README

• Contributors: akirk
• Tags: apps
• Requires at least: 5.0
• Tested up to: 7.0
• License: GPL-2.0-or-later
• Stable tag: 1.3.0

A WordPress app launcher.

Description

This plugin adds a /my-apps/ route to your WordPress so that it can act as your personal apps launcher — a dashboard that feels like a mobile phone home screen, so you don't have to navigate wp-admin to reach the apps you use.

Apps can be plugins that register their own icon, custom links you add yourself, or plugins you install on demand from the built-in app store.

Features

• Launcher at /my-apps/ with grid or flow layouts, drag-to-reorder, and an edit mode for customization.
• Display settings live in the launcher itself (no admin page): icon size, spacing, grid columns, layout toggle, background color/image, and an optional personalized greeting. Settings are stored per-device while in edit mode.
• App Store for installing new apps: browse a curated catalog, view app detail pages, and install via WordPress Playground blueprints. Paste a custom blueprint JSON from the clipboard to install anything.
• Auto-registered icons after a blueprint install — if the installed plugin doesn't register its own icon, one is generated with a category-colored gradient.
• Import/export your launcher configuration from the settings dropdown.
• Mobile-friendly: full-screen app store, three icons per row, and a My Apps link in the admin bar on the frontend.

Adding an app from a plugin

Plugins can register their own launcher icon by filtering my_apps_plugins:

add_filter( 'my_apps_plugins', function ( $apps ) {
    // Add your app to the array. These three keys are mandatory:
    $apps['friends'] = array(
        // Name: The name that will be displayed.
        'name'     => __( 'Friends', 'friends' ),
        // The icon as a URL. You can also use a local URL inside a plugin, using `plugins_url()`.
        'icon_url' => 'https://ps.w.org/friends/assets/icon-256x256.png',
        // The URL this should link to.
        'url'      => home_url( '/friends/' ),
    );
    return $apps;
} );

Temporarily adding an app from a blueprint

You can add your own app to the App Store by pasting a complete WordPress Playground blueprint.json. Open My Apps, choose Add, then paste the blueprint anywhere in the App Store. On mobile, focus the Search field and paste the blueprint there.

My Apps reads the blueprint's meta.title, meta.description, and meta.author fields to create the app-store entry. If the title matches an existing app, you can temporarily override that app with your pasted blueprint. Custom and modified blueprint entries are stored in this browser and can be removed or reverted from their badge in the App Store.

To test App Store catalog, recipe, or plugin recommendation changes from another blueprints source without changing this plugin, press Ctrl+P in My Apps. Enter a WordPress/blueprints PR number, a PR URL, or a GitHub fork branch URL. Submit an empty value to return to the default catalog.

Example:

{
	"$schema": "https://playground.wordpress.net/blueprint-schema.json",
	"meta": {
		"title": "My Custom App",
		"description": "Installs my custom WordPress app.",
		"author": "Your Name"
	},
	"landingPage": "/wp-admin/",
	"steps": [
		{
			"step": "installPlugin",
			"pluginData": {
				"resource": "wordpress.org/plugins",
				"slug": "gutenberg"
			}
		}
	]
}

Abilities API

When the WordPress Abilities API is available, My Apps registers a my-apps category with launcher customization abilities:

• my-apps/get-all returns the full launcher state, including grouped background metadata, visible apps in display order, and app customization metadata.
• my-apps/set-background updates the launcher background using a preset slug, an image attachment ID, a remote image URL to sideload or use directly if sideloading fails, or a safe CSS color/gradient value.
• my-apps/add-app creates a custom app icon with a name, URL, and optional icon. Icons can be an image URL, Dashicon, emoji, gradient, generated letter tile, or the app URL's conventional /favicon.ico.
• my-apps/set-app-details renames an existing launcher app, changes its URL, or reverts those name/URL overrides.
• my-apps/set-app-icon updates or reverts the icon for an existing launcher app by slug.
• my-apps/set-visible-ordered sets the complete visible_ordered launcher app list; apps omitted from this list are hidden.
• my-apps/set-app-visibility hides or restores a launcher app by slug.

When the AI Assistant plugin is available, My Apps also registers domain hints so questions about the launcher, app icons, hidden apps, app order, and launcher backgrounds are routed to these abilities.

Screenshots

1. The Launcher
2. Launcher settings: layout, icon size, spacing, and import/export
3. The App Store
4. The Recipes overview — curated multi-step guides for getting the most out of WordPress
5. A Recipe detail with numbered steps and one-click installs
6. Another Recipe detail — Bring Your Data In
7. Adding an admin link — browse and search all wp-admin menu items
8. Adding a web link with a custom emoji, image URL, or Dashicon