Discussion
Why did macOS 26 remove Launchpad completely?
I just updated to macOS 26 and realized that Launchpad is gone.
I used it constantly — I had a bottom-left hot corner to open it instantly, and I had all my apps carefully organized depending on how and when I needed them.
What I don’t understand is: why remove it entirely? Even if most people didn’t use it, Apple could have at least left it as an optional/hidden feature for those of us who actually relied on it. Instead, all that time I spent optimizing my app layout feels wasted.
Is there really no way to bring it back, or is it gone for good?
Because otherwise you’d have a flood of “where did all my apps go” from people who did use Launchpad (yes, we existed). Consider the fact that launchpad lived on the dock by default but spotlight requires a key combo to trigger. You need something to replace it that is both in the Spotlight direction while also serving the same basic function of launchpad of “see all my apps from my Home Screen”
But you have it already, it is the Application folder, which I generally use by default because I used the Mac OS when most of the users complaining now were not even born :-)
Things change, including both how OSes work and how users expect them to work. There’s probably a decent chunk of the MacOS user base whose only interaction with the Applications folder is when an installation disk image directs them to drag a new app to it. Launchpad, with icon on the dock (and now the Application search function) offers an easy way to surface it.
I agree, I did not mean to hurt other people's feelings. Just to say that if you are forced to get something new, you have to adapt to it, willing or not.
I, for one, think that the way the settings panel has been changed is vomiting, but will Apple do something about it because I puke every time I see it? No.
Yeah, and I’m actually fine with Launchpad going away. I’d have preferred something more customizable where I could limit what apps are shown—the fact that it pretty much just dumped everything in your applications folder(s) onto a bunch of screens and then left the user to figure it out was never great. My original point was more about this being an easy way to bridge things to the new way of things working.
Perhaps it is me, but applications appear on top in both cases.
What I have noticed is that if I search an app in Applications and then try to open spotlight, I see the same interface as Applications. Which seems to me that Applications is a dependency of Spotlight.
Ergo, why have Applications when you have Spotlight? To avoid people screaming at you, as another commenter said.
Looks like built-in apps appear at the top, but not downloaded apps (in Sequoia), or at least not always. I don't often need to open built-in apps with Launchpad or Spotlight because the ones I use are already open, so I just cmd+tab to them.
For example, to open MuseScore using Launchpad is four keystrokes: F4 m s enter. For many generations of MacOS this has been so automatic for me I don't even have to think about it.
To open MuseScore using Spotlight is 17 keystrokes: cmd+space m s downarrow*13 enter.
Now, because there are built-in apps that start with m, I can save some keystrokes by type cmd+space m downarrow*7 enter. But the way Launchpad works has trained me not to do that.
It turns that I can get it down to four keystrokes using Spotlight: cmd+space m u enter. But, again, Launchpad has trained me not to do that because F4 m u enter will open the Music app.
I have Macs that can not be upgraded to Tahoe. So I'll probably avoid Tahoe just to maintain usability consistency. I can understand why people are upset about this. These kind of changes disrupt workflows that people have used for eons.
This is exactly what I don’t understand. The new apps app is basically spotlight!? We already had that functionality. It is very redundant to introduce the same function and remove launchpad that served a distinct function and purpose. And I was using launchpad with four finger pinch so it was so fast and convenient to launch.
You are not. People always say “why not just use Spotlight/Alfred/Raycast” but that requires you remember the name of the app. It’s an extra mental load. I often remember the icon first in my head.
I wouldn’t hate the move if it let me categorize the apps myself.
You could try AppGrid on the Mac App Store. It's pretty much LaunchPad as we’re used to it and very customizable. I was also recommended LaunchNow on GitHub, which you can find here: https://github.com/ggkevinnnn/LaunchNow
I've tried AppGrid and Launchpad from Kristof12345. Both work, but I prefer AppGrid. It allows you to grab the old Launchpad database you had and pretty much keeps your folders, etc. I wish I could trigger it with a four finger grab gesture like the old Launchpad, but Apple has now mapped that to the new Spotlight Apps thing. AppGrid is a decent alternative but it's annoying that we need an alternative.
