"Sort by usage" is pretty cool, in theory, but it only lasts until the next time I install a new app. The only way I know of to make FAST show the new app is to "Clear cache", which also wipes the usage history.

It would be really cool if there was a way to scan for new apps without resetting usage history.

Could you match written umlauts to their corresponding letters?
Example: Search for "Oeffi" to find "Öffi" because that'd be faster than long-pressing the "O" letter and select the "Ö".

When I search for "calc" and then tap on the calculator app icon, the calculator opens; but a text keyboard is still shown and I can't get it to close. When I hit the back button, the calculator app closes.

Makes more sense to show it in settings instead of the app list header.

add a sort order selector in the settings:

• alphabetical
• call count
• size

after the latest awesome speed improvements by @jfreax there is a problem when searching sometimes the icons are not loaded

Pure sorting option "most used" does not usually reflect "most needed right now" because the phone usage way is changing from day to day, from week to week.

Would be nice to have "last used" sorting option that seems to be more sutable in most cases. "Search based launcher v2" uses this approach and also marks sorted applications with R: which means "recently launched".

give a option to hide some apps

scrolling is a bit laggy sometimes ( especially with small icon sizes ) - try reducing the lag
not yet sure how - already using view-recycling ( convertView )
perhaps pre-scaling icons is an option

How to produce it:

• enter FAST settings;
• do something/nothing and close those settings;
• scroll down in the FAST app list (bottom is the est way to view manifestation of this issue);
• wait for 3-4s;
• FAST reloads app list and puts you back to the top.

It works every time and it is annoying on daily basis.

All screenshots were taken with my SPH-D710 running Cyanogenmod 11. Also of note is the fact I'm using a build of this that has some changes to the transparent dark theme to automatically tint my wallpaper a bit darker to improve text readability.

First screenshot shows without any scrolling:

Second screenshot after a flick:

Third screenshot after a few more flicks up and down:

Fourth screenshot, no icons:

It would look nicer if the icons faded to black at the bottom of the screen when there is space to scroll below. I think this would be more in line with android 4.3 / holo theme

The blue magnifier icon in the top left seems squashed against the text box to its right. Some more space between the two or a smaller and more centered icon would look more polished.

I would appreciate the option to have the default gradient background that you can find in many holo apps as a theme option.

More possible options to add - change specific number of icon rows and columns, change font color, hide specific icons from search and display, group icons into subsections

thanks

via email from @ZauberNerd

At the moment, every "Caching to serve FAST" dialog can be interrupted with hardware "back" button. Maybe there is a way to disable this since you may avoid this scenario:

• first time user wants to start using/testing FAST;
• user starts FAST and initial caching takes place;
• by accident, user press hw "back" button while he sees "Caching to serve FAST";
• user now has launcher that has no icons and maybe he is not aware that he can rebuild cache with Settings > Clear cache.

Instead of code changes, there could be just better highlight in documentation about this feature ("Clear Cache").

when query starts with /

Currently the app search function is very fast and efficient but when considering using FAST as a home screen some additional functions would be useful to me.

The main one would be the abilitiy to use the search query box to open an internet search in my browser (eg. firefox) as well as search local apps.

There could be a button to the right of the query box that would open the search in a browser, with the possibility to choose from several search engines on the fly. There should also be options to allow one to choose or modify the search string for custom search engines.

Overall I'm imagning the function that is provided somewhat with ubuntu unity's dash but with the external stuff viewable only in the browser and not mixed together with local apps.

What do you think?

How to produce it:

• change "Lines of text" option in FAST to 2 or 3 (default is 1 - one line of text);
• rebuild cache;
• scroll to bottom of app list and then scroll up.

What shoud happen:
Icons in app list should be vertically aligned to top.

What happens instead:
Icons in app list will be vertically aligned to bottom instead of top.

Here is the sshot:
http://i.imgur.com/SEMVH9q.png
Notice "K-9 Mail", "Dev Tools" and "Droid Life" icons.

Source of the original bug: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ligi.fast&reviewId=Z3A6QU9xcFRPRXQyS0FsRm5sRW5FN1NrVGN6ZHNmNm42aUYtOHlSMHlPdUhIcjVQQjRFbzVicVFaQmd0cG0xeW9ZZC1BRnRTcW1Lcjd1aGIzbkNacDdGZHc

Although this is with a custom build where I'm trying to implement the pin feature in a stable manner, I am able to easily reproduce the bug here just by installing/removing a package.

This screenshot was after I installed a random application on a test phone I had laying around after setting up some breakpoints in Android studio.

This screenshot was after I went ahead and pinned the app before exiting it normally, using the same breakpoints.

This screenshot was after I uninstalled a random application on a test phone I had laying around, using the same breakpoints.

