Create a dock bar for your Android phone

Dock4Droid is a dock bar task manager for your Android phone.

Dock4Droid – supposedly the first of its kind – creates a bar for your device and allows you to choose certain apps to “dock” there. The aim of this is to give you easy, instant access to the apps and features you use most, regardless of what window you are currently viewing.

Dock4Droid does this by creating a dock bar that appears by default as a thin red line at the bottom of the screen. Under the app’s options, you’ll be able to modify this, changing thickness, position, color etc. Touch this bar, and your recently-used apps will appear. Hold and swipe to the left or right, and you’ll be able to browse through them. The app your finger last touches before you let go will then open as normal.

When Dock4Droid is running, you have easy access to its options via the notification bar. Here you can pick apps to always include in the dock bar, or likewise, to always exclude. You can also select auto-start, vibrate and a few other options. Unfortunately, all Dock4Droid options appear, including ones that are only available in the paid version. These pro-only features aren’t differentiated in any way, so there’s a bit of trial and error when it comes to seeing exactly what options you have access to.

In all, Dock4Droid is a very interesting idea and gives you instant access to the apps you use most. That said, it still feels like it is at an early stage of development – in other words, it doesn’t seem very polished. Instant access is already available via multiple homescreens set up to the user’s preferences. Even so, there may be reasons why that doesn’t suit some users and if you are one of them, Dock4Droid – especially, we presume, after a few more versions – will be a very interesting alternative.

Dock4Droid isn’t perfect just yet, but it is still a very interesting dock bar task manager for Android.