Samsung A71 the apps do not show up to launch

[Android Central Question]

I purchased a Samsung A71 for my daughter and it seems like a decent phone, but, many of the applications do not simply show up to be launched. On my other android phones, I display a list of my applications (for example, swipe up from the bottom and there is an entire list), On the Samsung A71, many of the applications, especially games installed from the play store, do not show up when we do this. I can find them from settings | Applications or from the play store directly. I have to admit that I am very unhappy with how insidious the integration from Samsung is (Samsung wants to store the passwords, Smasung has their own store, etc). Did not see this with Nexus or Motorola phones. any thoughts?

 

[VidJunky]

Welcome to Android Central.

Is your phone a Samsung, not your daughter's? I ask because Samsung uses their own app called Game Launcher which collects anything it recognizes as a game and launches it from the Game Launcher app. Someone should have had to agree to its use before it started doing this and if just clicking yes to whatever pops up may not have read or understood what it was they were agreeing to. In the app drawer, the swipe up from the bottom movement, you should find an app called Game Launcher. Add that to the home screen and all of the games will be in there. If Game Launcher is not wanting to be used in settings under Advanced Features Game Launcher can be disabled. You can type Game into the search bar in settings or navigate, Settings>Advanced features>Game Launcher and uncheck the box.

As for any other types of apps that may have gone missing, usually they still appear in the app drawer but I have noticed that some will not if the app is placed in a folder. I haven't looked too deep into it to see what the differences are between apps that do disappear and ones that don't when placed in folders but it's just another Samsung thing. If an app cannot be located you can type the name into the search bar either in the app drawer or the settings menu and it will appear in the list that is displayed. To return the app to the app drawer, remove it from the folder it's in or add it directly to the home screen.

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[andyblaster]

Don't see how to reply, so I created an account to say... Vid Junky, I think that you nailed it. This is my daughter's phone and the Samsung software feels very insidious in terms of "let me do that for you, I know I asked four times before, but, let me ask again". Somewhere in there a yes was probably answered. Seems to be a great phone for the money, but the Samsung stuff was really annoying me. I am sure that with time, the annoyance will lessons as we learn to deal with the quirks. Thanks again for the great answer!