While you may be using these ways to fire up apps on your device, there is now a new way for you to access apps. This new way allows you to launch an app from a sidebar.

Launching Apps from Sidebar

In order to add a sidebar with the apps to your device, you are going to use an app called Glovebox that is available for free on the Google Play store.

  1. Head over to the Google Play store and download and install the Glovebox app on your device. Launch the app after it is installed (yes, please use the app drawer launching method for now and maybe for the last time!).

  2. When the app is launched, you will go through a couple of welcome screens showing what the app can do for you. Keep on sliding to the left until it is over.

  3. Once you reach the main screen of the app, tap on the “+” (plus) icon in the top-right corner to add a new app to the sidebar.

  4. On the screen that follows you should see all the apps that are installed. Select all that you wish to add to the sidebar and tap on the icon appearing in the bottom-right corner to tell the app that you are done.

  5. You should see the selected apps appearing on the main screen of the Glovebox app. You can now just pull the slider from the left and you will be able to see the sidebar containing all the apps you have added to it. You can tap on any app and it will launch as it usually would.

  6. While the sidebar is a great way to launch apps on your device, it may be an issue for some apps, mostly the games on your device. The app has a blacklist option where you can add the apps for which you do not wish to see in the sidebar. To do that, click on the settings icon followed by “Blacklist.”

  7. Tap on the “+” (plus) icon to add an app to the blacklist.

  8. Select the apps you wish to add to the blacklist. When you are done, tap the icon in the bottom-right corner.

  9. You should be able to see the blacklist containing the apps you have selected. These apps will pause Glovebox, and it will not run until you close these apps on your device.

Besides homescreen and app drawer, you now have a third way to launch your apps.

Conclusion

If you find launching apps from the homescreen and app drawer to be inconvenient, you can use the above procedure to add a new way of launching apps to your device. Let us know how it works for you!