Disable app drawer

[StegCon]

I came from iOS because I used to be in love with the older Xperia and switched to iOS for work then realised that your traps when your with them so changed my mind after 2 year contract then came back for the Xperia 1 and love the phone but one thing I loved about the iPhone was all the apps we're on the home screen and not in a app drawer can I turn this off at all? I have used loads of launchers and none that I've tried has this feature that is the only thing that is driving me mad because I absolutely loved that on my iPhone pls help need some advice. 

[RottenFoxBreath]

Nothing says iphone owners like multiple home screens filled with junk and apps you only open once, and never again. 

You could use Nova Launcher, or create folders on your home screens with apps in them, or just drag the app icons onto your home screens, and any new ones their icon adds to it.

[Strampke]

First: I agree that the new Android app Google created is not as intuitive as it used to be.

Google developers, at least in my opinion, live in a hemisphere that is beyond the world where normal human beings reside.

On the other hand it may well be possible that by omitting some features the user interface may become a bit more fluid without lagging.

Problem here is that they won't tell!

There is another option for you.

Back in the old days you could add another home screen with ease by tapping and holding your finger on the home screen.

That option is hidden/has disappeared these days.

You have 2 choices now.

First choice.

In home screen settings set a switch to add new installed apps to the home screen.

The icons will land on a second screen on the right side of your home screen.

Second choice

Tap and hold on an app icon in the app drawer.

Then drag it to the home screen. Keep holding and slide it to the side of the home screen.

Then all of a sudden a second home screen appears where you can put your icon.

After that you can fill your screen with icons.

TIP

To delete a second or third home screen slide all icons to the bin (X remove) on top.

As soon as you removed the last icon on that screen, the screen will be gone.

Again, it works, although I really cannot understand how developers were able to design such an irrational user interface.

Thumbs down for the Google developers!

[Jonas]

Hi @StegCon, welcome to our forum and welcome to the Android world!

I can see that you have already received some very good tips and you can of course move all the icons to the different home screens if you prefer that and not use the app drawer at all.

I personally have folders for my most used apps, such as media applications, Social Media applications, banking, notes and so forth on the home screen so it's not so cluttered and I can have 5-6 folders that contains all the applications I use on a daily/weekly basis and I rarely use the app drawer at all.

I'm not sure if any developer has done a iOS launcher, but you can always search for that in the Google Play store and it hopefully does exactly what you want.

Thanks to @RottenFoxBreath  and @Strampke for helping out!

Let us know if our tips have helped or if there is anything else!

[StegCon]

I know that I can make folders and place them in the home screen but the app drawer completely throws me off as never had it on Apple loads of times I accidently swipe up then access the app drawer when I wanted the task manager it's just so confusing and I can't get used to it I also tried the iOS launchers there all pay based and even if u pay for the full version it isn't the complete iOS experience that u get it's a run down version. 

[RottenFoxBreath]

First world problems, eh.....Welcome to Android. 

If you want a sub par phone with features from 3 years ago, and a mess of jumbled icons all on screen, and having an app tray confuses you, then buy another iphone.

As I said before, Nova Launcher is the closest you will get to the ios experience.

And just for the record, swipe up from right at the bottom of the screen, is for the task manager, and swipe up anywhere else on the screen is the app tray, and swiping down, anywhere on the screen is the notification bar.

Give it time, it's a far better system, and once you start throwing folders with your most used apps, and having them all in different named folders, it's a breeze..And having widgets onscreen as well..a blessing.!

[Jonas]

Hi again @StegCon!

I understand and if you follow what @RottenFoxBreath wrote, you will hopefully get used to how the gesture system works in Android devices and if you give it some time, you might forget how it used to be and everything is fluid.

It's not much else we can recommend as this can't be changed and the app drawer can't be disabled all together, at least not with the default launcher.

If you haven't tried the Nova launcher, give it a go!

@RottenFoxBreath, thank you for helping out!

I hope that the user also will get used to how it works in Android, it will of course take some time to get used to the Android way.