Program with name "To Do" can be find by:

• "td"
• "tdo"
• "too"
• "to do"

However it cannot be find by seem to be logical:

• "tod"
• "todo"

At the moment, there is option "Only show app names" in FAST. When you select it, it will display app names without icons. The style used to display them is not really good. I really like the blue line above the names but the list is too condensed and tiny. Take a look at screen on 3.5" device:

It is way too small. Maybe some option to choose between this current style and regular "settings like" list where app names are in one line and only one app per row is shown?

Current style would make sense if there was option to change font size but without that option, it looks bad.

Any ideas on how to improve this?

Before I start going on about what I'd want in the app, I'd like to thank you for this app, as it is by far the most useful launcher I have ever used.

Now, I'd like to suggest the option for a transparent status bar, and preferably, an option to even hide it completely. While we are at transparency, I think that it would be a a good idea to add the option for a modifiable color overlay when the transparent themes are used. Because at this point, the transparent themes are barely usable because they clash with the icons and text. A nice dim of the background, be it via a color overlay or blur would be much appreciated. And the option to set the overlay percentage would be great (20%, 30%, 50% etc.).

Best regards.

I'm using FAST as a home screen replacement and one thing that I miss is the ability to pin some apps to always appear at the top.

Suggestion: add an option to the long tap menu to pin or unpin an app. The only effect this needs to have is to always sort pinned apps before unpinned apps. To keep things simple, I think it's even acceptable if the pinned apps are sorted the same way as the unpinned ones, without any way of reordering them manually.

Hi there, may you please kindly keep the searched result after having
chosen a context option such as Open Details for further choosing other
context options during returning back to this app?

I'll track this here:

• Quicker @ GPlay
• F-Droid RFP
• Amazon

Steps to reproduce:

1. Select unsorted in the settings (should be default with a new install) or some other sort method other than your usual usage
2. Select unsorted

Expected results:
Apps are unsorted, disregarding all the sort methods applied before to the app list.

Actual results:
Apps are still sorted by the previous sort method's sorting instead of what FAST considered "unsorted".

I use v5.3 (from F-Droid) and i have noticed that if you use #44 app list will be randomly sorted even though you selected alphabetical sorting mode. It will however show apps in right order after you lock and unlock screen.

In other words, how to trigger this bug:

• Install FAST v5.3 from F-Droid;
• Make it default launcher;
• In FAST settings, select alphabetical sorting method;
• go back from FAST settings to main screen where you apps are listed;
• wait about 2s for FAST to display app list.

What should you see:

• Apps will be randomly sorted;

What you should see:

• Apps should be sorted alphabetically.

Notice
After you trigger this bug, alphabetical sorting is back to normal when you lock and then unlock screen.

My system is CM7.2 (Gingerbread 2.3.7).

It looks like there are some more important settings, and some less important (and more advanced) settings. They also get mixed together a little bit, making it harder to browse through.

I'd propose something like:

Display

• Theme
• Icon Size
• Icon Size
• Lines of text

Behaviour

• Sort
• Auto Launch
• Search packages
• Search within words

Advanced

• Convert umlauts
• Show Keyboard
• Finish FAST on App-Launch
• Clear cache

i think it would be great if instead having a launcher it was possible to add this quick app search functionnality as a widget. something similar to the google search bar which is not very app oriented.

As per https://developer.android.com/design/patterns/settings.html ("Avoid the temptation to make everything a setting"), some things probably shouldn't be settings.

I can't think of a time where removing trailing spaces would cause problems, so perhaps always removing spaces is a good idea.

When you open FAST and search for an app and then long-click an app item, currently there are only two c-menu items: 'App Details' and 'Open as Notification'.

I would suggest to a 'Create desktop shortcut' item that would allow users to drag the app to the desktop to create a shortcut. This would be similar to how Android allows users to create shortcuts when browsing the apps via its Menu button.

I believe this feature would be very useful because Android doesn't allow for easy filtering of apps and allow to subsequently create a shortcut. The only way to do it now is to browse the apps via the Menu (currently I have >10 pages of installed apps) and then DnD to the desktop. To add a 2nd shortcut you would need to re-browse. With FAST it would be much easier.

There's that app called KISS that is very similar to FAST. So much so that you could even try to merge the two... Anyway, KISS does something that I like a lot: you can type the name of a contact and it brings it up. There are even call and text shortcut icons to be quicker.

So this is a suggestion! There could even be more types of "launchable" things...

What do you think?

reported by user - some keyboards make spaces at the end of word

When choosing the transparent light or transparent dark themes the font sizes in the settings menu change (become larger) compared to the regular light or dark theme.

Perhaps they do not follow the system-wide settings for font sizes whereas the regular light and dark theme settings do (my global fonts are set to small)?.. It's not an important bug but it does reduce the visual continuity within FAST.

