Comments on: Organize Android’s Home Screen Icons in Folders

By: tenkely

tenkely — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:30:43 +0000

@Gina Thanks, can’t wait to retire (aka pass on to my wife) my MyTouch and pick up a Nexus One… someday.

By: toekneebullard

toekneebullard — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:58:27 +0000

I have one concern with this: Does having 10 app icons in a folder use the same amount of memory as 10 on your homescreen? I had this same idea when I first got my G1, but I’ve always seen the tip “to keep things fast, limit your use of shortcuts on your desktop.”

So is wrangling them in folders better than just having them all over your homescreen memory wise?

By: Gina Trapani

Gina Trapani — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:22:53 +0000

@tenkely: Yep, the locker combo is just a contact.

By: tenkely

tenkely — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:37:45 +0000

Gina what did you do to make the locker combo? Is that just a contact dragged into the folder?

By: TranceMist

TranceMist — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:47:21 +0000

Fantastic! Thank you!

By: taffit

taffit — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:09:43 +0000

@Jeff: thanks for the recommendation. You’re right, the ABC Organizer is way more useful as you can extend the shortcut folders also to bookmarks and contacts and the sorting functionality is way more advanced.
There exists also a light version, but paid for the full version.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:44:57 +0000

With a nod to the App Organizer, I’d like to recommend a slightly more functional version by the same author called ABC Organizer. (Apps, Bookmarks, Contacts)

It’s much better than using folders. This app lets you assign labels to apps. (Think GMail style) This is nice because apps, bookmarks, and contacts can have multiple labels.

Then, you can put label shortcuts on your desktop instead of folders. They operate the same, but better in certain ways.

Assigning labels to apps is easier. Select a label, and get a checklist of your apps and just check everything that you want to belong to this label. When you edit these, your changes propagate to your desktop label shortcuts automatically! It’s SO much easier than dragging icons into folders, and easier to edit. The shortcuts on your desktop are really more like live searches.

And you can sort items within labels with several criteria…name, last used, most used, starred. I have a label called Frequently Used on my home screen that is just all apps sorted by Most Used. It’s fantastic.

By: jeadly.com/

jeadly.com/ — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:47:51 +0000

Yup, they’re very useful. I’ve got “locate” “listen” and “games” folders on my Hero (with 7 screens, Gina!)

One thing to keep in mind is that widgets won’t go into folders. I was a little disappointed to realize that my “settings” folder to hold the quick access toggles for Wifi, GPS, BT and Data wasn’t going to work.

By: nka

nka — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:41:01 +0000

Folders are great, however they have an achilles heal worth mentioning. When you open a folder and click on an application or contact or whatever, you would expect the folder to close after selecting something. Unfortunately, after selecting an item in a folder, you have to return to that home screen, and manually close the folder yourself. For this reason, I use AppsOrganizer, as it automatically closes a folder, once an item within that folder is selected.

By: taffit

taffit — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:59:01 +0000

Another alternative would be the app Apps Organizer, where you can assign labels / tags for applications. By adding the Apps Organizer to a screen you can select which label should be used (also favorites or starred apps) and then all apps with this label will be shown.
Pro: you can assign multiple labels to an application and the opened folder can be autoclosed after starting an application.