App launcher

The app launcher puts your app drawer inside the keyboard: a searchable grid of every launchable app, your work apps included, sorted into folders if you like, with the ones you pinned and the ones you opened recently in a row on top. Tap an app to jump to it. Hold one for a menu that opens it in a floating window or in split screen instead, pairs it with a second app, or takes you inside it to open a specific screen, like a settings page or a compose view, without going through the app’s own navigation first.

It’s handy mid-conversation: someone asks for a booking reference, you hop to the airline app, copy it, and the keyboard is still where you left it when you come back.

The app grid with a pinned row on top and search in the header.

Opening the panel

Open Apps from the toolbar, or the toolbox if you haven’t pinned it. Typing apps or launch offers the tool on the suggestion strip too. On a hardware keyboard, use the leader key: double-tap Ctrl, then press J.

The grid

• Search sits in the header. Tap it and the keys come back under a shortened panel, filtering live over app names and package names as you type.
• Split screen pairs, if you saved any, get their own row on top. See split screen pairs below.
• Folders come first in the grid, before the apps that are in none. Tap one to open it. See folders below.
• Work apps sit in the grid with a briefcase on their icon. See work apps below.
• Pinned and recent apps lead the grid in their own row. Pin and unpin from the menu a hold opens, from the grid or from the shortcut row alike. Recents track the last apps you opened from this tool, ten by default and adjustable from 4 to 20, and they never leave your device.
• Tap launches the app, the way Open apps in the options says: normally by default. The panel closes itself, since you are about to leave the app you were typing in anyway.
• Hold opens the app’s menu, described next.
• Hidden apps stay out of the grid and the shortcut row. Hold an app, open its page from the menu, and tap the eye to hide it. Search still finds hidden apps, shown dimmed, so you can open one or show it again from its page.

The hold menu

Hold any app, in the grid or in the shortcut row, and a small menu opens over the panel. Tap outside it to close it.

• Open: a normal, full-screen launch.
• Open in a floating window: opens the app in a floating window the way your phone’s maker does it: ColorOS’s floating window on OPPO, OnePlus and realme, the pop-up view on Samsung, the small window on Xiaomi and vivo, and so on. See floating windows for how the keyboard finds the way that works, and what happens on a phone with none.
• Open in split screen: puts the app beside the one you are typing in.
• Pair in split screen with…: starts a pair. A banner asks for the second app, and your next tap picks it. Tap Cancel, or the first app again, to back out.
• Pin app or Unpin app.
• Put on the toolbar or Take off the toolbar: gives the app a button of its own on the keyboard’s toolbar. See Apps on the toolbar.
• Add to folder, or Take out of folder for an app that is in one. See folders.
• Screens, hide and App info…: the app’s page, below. With Open screens inside apps off it reads Hide and App info….

The two split screen items show wherever the keyboard has a way into split screen: Android 12L (API 32) or later, Huawei’s own split screen, the split screen helper, or Shizuku. They hide once the check has found that none of them works on your phone, and they never show for a work app.

Apps on the toolbar

The apps you open all the time can sit on the toolbar itself, one tap from the keys with no panel to open first. Hold the app in the panel and pick Put on the toolbar. Its icon joins the toolbar after your pinned tools and folders, in the panel’s icon shape, with its name under it when the toolbar shows names. A tap opens the app the way Open apps below says, normally unless you picked a floating window or split screen. Hold the app in the panel again and pick Take off the toolbar to remove it.

The toolbar takes up to six apps, in the order you put them there, and says so when it’s full. An app you uninstall drops off the toolbar on its own. To take every app off at once, use Apps on the toolbar in the options below. With Tools in landscape standing the tools in a column down one side, the apps follow them there in the same order.

Folders

Folders group apps the way a home screen does: a “Banking” folder for the bank apps, a “Travel” one for the airline and the maps. The grid shows each folder as a tile with up to four of its apps’ icons and its name under it, ahead of the loose apps. An app lives in one folder at most.

• Make one: hold an app, pick Add to folder, then New folder. The folder opens with its name box up and the keys under it; type a name and press Enter or the check. Leave it empty and the folder keeps the name “Folder”.
• Fill it: hold another app, pick Add to folder, and tap the folder. An app already in a folder moves to the new one.
• Take an app out: hold it, in the folder or in the grid, and pick Take out of folder. A folder left with no apps goes away.
• Rename, reorder or remove: open the folder and use the bar above its apps. Tap the name to type a new one, the arrows move the folder one place earlier or later in the grid, and the bin removes it. Holding a folder’s tile offers the same in a menu. Removing a folder puts its apps back in the grid; it never uninstalls or hides anything.

