Adaptive Applications Menu

[YousifALtamimi]

Problem
The current applications menu prioritizes simplicity but limits visibility and organization. Users with large app libraries experience friction due to excessive scrolling and lack of structural control.

Proposal
Introduce an adaptive applications menu with the following capabilities:

1. Resizable interface (drag-to-expand or preset sizes)
2. Optional full-screen launcher mode
3. Grid density controls (compact / comfortable / spacious)
4. User-defined ordering
5. Folder creation with drag-and-drop grouping

Technical Considerations

1. Extend the existing launcher component using dynamic grid layouts (GTK grid/list hybrid).
2. Persist layout metadata via dconf or a lightweight JSON config.
3. Maintain keyboard-first navigation parity (search remains primary entry point).

Value

1. Improves discoverability and efficiency for power users
2. Reduces navigation time for large app libraries
3. Aligns with modern UX patterns without compromising elementary OS simplicity principles

[vjr]

Perhaps as a first step, or to just limit effort, the appmenu should auto switch from the default icons layout to the category-menu layout when it sees too many apps? Should mitigate the situation where person has a lot of apps installed.

[YousifALtamimi]

User-defined ordering & folder creation is definitly better for power users, the app menu has been the same for a long while, it's definitely time for upgrade

[1280px]

See elementary/applications-menu#527