One of our favorite launchers for customization fanatics just added a new feature to make the Android search bar more useful, justify all the home screen space it takes up. Action uncher 3 was recently upgraded to version 3.5. The big change in the new build is the ability to add apps, shortcuts, or menu groups to the search bar—Action uncher calls this the Quickbar.

Besides adding your favorite apps, Action uncher developer cy suggests a few useful tips for this feature. You could place a phone icon with several dialing shortcuts for the people you call the most, or group your music podcast apps together under one icon. 

Even adding a few individual apps can come in hy if your home screen is already taken up with vital choices.

The Quickbar customizations are the only big addition to Action uncher 3.5. It may seem like a small feature, but cy said it was actually a “mammoth design engineering undertaking.”

If you’ve never used Action uncher 3, it has some nice features for tinkerers. There are a ton of configurable tap shortcuts gestures, including the ability to swipe down anywhere on the screen to pull down the notifications bar; there’s an alphabetical list of all your apps that swipes in from the right called Quickpage; Shutters lets you swipe an app’s icon to display its corresponding widget.

The impact on you at home: Action uncher 3 is free to download, but to use most of the customization features—including the new Quickbar tweaks—you’ll have to shell out $5 for the us upgrade. That’s a worthy investment if you like the idea of customizing your home screen area to your liking. If you’d like to consider other options before committing to Action uncher check out our recent look at the best custom launchers for your Android phone.