Show HN: Conjure - A launcher for Android | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Conjure - A launcher for Android

play.google.com

27 pointsgotosleep21 comments

I was waiting for something like this (translate, thought about writing, and then realized someone without 2 kids and a mortgage will beat me to it) after getting the infamous dumb search and being forced to install go launcher / use gensture search. This is actually what I was missing for my galaxy s III to save it from being replaced with an iPhone 5 (ok, google maps is an added argument, but this is was beaten to death already). Thank you, and please say no to any acqui hire attempts from Google (and get a good lawyer in case Apple sue you for violating omni search patents).

Glad to save you from a switch to iPhone! Yeah, the Google offerings just don't do what I want in a launcher app. I feel like I did something right because I ended up using the app all the time; it's pretty much my interface for my phone at this point.

Just like ctrl+3 in eclipse, command space in a Mac, win key in Windows. Find stuff by text is by far faster than anything else I can think of

No trial? It's not exactly the kind of app I can test in 15 minutes.

I would be happy to give it a go as well, a 7 days trial good be a good idea, or a alfred'ish model.

This works great. It's fast and responsive. Just one comment/request: Maybe allow the user to position the web searches at the bottom of more relevant items in the result. So for example, if I search gmail, it should be the first item. Right now, the first 4 items are : Search 'gmail' using Browser, Search 'gmail' using Chrome, Search 'gmail' using Dolphin, Search 'gmail' using Firefox. Then gmail shows up. If i had a smaller phone, I'd have to scroll down to see the most relevant item.

Conjure actually learns from your selections. So, if you search for gmail & then tap the Gmail app, it should be the first result the next time you make the same search.

I think the point is that if those are always the first 4 choices for every new query, it could get annoying quickly. Also, aren't those 4 suggestions redundant? Shouldn't it just have a single "search the web" suggestion, which pops up the standard browser selection dialog and allow the user to choose the default?

Exactly, I have about 8 browsers installed and I find this very annoying. Your suggestion fixes this nicely.

Good point, I'll fix this in the next release. Thanks for the suggestion!

Does this replace the homescreen like Apex Launcher and Nova Launcher? It doesn't seem to be that kind of launcher, from looking at the screenshots.

No, it doesn't. It's a launcher more in the vein of Alfred for OSX, Gnome-Do for Linux, or Launchy for Windows.

How does this improve on Quickdroid? Can I run scripts with it? tasker integration?

Thanks for the Quickdroid hint -- I've just installed it :).

Interesting, I hadn't heard of Quickdroid until now. I just tried it out and it is pretty good, but I still think Conjure is better.

Here are a few things Conjure can do that Quickdroid can't: - Abbreviations. Searching for "gv" in Conjure produces the google voice app, in Quickdroid nothing - Toggles, Conjure provides access to a bunch of different toggles - Volume, Conjure provides access to all the volume controls

There are a few features in Quickdroid that I like which Conjure doesn't have, namely the Quick Launch feature. I'll be adding that ASAP.

That's cool. I'll definitely buy your app in the future if you incorporate a Tasker plugin. http://tasker.dinglisch.net/developers.html

Quickdroid can also search for abbreviations. You just have to enable this in the settings. It is not activated by default.

I'd love the possibility to add aliases for certain applications.

On my (Danish) Galaxy S3 the calendar is named "S-Planlægger". It would be nice to just be able to type in "cal" for it to start.

Aliases for specific bookmarks would also be nice.

I plan on supporting that in the near future. Thanks for checking out the app!

LOL - Was I the only one that read this as Clojure - A Launcher For Android!

A little late, but I made a webpage that goes over the features and provides a pretty comprehensive demo: http://c.onjure.com

Reply on news.ycombinator.com