Feature Request: Sort Unknown Sources by install date (recent)

[VinceCrusty]

Hey there!

Since last Quest updates, the "recent" sort option for Unknown Sources is no longer available in the GUI. This makes it very difficult to find newly installed apps, especially when many are present. It would be extremely helpful if LightningLauncher could include an option to sort sideloaded apps by install date, using Android’s PackageInfo.firstInstallTime via PackageManager. This would replicate the old "recent" behavior and greatly improve usability.

As a fallback (if PackageManager is unavailable), scanning /Android/data or /Android/obb folders and sorting them by creation/modification date could offer a basic approximation.

Thanks for considering! Greetings Vince

[threethan]

Great request! Apologies for not getting back sooner.

Lightning Launcher deliberately excludes sorting options, to keep the interface simple and performance predictable. (This might change in the future)

In version 9.1, I've added the option to tag new apps for a customizable duration. Tagged apps are automatically sorted before others.

This is based on the first time the launcher sees a given package name, so it doesn't need to fetch any additional data.

While this isn't quite what you asked for, I hope it can still address the underlying problem.

[threethan]

Enough people requested that I've added this, alongside a few other sorting options, in version 10.0.