4.4 release on nexus 7 android 4.3

Hi

I like this app but one thing is the sorting based on is broken constantly, even if it works it seems to reset the sorting once in a while. I have not tried the latest builds but i am back to 5.1 which seems to work

thanks

some help dialog would be nice - then also replace the g+ and play link - could also be inside help so more decent

user feedbqack from arif - kind of makes sense. At the moment you have to press twice to exit fast. Not yet sure though if we need the "old" behavior as a setting/option

To reproduce:
Select "Transparent dark" as Theme in the application settings. Alternatively, set the theme to "Transparent dark" in 5.9, and upgrade to 6.0.

Expected behaviour:
The selection is displayed in the settings, and the background becomes transparent.

Observed behaviour:
The application crashes. If the application is restarted, it will crash again.
The following trace turns up in the log:

2015-01-07 06:22:13,ERROR,ActivityThread,Unknown,Failed to inflate
android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #16: Error inflating class android.widget.EditText
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.createView(LayoutInflater.java:620)
    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneLayoutInflater.onCreateView(PhoneLayoutInflater.java:56)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.onCreateView(LayoutInflater.java:669)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.createViewFromTag(LayoutInflater.java:694)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.rInflate(LayoutInflater.java:755)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.rInflate(LayoutInflater.java:758)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:492)
    at de.robv.android.xposed.XposedBridge.invokeOriginalMethodNative(Native Method)
    at de.robv.android.xposed.XposedBridge.handleHookedMethod(XposedBridge.java:631)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(Native Method)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:397)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:353)
    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.onIntChanged(PhoneWindow.java:1379)
    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.updateInt(PhoneWindow.java:3606)
    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.setFeatureInt(PhoneWindow.java:1320)
    at org.ligi.fast.ui.SearchActivity.onCreate(Unknown Source)
    at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5231)
    at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1087)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2169)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2271)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.access$800(ActivityThread.java:144)
    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1205)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5146)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:732)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:566)
    at de.robv.android.xposed.XposedBridge.main(XposedBridge.java:132)
    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.constructNative(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:423)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.createView(LayoutInflater.java:594)
    ... 30 more
Caused by: android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: Resource is not a ColorStateList (color or path): TypedValue{t=0x2/d=0x1010098 a=-1}
    at android.content.res.Resources.loadColorStateList(Resources.java:2376)
    at android.content.res.TypedArray.getColorStateList(TypedArray.java:343)
    at android.content.res.XResources$XTypedArray.getColorStateList(XResources.java:912)
    at android.widget.TextView.<init>(TextView.java:960)
    at android.widget.EditText.<init>(EditText.java:60)
    at android.widget.EditText.<init>(EditText.java:56)
    ... 33 more

Hello,
First, thanks for the great launcher!

My idea is a sorting option that sorts the applications by how often they are used recently.
Because the applications you will start most probably are on top, you may access them more quickly.
Maybe a dynamic implementation would be to calculate how often an application was launches in relation to the last x application launches?

Greetings,
Björn Sonnenschein

How to produce it:

1. install any new app;
2. revert back to FAST app;
3. go to FAST options;
4. revert back to FAST main screen.

I'm using FAST as only app launcher on CM7.2

when i select alphabetical order on 4.3 version of FAST in f-droid and return to FAST, the icons are arranged alphabetically for only a split second before being rejigged to the unsorted order.

the 4.4 release on github works as expected, but as I didn't see an issue here I thought it was worth mentioning.

nexus7 on android 4.3

thanks

It'd be nice if you could change the icon theme.

while digging through some code I stumbled uppon this - might also be a problem for FAST - need to check when finding such a phone:

    <activity
        android:name="com.dynamicg.homebuttonlauncher.MainActivityAltNoAssist"
        android:label="Samsung TouchWiz"
        android:launchMode="singleTask"
        android:excludeFromRecents="true"
        android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize"
        >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.ASSIST" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

http://dynamicg-android-apps2.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/HomeButtonLauncher/AndroidManifest.xml

my phone is full sometimes and then I then get recaching issues with Fast as the index could not be written - implement shadow index to address that

from user-feedback:
Hello,

1. Great app!
2. I love using this app one handed. Is there any way to move the text
   field (that prompts for the search input) at the bottom instead of the top?

I hope that makes sense. If not, I can clarify. It would be great to have
an option of moving the entire "toolbar" (magnifying glass, search field,
settings icon, question mark) at the bottom of the app when opened so that
if I open FAST then choose to search I can do so more comfortably with one
hand.

makes waiting shorter

add alias functionality sometimes the user wants another name for the app then the developer - this could bridge this gap

Hi

This is a a great launcher but one if that I am having is that it does not update the app cache after installing a new app via Fdroid. I end up recachign manually which messes up the last opened/frequent apps (I use last opened order)

Take a look at https://github.com/ligi/FAST/blob/master/android/src/main/res/values/strings.xml#L40

It mentions that you can share FAST if you select it from the app list. FAST icon is not displayed on the list so there is no way to share it.

I believe there are 2 ways to fix this:

1. Delete this part from help;
2. Actually allow FAST sharing in menu by allowing to display FAST result only when entering "FAST" or something like that.