Panels – custom sidebar, widget and app launcher alternatives

Free 9 alternatives

Panels – custom sidebar, widget and app launcher is one of the most popular multitasking app and a mini launcher panel for your smartphone apps. It provides quick access to your favorite applications, contacts, shortcuts, and widgets with a full-on app drawer that is fully customizable. It makes your home screen clean with all necessary apps in the sidebar that can be accessed with a swipe. The size, position, and transparency of the sidebar can be customized.

The app allows you to launch your favorite applications, toggle system settings, call contacts, control the playing music, access folders or files, manage the calendar, all that by swiping the edge of your screen. All in all, the Panels app is a great productivity tool that not only speeds up your phone usage but also makes the usage much easier.

Panels – custom sidebar, widget and app launcher screenshot

Ranked alternatives

1
Floating Apps Free (multitasking)Free
Floating Apps Free (multitasking) is an app that comes with more than 41 floating apps that you can use in a multi-window format and do multitasking. You don’t need to leave one necessary app and go to the other one leaving your work for a small task. Floating Apps help you crate every essential task with built-in applications like browser, notes, PDF viewer, calendar, Twitter, calculator, contacts, file manager, music player, video player, image viewer, audio recorder, paint, translator, wifi manager, google maps, and mini-games.
The app is multilingual, so you can take notes in major languages anywhere and anytime. You can access the floating apps without leaving the stuff you are doing. The apps will be displayed on the top of the current app as an overlay with full functionalities. You can also change the size and ratio of the app to fit the content.
Floating Apps Free (multitasking) alternatives
2
OverlaysFree
Overlays is an app that lets you launch multiple applications in the form of a floating window. The apps act as an overlay to the currently running app without disturbing or closing the currently running app. Overlays multitasking capabilities allow you to be more productive. The app can also run overlay apps on the launcher, which is always open in the ram and is ready to open. The floating overlay size can be adjusted with customizable opacity and ratio to fit according to your content. You can watch YouTube and watch Facebook news feed, watch live sports and news on the other app, all with the Overlays app.
Easily listen to music while doing something productive. A highlighting feature is that you can turn a website into a floating widget on the home screen to access it right away from the home screen. Some built-in floating windows include widgets, shortcuts, browser, launcher, notification history, volume control, sidebar, maps, image viewer, media player, camera, translator, calculator, dialer, contacts, and much more.
Overlays alternatives
3
Edge ScreenFree
Edge Screen app is made for a smartphone with curve-edged displays like the Samsung Galaxy S series and other manufacturers. The app allows you to launch your favorite applications, toggle system settings, call contacts, control the playing music, access folders or files, manage the calendar; all this by swiping the edge of your screen. The app could also be used on non-curved phones and tablets, with all features enabled. The neat interface comes with a customizable menu in which you can add apps for quick launch or add widgets to quickly glance at the update happening in the app.
You just need to grant the required permissions, customize the edge panels, and access your favorite apps, toggle system settings, a music player, and a lot more by launching different side panels. The sidebar can be dragged quickly on any side of the phone, and use the phone with one hand without stretching out fingers to get to home, recent and back buttons. All in all, Edge Screen makes your phone usage much easier.
Edge Screen alternatives
4
Float BrowserFree
Float Browser app allows you to use apps in the floating window just like multitasking. The app is made to make phone usage easier that does not support multitasking mode. You can browse the web while watching your favorite show on YouTube or news feed on Facebook. It can also make a website into a floating window without disturbing the background app. You can also adjust the screen size, ratio, and opacity of the floating window. The app is free with no annoying ads.
Other features include a movable video player, playback or browsing history, minimize player in the background, full-screen play, and plain interface. All in all, Float Browser is a great tool to multitask with your phone and get uninterrupted productivity as well as entertainment.
Float Browser alternatives
5
Tiny Apps (floating apps)Free
Tiny Apps (floating apps) is a multitasking app that can make applications into a floating window as an overlay on the currently running app. It supports more than 18 apps, including calendar, widgets, video player, music player, image viewer, file manager, maps, calendar, camera, music player, web browser, paint, contacts, gallery, translator, notes, audio recorder, and much more. The floating window can be moved anywhere on the top, resized, and opacity could also be changed.
With Tiny Apps, you can easily multitask to watch a show on one app and news feed on the other by simultaneously running them on-screen. All in all, Tiny Apps (floating apps) make phone usage much easier and saves your time by doing multiple tasks in the time frame of one task.
Tiny Apps (floating apps) alternatives
6
Mini Floating AppsFree
Mini Floating Apps comes with a pack of 23 essential apps that you can use to multitask on your smartphone even if the phone does not support it by default. It makes the small app’s windows hovering over any other app running. You can minimize the apps to floating bubbles without closing it and opening it quickly whenever you need it by long-pressing the bubble or opening from the notification area.
By double-tapping the floating window, it can be used fully maximized. The transparency, position, and size can also be adjusted to prevent content distraction. Multiple windows can be opened at a time, depending on your phone ram. Some apps include calendar, file manager, camera, notes, contacts, stopwatch, flashlight, dialer, volume manager, calculator, and much more.
Mini Floating Apps alternatives
7
Sidebar, Edge Screen, Circle Launcher – FloatooFree
Sidebar, Edge Screen, Circle Launcher – Floatoo app is a sidebar that you can use to add quick shortcuts of any app like other alternatives. The shortcuts can be accessed with a single swipe. The app has a responsive design and interfaces with an app drawer, customizable launcher, search bar for apps, and shortcuts. Floatoo lets you run overlay apps on the launcher, which is always open in the ram and is ready to open. The floating overlay size can be adjusted with customizable opacity and ratio to fit according to your content. You can watch YouTube and watch Facebook news feed, watch live sports and news on the other app, all with the Overlays app.
Easily listen to music while doing something productive. You can also turn a website into a floating widget on the home screen to access it right away from the home screen. Some built-in floating windows include widgets, shortcuts, browser, launcher, notification history, volume control, sidebar, maps, image viewer, media player, camera, translator, calculator, dialer, contacts, and battery indicator.
Sidebar, Edge Screen, Circle Launcher – Floatoo alternatives
8
Everywhere LauncherFree
Everywhere launcher is a sidebar app, sort of an edge launcher that lets you open your favorite apps with just a swipe of a finger. The mini edge bar reveals the drawer in which you can add your most-used apps, shortcuts, links, contacts, and widgets for quick access. You can add apps like calendar, video player, music player, image viewer, file manager, maps, calendar, camera, music player, web browser, paint, contacts, gallery, translator, notes, audio recorder, and much more. The floating window can be moved anywhere on the top, resized, and opacity could also be changed.
You can customize the sidebar by changing the names and colors of apps or change the icons. It lets you make categorized folders for apps, change visibility like tile view, list view, and set the long-press gesture to any action. All in all, Everywhere Launcher is a great tool to make your multitasking easier on a phone or tablet.
Everywhere Launcher alternatives
9
CircleLauncher lightFree
CircleLauncher light app provides app widgets that help you start your preferred apps quickly from the home screen. You can add some frequently used apps or contacts to this launcher and start those apps or contacts with one click from a circle. It also includes launcher icons or uses an icon from any CircleLauncher icon pack. The widgets are fully customizable, i.e., you can change animations, size, opacity, and position of every widget.
Some widgets that you can add are calendar, camera, calculator, a gallery with photo albums, file manager, game launcher, widgets, shortcuts, browser, notification history, volume control, maps, media player, translator, dialer, contacts, and much more. All in all, the CircleLauncher light makes your phone much easier and fun to use without wasting time in finding necessary apps when needed on time.
CircleLauncher light alternatives