this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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Hi folks,

After numerous feedback and hundreds of changes, I'm happy to share that my project, Octopi Launcher, is ready for open testing.

Below are some key features, with more to come:

  • Foldables support - have totally different layouts on each screen
  • (Auto scrolling) widget stacks
  • Float/ pin a widget on top of home screens
  • Display drawer icons as tiles
  • App drawer folders and favorite apps
  • Assign a nickname to an app (e.g. searching "ff" can instantly launch Firefox)
  • Launch different apps using swipes on an icon
  • Icon pack and shortcut support
  • Resize individual home screen icons
  • Index bar and reachability mode for drawer
  • Option to hide status and navigation bars
  • Notification badges
  • Private space support
  • Lock home screen layout
  • Haptic effects

Shane has also done a video review on a slightly older version, which gives an idea what this launcher can do.

Have a great day!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Coming from Nova, this looks like a launcher bringing some of the same intuitive navigation and handling that make me consider switching.

  • Props on (nearly) side to side widget sizing.
  • private spaces support stands out
  • Swipe actions are nice to see too

Drawer style needs some getting used to, missing quickly accessible categories (tabs) but I might come to an arrangement with folders on top.

Home screen gestures feel limited with up and right but no down, double finger swipe or twist. Swipe right from first screen (=left most, could be communicated better I think) feels odd, especially in a configuration with screens on both sides of home it loses some of the quick access utility.

Swipe actions per screen apparently means physical one although I can't confirm that with a traditional brick. I was hoping it would be per page to offset the point above.

Swipe actions on app icons on home, but not on folders seems odd to me. ~~Missing folder behavior like tap to launch first, swipe (up|down) to (open|shortcut)~~ Found it in settings but seems to be global instead of per folder?

App drawer search feels a bit clunky, button on the lower right is hard to reach, start search always shows and costs screen space. Swipe down to search while in the drawer was a nice touch in Nova I miss here. Edit: home screen gesture swipe opens app search so that's an option I'm using for now even tho it costs an additional home gesture slot.

Edit: having both show search and easy reach active seems really silly since the keyboard overlaps 80% immediately.
Drawer scaling could do with a preview or be available alongside the column and display style menu.

Drawer a-z list scrolling feels gooood, with the haptic feedback and quick preview. Nice work!
Got a bug tho: if a letter only has a single app and it ends up on the right column in a 2 column list layout the drawer scrolls to far and it ends up above the viewport.

Widgets stacks are neat but not sure of a good use case yet since I mostly want my widget contents to be available at a glance. Autoscroll is cool but a bit busy. Might get back to that at some point tho.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you for the detailed feedback - really appreciate your suggestions. Quite a number of these will be polished up along the way, and new features added (app tags, more gestures and options)