You can now sort your apps by color in the new Chromebook Productivity launcher

I’ve been following the development of the new Chromebook Productivity Launcher for some time now. It’s a brand new app launcher that sits left-aligned on the shelf for Chrome OS users and provides faster access to your content instead of taking up half of or the full display when opened like the current design.

Since its inception, it’s been proven to cut speed pitfalls by reducing unnecessary animations, pagination, and more. It also gives you access to recently opened files, and can even alphabetize your apps for the first time since Chrome OS was released, which has been one of the most highly requested features for years.

Google is all about accessibility, and today’s news deepens their commitment. Right-clicking anywhere in your app grid on the Productivity Launcher on Chrome OS Canary will now allow you to select “Color”, and automagically sort your apps by their visual color grading. As you can see in the video below, just as with alphabetization and reverse alphabetization, folders remain on top, and all icons in those folders are sorted in the same manner while being contained.

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In this case, all apps in folders are sorted by color, and then all of your loose apps are sorted by color as well below said folders. It’s honestly pretty cool, and I never really expected this to be a feature. If you’re not paying too much attention as I scroll, you may find it hard to tell that everything is actually sorted by color, but it is. Google must be using AI and machine learning to identify the colors in each icon and sort them accordingly. This just reinforces my realization that Google is going all-in on this new launcher, and I can’t wait to see what else they add and how quickly. The Productivity Launcher just recently became available to most users, and it’s already getting so incredibly useful compared to the lackluster “Peeking” launcher that we’ve been stuck with for years.

Let me know below if you’ll utilize this organizational method for your content, or if you prefer the alphabetization that was recently added. I, myself still prefer to sort my launcher my own way based on app usefulness or task type, so I’m not likely to mess with this too much, but I can already tell you that it’s pretty incredible to locate things in the blink of an eye outside of search since I’m familiar with so many icons that I use each day.