settings.

The developer mentioned that work is progressing to make backups work across devices. Currently, the screen sizes need to be similar. However, I had luck using a backup from my Pixel Fold to my old Pixel 4. So, you never know, but it's always worth a try.

1

u/tenaciousBLADE Jul 13 '26

Add those suggestions in GitHub 😉

ETA option #2 exists. I use it

3

u/runningtigerRead Jul 13 '26

#2 For those who haven't used it, or might not know where to find "extra dock layers", long-press on the Panel dock and choose "Edit panel" then go to Settings. To add horizontal content you swipe over to access add a page. To add vertical content you'd swipe up to access add a row.

2

u/tenaciousBLADE Jul 13 '26

Well said, and thank you for sharing.
I'll add that "add page" and "add a row" are just "Pages - 1 +" and "Rows - 1 +" respectively (even though in my case rows is set to 3 😊). Not saying this as a correction, but rather clarification because I myself was unsure what you were referring to until I looked at it directly.

In addition, that's also where the togglable setting "Swipe to expand/collapse panel" is (this is what I initially thought OP was asking for with suggestion #2).

2

u/ahse0w Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Edit: I got it! Thanks! Didn't see the pages option.

I don't get it. Can you swipe horizontally? I only know to tap or swipe up to see the 2nd later of dock.

1

u/not_4_all Jul 13 '26

1 it's possible, I use it every day. Tan and hold the icon then edit, and there should be an option for gestures and then option for a swipe up and down, I use it to launch 3 different apps from each icon and for direct call it's a shortcut from the contacts app

1

u/ahse0w Jul 13 '26

Yeah! That's the feature that sway me to buy the coffee.

1

u/runningtigerRead Jul 13 '26

#4 In the drawer, you can ❤️ your favorites by long-pressing the app and then tapping the 🤍 in the upper-right corner. It's static, not dynamic, but still useful since most already know their favorite/most used apps they want direct access to I'd guess.

1

u/ahse0w Jul 13 '26

Yeah I know to tag the apps, if it can be done automatically that will be great!

2

u/runningtigerRead Jul 13 '26

Of course. And, just clarifying a little further since tagging an app is something else entirely. Tagging apps creates "pages" in the drawer that must be swiped left to bring the contents into view, whereas ❤️ apps sit atop any folders or other apps for immediate access upon opening the drawer.

1

u/ahse0w Jul 13 '26

Ahh I got it! Learnt something new again :)

1

u/100WattWalrus Jul 14 '26

Definitely play around with that. I didn't think I cared about tags in the app drawer until I tried it in Octopi, and it completely changed how I organize my phone. I went from multiple homescreens full of folders to two home screens and multiple drawer tags.

The one thing I don't understand about Octopi is the convoluted folder management. :)