iOS 14 introduced a function of “Application Library” that acts as an application drawer. It's a place for your apps to automatically organize into folders by category. That concept may also sound useful if you have an Android. Let's see if we can imitate it.
App library can be compared to Android app drawer, where all the apps on your device are stored. The big difference is that the app library organizes apps into categories automatically. This can make it easier to find what you are looking for..
RELATED: How to move iPhone apps from a home screen to the app library
To mimic this feature on an Android device, there are a couple of different approaches we can take. You can download a launcher that supports app drawer categories or use an app drawer app with your existing launcher.
Complement your app drawer
The app library is Apple's version of an app drawer, so it makes sense to replace the existing app drawer in your launcher. “Smart Drawer” is an application that organizes all its applications into categories. You can use it as the app drawer in any launcher.
First, download Smart drawer from Google Play Store to your Android device.
Open the app and you will receive some introductory slides. Touch “Continue” until you reach “Enable online sorting”. This setting is what enables the application to automatically classify your applications into categories, so make sure it is enabled and tap “Continue”.
The next screen will explain how you can replace your existing app drawer with Smart Drawer. Touch “Start”.
You will be taken to the Smart Drawer with different categories of applications along the left side of the screen. Touch the category icons to see your apps. Organizing all your applications may take a few minutes.
You can tap the “Look for” in the upper-right corner to find a specific application.
Long press an app to bring up more options. From here, you can drag it to a different category.
You can add a category by tapping the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner and selecting “Add category”. The free version of Smart Drawer allows up to six categories.
To remove a category, press and hold the category icon, and then select “Delete”.
The advantage of Smart Drawer is that you can place the app icon anywhere on the home screen and you have access to an organized drawer.
Try a new launcher
The launcher is the application that you see as your home screen. One of the cool things about Android is that you can change the launcher quite easily. That's what we will do here.
First, download “Smart launcher 5”From the Google Play Store on your Android device.
Open the launcher and tap “Start”. Accept the terms and conditions to continue.
Next, you will see a list of permissions. You don't need to allow all these permissions to use the launcher. The only permission we need is “Storage”; the others are for widgets and other optional functions. Touch “Next” When it's over.
Android will ask you to grant all the permissions that you enabled. Touch “Let”.
You will now be asked to choose a wallpaper. Make your choice and tap “Next”.
The app will ask you if you want to unlock all features with a Premium subscription. This is not necessary for what we will be doing. Touch the icon “X” in the upper right corner.
You will now see the default home screen set up for the launcher. Categories similar to the app library can be entered by swiping up on the home screen.
The launcher can be used wonderfully well as well.. Despite this, if you are interested in removing some of the extra stuff (news feed, panel de widgets, etc.), we have a file you can download to import a cleaner home screen.
First, download this file to your android device. You will need to extract the ZIP file before continuing.
RELATED: How to open a ZIP file on an Android phone or tablet
Now that the backup file has been downloaded, press and hold on the home screen to bring up the panel “Setting” and then select “Show all settings”.
Choose “Backup” in Settings.
Next, touch the icon “File” in the lower left corner.
Select the file you previously downloaded. A message will explain that restoring from this backup will erase the current settings. Touch “To accept”.
You will return to the home screen. Now, all you have to do is swipe to the far right home screen to see the fake app library.
The launcher automatically classifies your apps in the categories listed on the bottom bar. To add a new category, tap the three-dot menu icon and select “Add category”. You can select from one of the preset categories and your apps will be sorted.
To remove a category, press and hold the icon and tap the icon “Paper bin” to remove it.
These solutions are not exactly like the iOS app library 14, but they allow you to organize apps automatically. It can be difficult to order dozens of applications on your phone. Hopefully, these solutions can contribute.
