Top 20 POCO Launcher Tips and Tricks to Increase Your Productivity
POCO Launcher comes from Xiaomi's house. This is a great alternative to MIUI Launcher. The launcher has unique and great features, such as categorizing applications by color and tabs, integrated search and more.
Happy to know about them? Let's see the features of POCO Launcher that will enhance the overall experience of its use. Before that, we'll explain how to open the launcher settings, as you may need to do it regularly.
How to open POCO Launcher settings
There are three ways to do this.
Method 1: Using the application icon
POCO Launcher adds a setting icon on the home screen. Press to launch the settings.
If you can not find the app icon, touch and hold the launcher home screen. Then go to Widgets. Tap the POCO settings under the POCO Launcher widget.
Method 2: From the application drawer
Open the application tray in POCO Launcher by sliding up on the home screen. Then tap the three bar icon in the upper right corner. You will be brought to the parameters.
Method 3: pinch gesture
On the Home screen, use the pinch gesture to switch to edit mode. Tap Settings at the bottom, and tap More.
Now let's take a look at tips and tricks for POCO Launcher.
1. Add apps to categories
POCO Launcher comes with the categories feature, which are automatically populated according to the type of application. For example, you will find all your social and communication applications in the communication category. Similarly, the multimedia applications will be grouped in the entertainment category.
Sometimes the launcher can add an application in a different category or you want to move the application to another category. For this, you can manually add or remove apps from categories. To do this, open the category of applications that you want to edit. Then long press (hold down) a blank space to enter edit mode. You will find the selected applications at the top. Then select the applications to add and deselect them to remove them from the category.
2. Rename the category of the application
Do not like the default application category names? Change them at your convenience. For this, edit the category of applications as indicated above. In other words, long press on an empty space of any category of application. Then tap the category name at the top and enter the new name.
3. Change category quickly
If you swipe right or left to switch between categories, you must have noticed that it takes time to reach those at the end. What you can do is swipe right or left over the category names. This way you can access the categories quickly. Once you have reached the desired category, tap to view the applications it contains.
4. Add or remove an application category
If you only want to use certain categories, you can hide the rest of them from the launcher. To do this, go to Launcher Settings and then in Manage Application Categories. Use the three-bar icon next to the category of apps to drag it under the Hide section.
And if you want more categories, use the add icon next to View to create a new category. Type a name and add applications.
5. Reset the categories of the application
Sometimes, playing with categories, we create a mess instead of improving them. If you think this has already occurred, you can reset the application categories to their default values. To do this, tap Reset under Manage application categories in the POCO Launcher settings.
6. Disable the categories of applications
If you think that the application drawer seems cluttered with application categories or if you do not like it for some other reason, you can disable them completely. To do this, disable the button next to Categorize Applications under Manage Application Categories.
7. Scroll quickly through the application drawer
Use the scroll bar on the right side to quickly scroll through the application drawer. The phone vibrates when you use the scroll bar. To disable this behavior, go to Launcher Settings> Application Drawer. Disable the button next to Vibrate when scrolling.
8. Show alphabets instead of scroll bar
By default, a vertical scroll bar appears in the application drawer. You can replace it with alphabets. When you do, you can press the alphabet to display applications starting with that letter.
To replace the scroll bar with alphabets, go to the Launcher Settings> Application Drawer menu. Tap on the scroll bar and choose AZ.
9. Classify applications by color
In addition to organizing applications into categories, this launcher allows you to organize applications by color. Application icons with the same color will be grouped together. Once you activate it, you will see colored dots at the bottom of the application drawer. Tap the color to view its apps.
To enable this feature, go to Launcher Settings> Application Drawer. Enable Toggle for group icons by color.
10. Use advanced search
The search bar in the application drawer allows you to search for installed applications and contacts. But you can also use it to search for objects online. It's different from Google search because the results are displayed in the app. And not only for applications installed on your phone, but also for other applications.
For example, I looked for Guiding Tech and, as you can see, we showed my various social profiles and even YouTube videos. Note that Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter are not installed on my phone.
To enable this feature, go to the launcher settings. Turn on the toggle for built-in search.
11. Create folders on the home screen
POCO Launcher does not support the creation of appropriate folders in the application drawer. But you can create them on the home screen. To do this, hold an application icon and drag it to the other. A folder will be created. Then drag other applications on the folder. To rename a folder, open it and tap the folder name.
12. Add multiple applications to folders
Instead of adding one-to-one applications to a folder, you can add them together. For this, keep an empty space on the home screen. Application icons will have a gray dot on them. Tap the apps you want to select and add to a group. Then press Group at the top. This will create a folder.
13. Delete an icon from the home screen
To remove an application icon from the Home screen, hold it down and drag it to the Delete button.
14. Delete multiple icons
Similar to grouping multiple items, you can delete them from the home screen. For this, keep an empty space on the home screen. Then select the applications you want to delete. Once selected, tap Delete at the top.
15. Change Notification Badge Type
I'm a fan of numeric badges notification. They make it easy to identify the number of notifications in an app. Fortunately, this launcher supports both dot and numeric badges. To switch between them, go to POCO Launcher Settings> Notification Badges. Select Number.
16. Use App Shortcuts
Android Nougat 7.1 introduced app shortcuts. Fortunately, POCO Launcher supports them. To use them, long-tap an app icon in the app drawer or on the home screen. A bunch of useful options will be revealed.
17. Hide Apps
Very few launchers let you hide apps and even if they provide the feature, it’s limited to premium variants. But POCO Launcher is gracious enough to offer the feature for free. Once you hide an app, it disappears from both the home screen and app drawer.
To hide apps, open the app drawer first. Then swipe right twice to launch the hide apps screen. On this screen, you can both hide and view the hidden apps.
You will be greeted by the apps that you have hidden. To hide more apps, tap on the edit icon at the top. Then add the apps that you want to hide.
18. Add New Screen
To add a new screen on the home screen, hold any app and drag it towards the right edge onto the next page. A new page or screen will be added.
19. Change Transition Effect
To change the effect when you move between screens, long-tap an empty space on the home screen or use the pinch-in gesture. Tap on Settings followed by Transition effects. Select the transition mode of your choice.
20. Enable Dark Mode
If you like launchers with a dark mode, POCO Launcher won’t disappoint for it comes with a native dark mode. To enable it, go to the launcher Settings > Backgrounds. Select Dark.
Is Old Really Gold?
POCO Launcher is a new entrant in the world of launchers. But as you have seen above, it's feature-rich and doesn't disappoint at all. In fact, it gives good competition to Nova Launcher too. What are your thoughts about this launcher? Faites-nous savoir dans les commentaires ci-dessous.
Next up: POCO Launcher doesn't support Google Feed. But there are other launchers that offer this feature. Know more about such launcher by reading the linked article below.