[FR] Keyboard-only input: remove delay and use only one enter key press to open

[othalan]

Feature Request

I open apps with only keyboard input, which leads to two irritations:

1. There is a long delay (1 second?) between typing text and filtering applications.
2. Opening an application requires pressing the enter key twice.

While both of these are design choices, they are significant issues for someone who prefers keyboard-only interaction when possible.

Solution you would like

• Filter applications while typing instead of waiting for typing to stop with a delay. This may need an option to enable or disable this feature.
• When the enter key is pressed, open the first application in the list.

Alternatives you have considered

Using a different app. Responsive keyboard input is a critical issue for me and I would rather have fewer features than a delay filtering apps.

Additional context

I love the flexibility of LaunchNext, but using it from a keyboard-first perspective, it feels very sluggish to the point of irritation compared to alternatives.

[RoversX]

That part is intentional — it's debounced, not frozen.

The lists in the Settings app can get pretty long, so the search function does not filter on every single keystroke. There’s a short debounce to avoid unnecessary work and keep the UI responsive.

If it feels like it waits a moment before updating, this is the expected behaviour rather than the UI being stuck.

Regarding the issue of opening an application requiring pressing the enter key twice: I will try to fix this when I have time by maybe adding a switch in the settings, because I remember it's related to the arrow key.