After 14 years, Apple has quietly retired Launchpad, the Mac’s iPhone-style app launcher, with the release of macOS Tahoe. In its place is a new feature called simply Apps, which borrows some of Launchpad’s functionality but strips away almost all customisation.
First introduced in 2011 with OS X Lion, Launchpad was Apple’s attempt to bring the iPhone Home screen to the Mac. You could swipe through pages of apps, drag them into folders, and even create dedicated pages for things like games or creative tools. With Tahoe’s Apps, all of that is gone.
Instead, you get a window showing every installed app in either Category or Name view. You can switch between Icons or List, and a row of Suggestions at the top highlights apps you’ve recently used. That’s the extent of it. There’s no option to group or rearrange apps, no folders, and no multi-page organisation.
The Apps icon now sits in the Dock where Launchpad used to live, but using it isn’t always smooth. Because Apps forces you into a scrolling view, finding what you need can take longer. You may need to dig into a category or hit Show More if your app isn’t immediately visible. In practice, searching via the built-in search bar — or just using Spotlight — is faster.
Of course, the traditional Applications folder still exists in Finder. You can reach it with Shift+Command+A or by navigating manually.
For longtime Mac users, the change feels like the end of an era. Launchpad never became essential, but it was one of the last visible bridges between iOS and macOS. With Tahoe, Apple seems to have decided that simplicity — even at the cost of flexibility — is the way forward.
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