Apps

Rare Launcher has an Apps row, like a console's media row: Telegram, X, Netflix, YouTube, Discord and Google Chrome. They open from the controller and come back to Rare with one button.

Find them in the Apps row on Home, or with the Apps filter in Library (X switches filters).

How each app opens

Each app has a page that shows how it opens on this device and offers the other ways.

• Netflix needs Google Chrome. Netflix's video protection only works in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
• Sign-ins are kept per app. Each app keeps its own sign-in, separate from your other apps and games.
• One web window at a time. Apps that open in Rare's window share it with web games, so opening X replaces a running web game.

Get an app

When an app's best way needs a program that is not installed, its page shows Get with the program's name. Press it and Rare installs it from Flathub for your user, with no password, and shows the progress.

The page also shows the same command to run yourself in a terminal in desktop mode, for example:

flatpak install --user -y flathub org.telegram.desktop

Open, resume and close

An app's page also has Close while it runs. The Apps row shows how many apps are running.

The controller in apps

YouTube's TV layout reads the controller directly. Apps in Rare's window, such as X, use the d-pad to move between the page's buttons and A to press them.

Google Chrome (and Netflix, which runs in it), Telegram Desktop and Discord don't read a controller, so Rare turns it into a mouse and keyboard while one of them is in front:

Guide always comes back to Rare, and the controller drives Rare again once it is in front. Each app's page shows its layout.