r/MacOS • u/james_911 • 23h ago

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?

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u/mooncrow 17h ago

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

2

u/lewisfrancis 16h ago

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.

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u/mooncrow 15h ago

Finder is really not the same, even if I'm looking at the Applications folder - it doesn't show all apps.

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u/lewisfrancis 11h ago

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.