Back, on the panel or the system’s, leaves a name box, then the folder, then the panel. Search ignores folders: it finds an app wherever you filed it.

Folders from your home screen

The folders on your home screen belong to the home screen app, and Android gives no other app a way to read them, so the keyboard can’t copy them over. What it can read is the category each app declares for itself on the Play Store, such as Games, Social or Maps. Add to folder → Sort all apps by category makes a folder per category, named the way your phone names it in your language, for every app that is in no folder yet. Apps you filed by hand stay where they are, a category joins a folder of the same name if you have one, and a category with a single app gets no folder of its own. Many apps declare no category at all; those stay loose. Categories need Android 8 or later.

Folders are kept on this device only. They name apps that are installed here, so they don’t travel with settings sync the way your other choices do; they do go into backups.

Work apps

If your phone has a work profile, its apps show in the grid next to your personal ones, each with a small briefcase on its icon. An app installed in both profiles shows twice, once per profile, and each copy has its own pin, hidden state, folder and recent entry. Tapping a work app opens it in the work profile.

When work apps are paused, from the quick settings tile or the work tab of your home screen, the work apps show dimmed. Tapping one asks Android to open it, and Android answers with its own “Turn on work apps?” prompt. Only the home screen app may switch the profile back on directly, so the keyboard leaves that decision to the system.

A work app opens normally or in a floating window. Split screen and pairs aren’t offered for work apps, because the system call that opens an app in another profile has no way to ask for split screen. A work app’s page lists the screens the work profile shows to launchers, and App info opens the work profile’s own settings page for it.

The keyboard needs no extra permission for any of this. Android lets any app list and open the apps of the other profiles of the same person, through the same launcher list the home screen uses. Android 15’s private space is the exception: only the default home screen app can see it, so its apps never show here. Turn Work apps off in the options to keep the grid to your personal apps.

An app’s page

The last item of the hold menu opens the app’s page: the app’s icon, name and package, a pin toggle, a hide toggle, an App info shortcut to the system settings page, and, with Open screens inside apps on, every screen (activity) the app declares.

Screens the app allows others to open are listed first. Tap one to open it directly. Android blocks the rest for anyone but the app itself, and those stay hidden unless you turn on Show private screens. Then they show dimmed with a lock, so you can explore what an app contains without wondering why a tap did nothing.

This works without any special permission. The keyboard sees the same launcher list the home screen does, and for those apps it can read the full screen table.

Floating windows and split screen

Every phone maker opens apps floating or side by side its own way, and Android gives no single way that works everywhere. The keyboard carries the ways the main Android skins use, learned from the launchers, docks and split screen apps that already do this, and finds out which one your phone accepts.

How the keyboard finds what works

The first time you open an app floating, or in split screen, the keyboard checks. It opens a small test window of its own, Checking how this phone opens apps…, the way it would open your app, and looks at where Android put it: a window smaller than the screen counts as floating, half the screen as split. It goes down the list for your phone until one works, keeps that one, and then opens your app. This takes a second or two, once. After that every floating or split launch goes straight the way that worked.

Check what works on this phone, in the options, runs the same check on demand and shows the result, for example “Floating: ColorOS floating window. Split screen: Android split screen”. It also copies a line with your phone’s model, Android version and result to the clipboard, which helps a lot in a bug report from a phone the keyboard hasn’t met yet. The keyboard checks again by itself after a system update, or when you turn on the split screen helper, Shizuku or root, since any of those can change the answer.

If nothing works, the app opens normally and a short message says so. On a phone where the check found no floating window, the hold menu says “Opens full screen on this phone” under that item.

What it tries, by phone

Phone	Floating window	Split screen
Stock Android 12L and later (Pixel, Nothing, Motorola, LineageOS and others)	Only with Android’s freeform windows on, Shizuku or root, or the emulated window	Android’s split screen
OPPO, OnePlus, realme (ColorOS, OxygenOS, realme UI)	ColorOS’s floating window, the same one the Smart Sidebar opens	Android’s split screen, then the split screen helper
Samsung (One UI)	Pop-up view	Android’s split screen
Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO (MIUI, HyperOS)	Xiaomi’s small window, asked for the way its own sidebar does, then sized for it	Android’s split screen, then the helper
Huawei and Honor	Their floating window	Their own split screen, then Android’s
vivo and iQOO	vivo’s small window, then Android’s freeform window	Android’s split screen, then the helper
Meizu, Nubia and RedMagic	Their own floating window	Android’s split screen
Chromebooks, Samsung DeX, tablets in desktop mode	A normal resizable window	Android’s split screen

Android’s split screen means one thing on paper and three in practice. On Android 12L and early 13 the keyboard asks for it directly. From Android 13’s first quarterly update, Android ignores that request unless it comes from a screen of an app, and a keyboard has none, so the keyboard opens an invisible screen of its own for a split second, which makes the request and closes. Android sometimes needs the two apps opened in the other order, so the check tries both.

