Comment 3 for bug 1320920

If I were to guess why the app order seems to randomly change, it might be because of installing a new version of the app changes the sort order.

The thing with alphabetical is that it is predictable and people will learn what an app is named. They install it, then they see a screen that shows the icon, the name and a button to Open right there. This lets them know how to find it later. With install time it feels totally random. I actually gave it quite a bit of thought and literally had no idea why the order is what it is. Having it by install time also doesn't help with heavily used apps. They are still somewhere down below-- likely at the bottom of the list because a heavily used app might be one of the first apps to install. Also, a heavily used app is a candidate to put in the launcher.

Right now, I have 68 apps installed. The current ordering literally makes no sense to me and I gave up. Now that I know it is by install time, maybe I can say things to myself like "oh, this is probably in the middle of the list", so even then it doesn't help my searching-- I have to remember that for each app (certainly that is harder to remember than the apps name?!), and then do a vague gesture to hopefully scroll down enough to get the icon on the screen, then try to visually scan the screen to (still) find the icon and name. Why not just scan for the name? On things to remember, easy to precisely scroll, etc. In addition, the core preinstalled apps (things which I use all the time)-- settings, messaging, facebook, contacts, dialer, etc are far down the list.

IMO, alphabetical is the only thing that makes any sense unless the user does a search or manipulates the scope in some way. I can imagine, perhaps, the first row (3 apps on my nexus4) could contain the 3 most heavily used apps and the next row (3 apps on my nexus 4) the 3 most recent new installs (not including version upgrades), then the rest are alphabetical. Honestly though, I think this would also be confusing because things move around on the user. Alphabetical is something everyone understands. Different views (orderings) should either be a different section (different from 'My Apps' or 'Available') or opt-in parameter. I can imagine a 'Favorites' section (perhaps the user could flag it somehow) and maybe 'Recently used' (though, still, the launcher is probably the right place for this).

I can't stress enough how much of a usabilty issue this is-- I literally *always* use SEARCH now unless it is in the launcher or it happens to have bubbled to the top of the list today and it caught my eye. As a result, I have to remember the name enough to type it in even with the current sorting. I think it is unreasonable to expect a user to remember the install time of an app (along with at least the icon if not the name too in order to tap it in the scrolled to area) rather than simply the name. (One could argue that with alphabetical they could still remember general placement on the list ("I forgot the name-- I do remember it was at the bottom of the list though...")).