Launch Center Pro gains a Today widget and more
If you’re a fan of getting things done quickly and efficiently, then you’re in for a treat today with Launch Center Pro for iPhone. This is a staple app for many of us here at AppAdvice, since it allows us to quickly launch apps and actions in one central hub.
The last major update for Launch Center Pro was back in June of last year, with 2.3 that added support for IFTTT and much more. And today, Sep. 15, Contrast has just upped the ante with Launch Center Pro 2.5 for the iPhone.
New Today widget
Launch Center Pro’s new Today widget.
The biggest addition that this update brings to the table is the ability to have your Launch Center actions available right in the Notification Center, thanks to the Today widget. While Launch Center Pro was originally rejected in 2011 for trying to make use of Notification Center, the feature is now available to all four years later.
Setting up your Launch Center Pro widget is an intuitive process.
When you’re in Launch Center Pro, just tap on the gear icon to bring up the Settings, and then select the “Today Widget” option. From here, you can add as many action shortcuts as you want, and everything is organized by your groups or Launch Center home screen page. The Launch Center Pro Today widget will display four action icons in a row, and you can have as many rows as needed. To rearrange the order of actions, just tap-and-hold as if it were your iPhone home screen.
To access your Launch Center Pro widget, just bring down Notification Center, scroll to the bottom until you see “Edit,” tap on it, and make sure to add Launch Center Pro to the menu. Then you’ll see all of your action shortcuts available to you, and tapping on the icons will launch the action or app that you’ve assigned.
I’ve been testing out the new Today widget for the past few days and it works flawlessly. Setting it up is a breeze too, thanks to the natural and intuitive gestures and organized lists of your available actions. While there are other apps that are able to perform actions from the Notification Center (I’m looking at you, Launcher), I’m prefer Launch Center Pro’s implementation the most since I’ve already been using the app for years. It’s never been easier to launch your favorite apps and actions, as they are now just a swipe and tap away.
Support for over 100k new apps
There are now over 100,000 apps that are supported in Launch Center Pro.
Another nice addition in the update is the support for over 100,000 more apps and actions in addition to what already existed. I can’t list out all of the new additions, but you can find a list of all supported apps here.
Chances are that if there is an app on your iPhone that you want a shortcut for, Launch Center Pro will have it. In terms of shortcut launcher apps, Launch Center Pro is in the lead with the sheer number of supported apps that you can launch.
iOS 9 compatibility
With iOS 9 coming tomorrow, Contrast has made Launch Center Pro fully compatible with the big new release of iOS. So don’t worry about your favorite app launcher not being usable when you get your hands on iOS 9 if you haven’t already!
Wrapup
I’ve been a huge fan and supporter of Launch Center Pro since it first came out many years ago, and I’m happy to see how it has come along over time. It has gone from being a simple way for me to launch apps faster to a better way of doing actions with the dozens of apps that I use regularly, and now the experience has been even more refined with the awesome new Today widget. Plus, seeing more apps being supported directly is a bonus, and it’s all ready to go for iOS 9 tomorrow.
Launch Center Pro 2.5 is available for the iPhone for $3.99. There is also Launch Center Pro for the iPad for $4.99, but the 2.5 update for that version is coming soon.