Split screen helper

Some phones still open the app full screen. Those phones may still have split screen behind the Split screen item in the Recents menu, and an accessibility service is the only way another app can press that switch. Split screen helper is that service. With it on, opening an app in split screen first puts the app you’re typing in into split screen, then the app you picked opens in the free half a little over half a second later. A pair waits for its first app to appear, then presses the switch.

Before pressing the switch, the service checks where the app windows sit on screen, to see whether split screen is already up, because pressing it then would close split screen instead. While a pair opens it also waits for the first app’s window, by the app’s name alone. It never reads what is in any window, does nothing at any other time and keeps nothing. Turn it on from the Split screen helper row on this page, which explains the service first and then opens Android’s accessibility settings, or from Permissions.

Stock Android dropped that switch in 12L, so the helper isn’t offered on Pixels and similar phones from 12L on; it is on every other phone, and the check uses it only where your phone still lists the switch. It isn’t in the Google Play build. On Android 7 to 12, where a keyboard can’t start split screen by itself, turning it on is what brings the split screen options in.

Shizuku and root

Shizuku is a free app that lets other apps run a few system commands with the rights a computer has over adb, without rooting the phone. With Shizuku running and WM Keyboard allowed in it, the keyboard gains two more ways in:

• Floating through Android’s own window command, sized afterwards to about 70% of the screen. This is the way that works on HyperOS 3, which turns down floating requests from apps.
• Split screen through the command Android’s split screen itself answers to, on Android 14 and later: the keyboard opens the app, brings yours back, and moves the app into the second half. It won’t do it while split screen is already up.

The Shizuku row in the options walks you through it: get Shizuku, start it, then allow WM Keyboard. On a rooted phone, Use root does the same through your root manager instead, which asks the first time. Root is never touched until you turn that on. Neither runs anything but those few window commands, and the settings ones below.

Android’s freeform windows

Most phones have floating windows built into Android but switched off, behind the developer option Enable freeform windows. With it on and the phone restarted, the plain Android floating window works on any skin. The Android freeform windows row turns it on (and force activities to be resizable with it, so apps that ask for full screen still float). Writing that setting needs a permission only a computer or Shizuku can grant: with Shizuku or root the keyboard grants it to itself; otherwise the row copies the one adb shell pm grant command to run from a computer. Either way the phone needs a restart afterwards. On a phone that has freeform windows built in, the row says so and does nothing.

Emulated window (experimental)

Some phones have no floating window at all: stock Android phones, most Motorolas, HyperOS 3. For those, When a floating window isn’t possible offers a stand-in. Open normally and say why is the default. Emulated window (experimental) draws the app inside a window of the keyboard’s own: the app runs on a second, invisible screen, its picture is shown in a small window you can drag by its title bar, and your touches are passed through to it, the way Mi-FreeForm does it. The title bar has Back, Open full screen, which puts the app back on the main screen, and Close.

It needs Shizuku, which starts the app on that second screen and passes your touches in, and Display over other apps, which the keyboard asks for when you pick it. It is a stand-in and behaves like one: typing inside the window may bring the keyboard up on the main screen or not at all, apps that block screenshots show black, and some apps refuse to open on a second screen. Closing the window puts the app back among your recent apps.

Split screen pairs

A pair is two apps you often use side by side, like a video and your notes, or a chat and a translator. Tap the pair’s chip and the two apps open side by side. The first app ends up on top (or on the left), the second below (or on the right).

To make one, hold the first app, pick Pair in split screen with…, then tap the second app. The chip shows both icons, overlapped, and both names until you give it one. Hold a chip to open it or remove it.

WM Keyboard › Tools › App launcher › Split screen pairs lists every pair. Tap one to name it, and use its buttons to swap its sides, move it up or down the row, or delete it. A pair whose app you uninstalled leaves the row but stays in the list, so it comes back if you reinstall the app.

The floating button can open a pair too, from a gesture or its quick menu, with Open an app pair.

Pairs need split screen, so they only show where split screen does. From Android 13’s first update the keyboard’s invisible screen opens both apps itself, a third of a second apart. Where the keyboard opens them directly, the second app waits about two thirds of a second, and just over a second on Android 16, which refuses a second split request for a second after split screen opens. With the split screen helper, the keyboard waits for the first app to appear (at most about 2.2 seconds on Android 15 and on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO phones), then presses the switch, then opens the second app.

