A free launcher for Meta Quest that organizes official and sideloaded apps, websites and 2D apps into groups, with search, starred apps and playtime.
Lightning Launcher is a home-screen app in the productivity category from threethan. It gathers store apps, sideloaded apps and games, and websites into one customizable library, and the developer says it was built with speed, reliability and convenience in mind. It is distributed through SideQuest, where it was first listed in September 2023.
What you can do
The interface has dark and light modes, and apps can appear as icons or wide banners, set per app or per type. You can hide, rename or swap the icon of any app, change size and spacing to fit more on screen, and pick one of 10 preset styles or import your own wallpaper. Banner art, icons and labels for Quest apps are kept up to date.
- Groups: apps are grouped by platform automatically, and you can sort them into up to 20 custom groups, plus a Hidden group.
- Starred apps move to the front, including in search results.
- Search covers every app, and pressing Enter opens the top result.
- Websites can be added as tiles and opened in the developer's Lightning Browser, the Meta Quest Browser or another default browser.
- Multitasking: 2D apps open in windows at a size you choose, beside the launcher or in its place.
- Playtime: with optional usage access, time spent in each VR app shows when you hover its banner.
- Shortcuts from the Quest dock, plus integration with the developer's Quest Game Tuner for tuning games and viewing playtime charts.
How to get it and what to know
- It is free.
- It is installed from SideQuest by sideloading; see our guide to sideloading on Meta Quest. It is also available on the Meta Horizon Store.
- Supported headsets: Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, Quest 3 and Quest 3S. The listing also names PICO and Magic Leap devices, and the developer says it runs on any Android device.
- The listing marks it as usable seated.
- The developer handles bug reports and changelogs on GitHub and Discord rather than on the SideQuest page.
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 by 89 SideQuest users.
