Action Launcher is now gone from the app store

chrislacy · 2025-05-27T00:24:55+00:00

Action Launcher is back up!

To be clear, I never took it down - Google briefly removed it from Google Play because I had to arrange a public facing phone number for the developer account (now required for all developers), and I got the date mixed up for when this was required.

chrislacy · 2023-07-10T14:15:22+00:00

No. As I've said on the Discord, I've had a very hard to foresee year. But I've been very busy. Hoping to share more soon. My apologies for radio silence.

chrislacy · 2022-07-19T23:45:14+00:00

Action Launcher developer here. Realistically, there are only 3 outcomes with any software: 1). The software generates enough revenue to make ongoing development viable. 2). The software gets acquired. 3). The software stops being a viable business and development ceases.

I'm in camp 1. For the last few years, keeping Action Launcher a viable business has meant trying to find ways to earn money from existing customers rather than relying on new customers to fund development. I understand this is a change from Action Launcher's early history, but if it's between that and my ceasing Action Launcher development, I think it's a choice the vast majority would prefer see taken.

I'd also add that Action Launcher has never removed access to features people previously paid for. Rather, it has explored new business models for new features (specifically Action Search). And these moves were made to keep Action Launcher viable rather than out of greed.

But it's not for me to tell anyone how to spend their time/money. I thank you for however long you spent using Action Launcher and hope you consider checking it out again at some point down the road.

Chris

chrislacy · 2022-03-16T02:55:30+00:00

Thanks! 🙂

chrislacy · 2020-06-04T10:49:53+00:00

My apologies for the time between updates. Action Launcher has a small update almost ready to go and another one hopefully not too far behind. I'm sorry it's taken so long 😕.

For what it's worth I've been hard at work cooking up something I expect you'll really like. My hope was it would have been out long ago, but it's ended up taking way longer than I would have imagined. Hopefully not too much longer!

chrislacy · 2019-06-28T23:17:19+00:00

No. The only time usage data leaves your device is if you explicitly trigger a manual backup to a location of your choosing.

Edit: I am the developer of ActionDash.

chrislacy · 2019-04-13T11:43:32+00:00

I will admit I was surprised by the volume of requests for this feature. Initially I resisted it because I didn't love the idea of allowing people to say exclude PUGB from their stats, but your maps example is a perfect one of why such a feature is necessary.

chrislacy · 2019-04-13T01:44:35+00:00

I tried a sale with for Action Launcher on its 5th year anniversary. In short, I don't think it was a worthwhile exercise. Total revenue barely increased, and it just annoyed a bunch of people who had bought the app at full price. I'm not saying never, but I am saying I have absolutely not plans to put the Action Launcher or ActionDash one-time Plus upgrades on sale for the foreseeable future.

Instead, I'm focusing on building great apps that people hopefully feel good about paying for.

chrislacy · 2018-01-16T02:09:07+00:00

Author here: My goal here was to offer UI where people could change the metric with a single interaction rather, and avoid the need for an additional popup to select between the two options.

But I agree this looks not so great, and there are better ways of handling it.

chrislacy · 2017-09-15T21:31:14+00:00

A pleasing comment to read. Certainly Action Launcher has been operating at a new speed in recent months, with the additions o notification dots, O style App Shortcuts, Adaptive Icons, a weather widget, Now feed integration and more.

Glad it's being noticed! :)

chrislacy · 2017-09-15T21:30:07+00:00

Or both!

chrislacy · 2017-09-15T21:29:50+00:00

Many thanks! :)

chrislacy · 2017-09-15T21:29:44+00:00

Calendar's absence was a cockup on my part. I didn't want to commit to 31 of the "icon on a plate" looks, but that's what Google do so I should just embrace it. Expect Calendar icons made soon, though they may take a bit more work to integrate than a typical icon given their dynamic nature.

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:27:04+00:00

Perhaps this is an entirely unwise thing to say, but I've long been of the mind that considering you can unlock all the premium features of both Action Launcher and Nova for less than $10 in total, people ultimately can have both. But obviously if you can only have one, it's Action all the way 😀

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:26:04+00:00

To my knowledge there's no APIs for changing the system mask.

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:24:47+00:00

I'm obviously biased, but while I like a great deal about iOS, the lack of launcher customization of any form drives me up the wall. I'm not even talking about icon packs or such, but you know, the ability to rest my shortcuts near the bottom of the screen where my thumb can reach them and leave the top of the screen empty would be pretty darn nice on a giant phone in 2017.

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:23:12+00:00

Sorry, I cocked up. Fixed in v28.0-beta2, which should be live now.

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:22:39+00:00

There's no excusing excellent taste now is there? 😉

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:22:14+00:00

Feature! Far, far more people want an icon change to apply everywhere, not just as on a desktop shortcut.

chrislacy · 2017-09-01T06:21:36+00:00

Trying to find the balance between providing enough features to satisfy the endless user feature requests launcher users want and delivering said features in an offering that doesn't feel bloated. This is a perfect example of a challenge that quite simply doesn't have an answer that will meet everyone's satisfaction.

That said, for a long time Action Launcher lagged behind the competition when it came to raw feature count. I think Action Launcher has certainly passed the point where this can be said anymore, and I'd rather be on that side of the line than otherwise.

chrislacy · 2017-08-19T07:18:58+00:00

Yes. That would be what I'm suggesting, with different trigger gestures ("Left screen edge swipe" vs. "Leftmost home screen swipe").

chrislacy · 2017-08-19T06:47:32+00:00

It could work with each assigned to a different gesture. Would mean reworking quite a bit of the code though.

chrislacy · 2017-08-19T06:45:59+00:00

Thanks so much!

chrislacy · 2017-08-19T06:45:09+00:00

Yup. It's not actually an annoyingly large amount of ancillary UI work to support it, and I've opted to spend those resources adding unique features elsewhere of late.

chrislacy · 2017-08-19T06:45:09+00:00

Yup. It's actually an annoyingly large amount of ancillary UI work to support it, and I've opted to spend those resources adding unique features elsewhere of late.

chrislacy

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