Help Suggestions not working. Not showing frequently used apps

[Stephen has a question]

The "suggestions" icons on my phone are always just the standard Google set: Photos, Maps, Gmail, Clock and Settings. It is supposed to show my frequently used apps, which would be very helpful. It doesn't, which is not helpful at all. The phone is a Nokia 7 Plus with AndroidOne. Is this a bug or is there something I can do?

 

[lunatic59]

I thought "suggestions" went away years ago. I know Google used to have it in the Google Now Launcher, but that was killed off last year. A different launcher might give you something better. With Nova at least, I see the 4 most frequently used apps at the top of my app drawer.

 

[Stephen has a question]

I thought "suggestions" went away years ago. I know Google used to have it in the Google Now Launcher, but that was killed off last year. A different launcher might give you something better. With Nova at least, I see the 4 most frequently used apps at the top of my app drawer.

Hi - thanks, i'm probably not using the right terminology. In my screenshot of the "recent" cards, it's the 5 icons at the bottom under the search bar. These icons are supposed to be frequently used apps. Instead it's the same 5 Google apps every time. BTW what is the correct terminology for these icons?

 

[lunatic59]

Those 5 icons are what's referred to as a "dock" and it will always be the same set of icons no matter what screen you're on. You can change them to anything you'd like by long=pressing them and then dragging them off the dock. Once you have an opening there, you can drag whatever icon you like there and it will always be there. Some launchers also have multiple docks where you can swipe left and right to access more icons.

I'd just recommend NOT removing the app drawer icon, only because it's a pain to get it back.

 

[Stephen has a question]

Those 5 icons are what's referred to as a "dock" and it will always be the same set of icons no matter what screen you're on. You can change them to anything you'd like by long=pressing them and then dragging them off the dock. Once you have an opening there, you can drag whatever icon you like there and it will always be there. Some launchers also have multiple docks where you can swipe left and right to access more icons.

I'd just recommend NOT removing the app drawer icon, only because it's a pain to get it back.

No, actually they don't drag off. They're stuck there. The behaviour you're talking about is the Dock on the Homescreen I think, which works as you say. I'm very familiar with that. This bar exists only when you swipe up the centre pill icon to get the Recents cards, which is what you see on the screenshot

 

[lunatic59]

That must be a Nokia thing, then. I don't recall ever seeing that in any version of Android I've had. Sorry.

 

[Stephen has a question]

AndroidOne, so essentially just Pie. The same thing is on the Pixel. Except in this screenshot it's working as it should.

 

[MoodyBlues]

That must be a Nokia thing, then. I don't recall ever seeing that in any version of Android I've had. Sorry.

Same here. Never heard of it until now.

 

[Hadron]

AndroidOne, so essentially just Pie. The same thing is on the Pixel. Except in this screenshot it's working as it should.

It is still a launcher feature rather than a part of Android itself. The Android One launcher is not part of the AOSP, it's a Google launcher.

I'm using a Pixel 2 (Feb 2019 patch) and I don't have either a dock/suggestions or a search bar on my recent apps screen, just the recent apps (larger and more readable than in the screenshot because I don't have that other stuff). But I also don't use the Pixel launcher (inflexible thing with fixed elements that some corporation decides I should have on my desktop whether I want them or not? That was never going to last long with me). But if I do switch to the Pixel launcher and then swipe the pill up then I get those things as well, and when I switch back to Nova they go away. Hence this is a launcher feature, and so the cause of the problem must also lie in the launcher.

When I used it just now I got the same 3 icons that were in the desktop dock for that launcher (Phone, Play Store and Camera in my case - which must be Google defaults because I would never put Play Store or Camera in my top 5). But I don't use it, so it probably doesn't know what my frequently-used apps are. I'm guessing the reason I have 3 icons rather than 5 is that I've probably removed or disabled 2 of its default set, whatever those might be..

So the best I can guess is that for some reason it's forgotten what you've used recently. Maybe an update could do that? I don't know how long it will take to build up a history, but if that is what's happened it should start working again after a while. If not then I don't know what the answer is.

 

[chanchan05]

I thought that was part of Pie because the Samsung Pie update brought those as well. I don't like them there though, so thankfully Samsung put an option to get rid of them from the recents view.

 

[Hadron]

According to this XDA article in Pie the recent apps UI is integrated into the stock launcher rather than in SystemUI. This allows manufacturers to customise it, so it sounds like Samsung included Google's defaults but gave you switches to turn them off (which aren't visible in the Pixel launcher's settings - Google are pretty bad at giving you options in their apps).

The funny thing is that in principle a replacement launcher should require root to change these things, and my Pixel 2 isn't rooted. So that raises the question of how come it behaves differently when I use a third party launcher? I've tried with 4 different ones now and it's the same each time: only the Pixel launcher shows these extras. Perhaps the actual recent apps bit is still in the system and it's just these search and dock things which are added by the stock launcher, and so aren't available when not using it?

 

[steiny180]

Have a look at the free Nova Launcher. When I used it, it would track and present the most frequently used apps in its app drawer.