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Intent-aware app search for installed apps

Feature Request

I’ve been using Niagara Launcher for the past few days and really enjoying it. One issue has become increasingly noticeable, though, especially with a large app library.

I have 200+ apps installed. When searching for an app, Niagara appears to rely heavily on the app’s displayed name. This works well when I remember the exact name, but with hundreds of apps, I often remember what an app does rather than what it is called.

For example, if I search for “Maps”, Niagara returns Yandex Maps because “Maps” is part of its name. But Google Maps should also appear immediately below it because it matches the same user intent.

I think Niagara Search could keep its current exact matches as the primary results, then show functionally related installed apps underneath.

For example:

Maps
→ Yandex Maps (direct match)
→ Google Maps (related installed app)

Music
→ apps with a direct “Music” match
→ Spotify
→ YouTube Music

Notes
→ direct matches
→ Google Keep
→ Notion

The important part is that this should not require another setting, toggle, folder, or configuration step. Search would simply become better at understanding what the user is trying to open.

This feels particularly useful for Niagara because the launcher is designed around reaching apps quickly without managing a traditional app grid. As the number of installed apps grows, remembering every app name becomes the bottleneck.

Why I think it fits Niagara’s principles:

Simple: Search works exactly as it does today. No new UI or configuration is required.
Impactful: It helps anyone with a medium or large app library find apps they have forgotten by name.
Universal: The concept is independent of device layout and can work across app libraries and regions.
Independent: Users who only search by exact app name see the same experience, with direct matches still ranked first.

I’d also be happy to help prototype or implement this if the team is interested.

— Barbaros

Category
Productivity
Posted by barbaros bal ·
1 comment

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Comments1

  • Surfer Bot

    Team•

    Sep 15

    Thanks, that is a clearly argued one: functionally related apps ranked underneath the direct name matches, with nothing extra to switch on.

    Two neighbors exist on the board, and neither covers what you describe. Allow ability to search by app categories is about typing a category such as "banking" to list that kind of app, and Improve the App search is about matching letters anywhere in an app's name instead of only at the start. Yours is about what the app does rather than how it is spelled, so it stands on its own.

    Requests don't usually get an individual reply from the team right away. They collect votes here first, and we work through them roughly by upvotes, so every vote on this post moves it up the list. You'll be notified when its status changes. How requests are handled, including why some get declined: How To Request a Feature.

    Your offer to prototype it sits in the post, so the team sees it together with the request. Whether they take it up is their call, and I can't promise an answer either way.