Here’s your first look at alphabetical launcher app sorting for Chromebooks

You asked, Google listened – alphabetical Chromebook launcher sorting is in development. We covered its introduction in the Chromium Repositories a few months back, but today, I’ve found it to be working, and I wanted to give you all a first look!

Unlike my mock-up of what the design could possibly look like, the actual implementation is more rudimentary in nature. As you can see in the video below, two simple arrows grace the top of the Chromebook’s launcher and only appear in tablet mode. Prior to clicking one, my device apps are in my own order. Post click, all apps are instantaneously sorted alphabetically like magic!

I know, it’s not actual magic, but through time, the line between what we know as technology and magic has been very thin, and though I would say that Google adding this feature after 10 plus years of user feedback is similtaneously both, we know it’s just a few lines of code.

Just as the commit stated, folders are alphabetized, those apps in said folders are alphabetized, and any remaining apps outside off olders then take the same sorting method as well. The nice touch here is that loose apps aren’t thrown in between folders because they’re meant to be in that order. Instead, folders always appear first, and I love how clean that feels.

For now, this is in very early development for Chrome OS Canary. I would imagine that the UI takes a more stylish approach before launch, but the devs will probably just slap a material circle around each arrow and call it a day. It’s practical, it’s functional, and it gets the job done – why complicate it, right?

Sorting back to ‘My order’ does currently cause one problem though. Instead of placing my apps and folders exactly where I had them, it puts them in the order they were in moments before I sorted. By this, I mean that I intentionally tested making changes to app order before sorting, and those changes did not stick.

Chromebooks have had this issue for years, and rebooting your device often wipes your efforts, but my great hope is that the new Productivity launcher isn’t just a pretty face. I want it to have various fixes along these lines to become more useful and reliable along the way! Let me know what you think about the new alphabetical app launcher sorting feature, and for fun, tell me which sorting method you’ll keep in play.