Options

WM Keyboard › Tools › App launcher

The screen opens with the two rows every tool has, plus the keyword group that only the tools you can summon by typing carry. The app launcher is one of them:

• Enabled: which way this starts depends on how you answered the setup wizard. The app launcher is only in the “show me everything” starter set, so the two simpler answers leave it off until you turn it on here.
• Icon colour: only shown while colorful tool icons is on globally (it is by default). It overrides this tool’s icon colour, a deep purple out of the box.
• Trigger words: “apps, launch” to begin with, under a Keyword shortcut heading. A Match capitals toggle sits below it, off by default, and a Reset to defaults row turns up once you’ve edited the words.

Then the launcher’s own group:

• Open apps: what a tap on an app does. Normally by default, Floating, or Split screen (where the phone has a way into it). The hold menu offers all of them whatever you pick.
• Split screen helper: says whether the split screen helper is on, and turns it on. Not on stock Android 12L or later, or in the Google Play build.
• Check what works on this phone: runs the check and shows how this phone floats and splits apps. Copies the result for a bug report.
• When a floating window isn’t possible: Open normally and say why by default, or Emulated window (experimental). See Emulated window.
• Shizuku: Shizuku’s state on this phone, and the next step: get it, start it, or allow WM Keyboard. See Shizuku and root.
• Use root: off by default, and only on a rooted phone. Lets the window commands go through your root manager where Shizuku isn’t running.
• Android freeform windows: turns on Android’s own floating windows, which takes a restart. See Android’s freeform windows.
• Split screen pairs: says how many pairs you have and opens their list. Only where split screen works.
• Sort order: A to Z by default, or Recent first to lead with the apps you opened most recently.
• App names: on by default. Off leaves bare icons with no label underneath.
• Apps per row: Auto by default, which fits as many apps as the keyboard width holds. Pick a number from 3 to 8 to fix it. Icons that don’t fit their cell shrink to fit.
• Icon size: 42 dp by default, anywhere from 30 to 60. On Auto, bigger icons also mean fewer apps per row. The pinned and recent row keeps its own size.
• Icon shape: Circle by default, Rounded square, or As on the phone to keep the shape your home screen gives each icon.
• Recent apps: on by default. Turning it off stops the tracking and deletes the stored list.
• How many recent apps: 10 by default, anywhere from 4 to 20. Lowering it drops the extra entries straight away rather than hiding them. Pick a multiple of your grid width and the row fills cleanly with no gap at the end.
• Open screens inside apps: on by default. Off leaves the app’s page as its pin, hide and App info actions, without the screen list. The hold menu still reaches the page either way, since hiding an app has no other door.
• Show private screens: off by default, and only shown while Open screens inside apps above is on. There’s no screen list to add it to with that switch off. Lists the screens other apps may not open, dimmed. They’re debugging fare, and a tap on one does nothing.
• Apps on the toolbar: says how many apps have a button on the toolbar. Tap it to take all of them off at once. See Apps on the toolbar.
• Hidden apps: says how many apps you hid. Tap it to bring all of them back to the grid at once. One at a time goes through the app’s own page, which a search reaches even while the app is hidden.
• Work apps: on by default. Lists the apps of your work profile too. Off keeps the grid to your personal profile. Without a work profile it changes nothing.
• Open the only match: off by default. When a search leaves a single app, it opens once you stop typing for a moment, without a tap. A key typed in that moment restarts the wait, so a name you are still spelling doesn’t open half-way. It waits while you are choosing the second app of a pair.
• App folders: says how many folders you have. Tap it to remove all of them at once and put their apps back in the grid. Folders are made and changed in the panel itself.

Privacy notes

• The app list is read from the system on your device and never leaves it.
• Recents, pins, hidden apps, folders and split screen pairs are stored as plain package names in the keyboard’s own settings, nowhere else. A work app’s entry adds the work profile’s number to its package name.
• The tool is unavailable before the first unlock after a reboot, like every tool that starts other apps.
• The check’s answer is kept on this device only and never synced: it is a fact about your phone, not a preference.
• Through Shizuku or root the keyboard runs only window commands: starting an app in a window mode, resizing or moving its task, reading the task list to find it, and the two freeform settings. The emulated window adds a second screen of the keyboard’s own and the touches you make on it.

The app launcher is the App launcher bundle on Extensions. Off there, the tool and the split-screen pairs screen leave the keyboard and the app until the bundle is switched back on.