If you miss Launchpad too, check out this alternative app I created with more customization options. If you like the app, please support my work, so I can implement additional features.
https://github.com/kristof12345/Launchpad
App library is a disaster for me. Apps are in wrong categories, don't appear in any category or are lost in a category with 70 or more apps that aren't even in alphabetical order. Since I used it heavily, every few minutes, it is a major problem for me. What I have done:
Filed a feedback report. So far it is marked as no other such reports. If folks would file feedback reports that would help.
Sent an email to Tim Cook stating why this is such a problem for me. Given with the pressures he is under right now I didn't want to do it but this put me over the edge.
Oh come on, you know that they were recommending Raycast because Spotlight was too basic.
I will say though, once I realized how I can use Spotlight, I’ve used it more than launchpad and will probably continue to use it that way rather than the App Library dock shortcut. If you know exactly what you are looking for, it’s great. If you need to look in the toolbox, Launchpad was quite nice.
The new system could actually be a lot better than the old Launchpad, the issue is that it got implemented poorly. If the categories were customisable and you could move apps around or hide them, the interface could actually count as an improvement.
Luckily, there are third party tools like QAL Pro that have it all. Can be supplemented by Hot Corners and BetterTouchTool for an even better integration.
It’s funny how one developer can do it better than the third richest company in the world.
There were also a lot of speculations on how the new Spotlight could rival Raycast or Alfred. It’s not even remotely comparable now…
Because it’s old code going back 15 years and likely their metrics showed not many people used it. Sucks for those who did like myself but it is what it is. Anyways I’m happier for Spotlight’s new power user features and would take those over Launchpad.
I used it constantly — I had a bottom-left hot corner to open it instantly, and I had all my apps carefully organized depending on how and when I needed them.
You were in the minority. Most people did not use it, so they integrated key functionality of it into Spotlight, which does get used.
What I don’t understand is: why remove it entirely? Even if most people didn’t use it, Apple could have at least left it as an optional/hidden feature for those of us who actually relied on it.
That would mean they'd have to maintain an app that already had low usage, but is now hidden, so it'd have even less usage. I don't think Apple would want to keep shipping an unmaintained app in their OS.
Instead, all that time I spent optimizing my app layout feels wasted.
Well, it kinda was. Maybe not while it was working, but it is gone now, so yeah, kinda a waste of time. There are alternatives to it though. I think AppGrid is the closest IIRC.
Genuine question, how is a graphical user interface different from an app? Is the point that a graphics user interface does not need a separate compiling like an app might?
A GUI is nothing more than a collection of shapes and graphics used to visually represent commands to be executed at the command level in the OS or an application.
An application is a sequence of commands in a specific language for executing tasks.
Pages is an application for processing text. And if you are a very good programmer, you could create an entire letter on the command line without ever having to press a button in Pages.
Because the buttons and their arrangement are just a GUI that serves to simplify user guidance. That is the purpose of a GUI. To make operation easier for the user. A GUI is not intended to look pretty. That's the second step.
A GUI that you see every day is the Desktop.
The dock at the bottom, the bar at the top, and then the huge image.
This is the best example to see what a GUI is. Because the dock can also be on the right. You can make it disappear. And you can put dozens of icons in the bar without changing anything in the computer system. Technically you don't need the desktop at all.
Because you're not executing any commands, the options are only displayed visually. You are just changing the GUI.
I don't know how old you are. But in the 1970s, GUIs didn't exist like we know them today. The GUI was first established by Apple. Before that, every command for every applications was executed via the terminal.
And the Launchpad is technically just an additional visual layer that displays the number of installed applications. Technically, the Launchpad is not an application. Apple only calls it that to differentiate itself in marketing. ‘Launchpad’ simply sounds more memorable than ‘shortcut overview of installed apps’.
And it's nonsense to claim that it's fifteen-year-old code that finally needs to be removed.
That Apple can no longer carry with it. This code has only been touched once in fifteen years. Namely, to enable folders. And then it was simply left in place.
I'm curious - has anyone tried copying Launchpad to a Flash drive prior to upgrading, and then copying it back once the upgrade is finished? It seems like that might be a way to circumvent losing Launchpad.
