Apple Removed Launchpad, So We Spent 5 Months Building a Better One

Many people might not understand—why are some still so attached to Launchpad?

But if you’re that type of user:

Accustomed to managing apps, organizing groups, sorting alphabetically, and summoning it with trackpad gestures…

You’ll surely understand the sheer sense of disorientation when macOS 26 changed the form and logic of Launchpad.

We are those users too.

It started with a simple idea

Since we started development late, we chose to build LaunchOS in the open on Reddit and Xiaohongshu, syncing our progress as we went. Our initial goal was simple: to create a replacement that restores the native Launchpad experience as much as possible, providing an alternative for users who couldn’t adapt to the changes in macOS 26. Surprisingly, it was loved by many. We are truly grateful for everyone’s encouragement and support. With that passion, we have polished this product from its initial rough state to its more refined form today.

At first, we planned to spend 1-2 months on this. But things quickly became more challenging, and as of now, we’ve been working on it full-time for 5 months.

Over the past 5 months, we’ve logged 1,386 user feedback items (with many more uncounted), resolved 642 of them, completed 162 internal builds, and released 21 public updates—averaging 4 iterations per month.

It’s not just a simple replacement

It’s not just a Launchpad replacement. While we aimed to replicate the native experience, we also integrated many suggestions from real users, turning it into a better version of Launchpad.

Almost every requirement came from user feedback. Many of these issues have been long-standing pain points in the native Launchpad, such as:

• Wanting Launchpad to always return to the Home Screen instead of staying where you left off;
• Wanting alphabetical auto-sorting for easier searching;
• The annoying jumping animation when dragging icons to the end of a row…

We’ve solved them all, one by one.

LaunchOS now supports:

Hot Corners, trackpad gestures, full keyboard shortcut compatibility, an option to default back to the first page, alphabetical sorting, more stable drag-and-drop logic, grid layout adjustments, and more.

We didn’t make it bloated

The core philosophy of LaunchOS isn’t “more features is better,” but maintaining the original simplicity and focus of Launchpad. We intentionally left out many features we could have added. Every feature is carefully considered to ensure it genuinely improves the daily user experience.

Visually, we strive to restore the familiarity of the native Launchpad while subtly incorporating macOS 26’s design language—like the liquid glass effect—without breaking overall consistency.

Pricing

LaunchOS is free to use, and its free features cover the core capabilities of the native Launchpad.

Advanced features and more personalization options are part of the Pro version. There is no subscription model; it’s a one-time purchase. It’s currently on sale for roughly the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee.

What’s next?

There’s still a lot to do, like the most-requested uninstallation feature (which is actually half-done).

But right now, our full focus is on version 2.0.

Version 2.0 is a complete ground-up rewrite. While Swift’s high-level abstractions are developer-friendly, they can introduce performance overhead. We’ve optimized repeatedly, often finding ourselves trading off performance for memory usage. Although we reached what we considered the optimal state, it required an immense amount of extra time. Realizing it was better to “rip the band-aid off,” we decided to rebuild from scratch. The new version will be much smoother, completely free from the performance constraints of the old architecture.

LaunchOS 2.0 is being entirely rewritten with one goal: to be smoother, more stable, and closer to a system-level native experience.

Even in its current version, it remains one of the best Launchpad alternatives available today.

If you’re searching for:

• How to restore macOS 26 Launchpad
• What to do if Launchpad is replaced
• Launchpad alternative software recommendations
• How to fix Launchpad alternative lag
• How to sort Launchpad alphabetically

Then LaunchOS might be exactly what you’re looking for.

If you have questions, feel free to give us feedback. We might not reply to every single one, but we read every single one carefully and categorize them for management.

If you still miss the original Launchpad experience, give it a try.

Official Website:

https://launchosapp.com/