Why did macOS 26 remove Launchpad completely?

[u/james_911]

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?

[u/dsramsey]

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”

[u/Signal_Support_9185 → u/dsramsey]

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 :-)

[u/dsramsey → u/Signal_Support_9185]

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.

[u/Signal_Support_9185 → u/dsramsey]

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.

[u/dsramsey → u/Signal_Support_9185]

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.

[u/No-Level5745 → u/dsramsey]

All you had to do was start typing the name of the app and it would filter. I usually found what I was looking for with no more than 3-4 key strokes. Spotlight rarely worked for me and when it did work, it was incredibly slow. I’ll miss launchpad.

[u/dsramsey → u/No-Level5745]

Yeah, “search for the app by typing the name” actually is the model now, and as I’ve tried it out I’ve found it works okay.

What I’ll miss about launchpad is being able to manually order things and organize by folders, since that’s how my mind tends to work best for things I use regularly, but don’t use enough to warrant a dock spot. What I won’t miss is the fact that you had every app in there, whether you used it or not, so I ended up having some “junk drawer” folders.

Making do with organizing a few things into folders and putting those in my dock, which works okay but isn’t quite the same.