Pixel Launcher letting you ‘quick launch’ apps from search, rolling out

Abner Li | May 16 2023 - 9:35 am PT

As we previously spotted, the Pixel Launcher will let you search for and “quick launch” an app without having to tap the top of the screen.

Before the unified Pixel Launcher search that combined web and on-device lookup, the search bar at the top of the app grid let you type in an application’s name and pressing enter on your virtual keyboard would launch the application immediately.

When the two search bars were merged, Google removed that functionality. Now it’s rolling out and is referred to in strings as “Quick Launch.” We first spotted and enabled this in the Android 13 QPR2 Beta.

Typing in the name of an app in the unified Pixel Launcher search will highlight it to signal that tapping “enter” on your keyboard will open it immediately. This is a time saver as you no longer have to move your finger to the top of the screen to launch. Everything can be done from where your hand is already resting. It’s also nice for one-handed operation. Additionally, this is convenient if you’re using a physical keyboard, like on a Pixel Tablet.

At the moment, we’re seeing quick launch rolled out on a Pixel 7 running Android 13 QPR2 with the May security patch. This server-side update does not appear to be widely launched yet.