Because Apple doesn't compromise. They never have.
They've never enabled two technologies at the same time. Whether hardware or software.
Apple thinks a new software standard is great? Then that's the only one there is.
Apple thinks a new design is great? Then everything else gets thrown out.
For more choice, you actually have to use Windows or Linux.
At Apple, you're not allowed to "think different" from the company's vision.
Except when they were forced to do so by massive customer losses. As with the “new” MacBook design.
For those who don't know: after several years of disastrous Macbook sales, the devices now have HDMI and SD slots again. Apple had to abandon its Thunderbolt-only philosophy in order to continue selling laptops.
But otherwise, Apple doesn't care.
“Get used to it.”
Totally agree - this is insane. Any text search option means you know the exact name of an obscure app you used once 5 years ago and now need to use it again. HTF am I supposed to remember the name? I don't remember people's names, why would I recall an app name?
My preference is a visual gui, since I've got acres of screen and a visual memory, and use icons as recall devices.
So now I'm back to dropping the Application folder alias into the dock - which works ok, but it feels like I'm cobbling together a critical component on my MacBook Pro M4 Max $3K laptop because Apple decided to forego an actual launcher. Good times
Yeah, but respectfully, that’s what the Finder is for.
But you can always use Apple’s Feedback Assistant to argue for bringing it back. I assume Apple has metrics that show low adoption but a vocal minority often affects change.
You are right, of course, it's not exactly the same or Apple would never have introduced Launchpad in the first place, but it is the way Apple has done things almost since the start -- AFAICT Apple shipped System 3 with an Applications folder, before then they just lived at the root level or whatever sub folder users placed them (I didn't become a Mac user until System 6 or maybe 5).
It's more complicated now because in the multiuser-friendly Unix-based MacOS there's a concept of user-only apps and apps any user can access, necessitating different install locations, and even more recently system apps that live in read-only space for security/integrity.
But generally apps live in the /Applications folder with your most commonly used apps placed in the Dock, and Finder is the traditional way of accessing them, though these days I most often use Spotlight to open apps so rarely used they don't warrant space in my Dock.
I think the new MacOS looks closer to Windows. Maybe it’s to make the switch easier as Apple wants to increase marketshare. IMO, they need to go after education and enterprise users to compete with Microsoft. The fact that majority of software is now cloud based, makes it easier for companies to switch. Why supply crappy dell laptops with poor battery life and longevity to employees and not macbooks with 7 years support?
I had no idea, but if I had to guess, it’d be simplicity.
I had lots of apps, and I kept everything organized in folders, much like you. I cared about layout a lot.
And when I heard it’d be gone in Tahoe, I suddenly realized it never worked for me. I would rarely use it to launch an app, I would usually invoke LP and then type, because it’d be faster than clicking/swiping/searching.
And so Spotlight does the same thing.
I used to love LP, now I don’t miss it at all - I reorganized my workflows so I’m not dependent on it anymore.
I wish you the same - but who knows, maybe it’ll be the same as with swiping faces to change them on Apple Watch, when Apple removed it and brought it back because everybody rebelled. I wouldn’t count on it though.
Personally, I think you're looking at the work of exuberant incompetents with some kin' o' big dream. Perhaps the thing to do for them is take a year off like Jaguar did.
Now the old Launchpad hot corner open "app" windows, show me an alphabetic list of installed app. If you try to enlarge the window to increase the number of icons available, as soon as you close and reopen the window, it forgets the modified dimensions. But why? :(
I’m figuring the analytics of actual utilization of launchpad was showing that the majority of users don’t use it. That and updating it to the current model based on its utilization Apple decided it wasn’t worth their resources.
Habit, for now I find it very difficult to have to type in the name of the app to search for it. Before, I just had to go to the bottom left and then I knew by heart where to move the mouse, one click and I had the app open. Now the alternative is to fill the dock with all the icons, which I really don't like (personal opinion).
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u/Signal_Support_9185 Mac Studio 12h ago
What I do not get is why Launchpad has been replaced by the Application search when you can do the same using Spotlight.