XDA recently introduced to you Swapps, a multi-tasking app allowing users to access their apps from a concealable dock. This function is extremely useful for changing apps quickly from within another without the need to press the home button and then the app drawer. Well now, Sidebar has stepped up offering the same experience.

XDA Senior Member Mohammad_Adib, the same developer who gave us Floating Stickies, recently introduced his app Sidebar in the XDA forums. The app consists of a minimizable sidebar docked to the left of the screen, and simply displays shortcuts to user-defined apps. Now you may ask, how is this any different to Swapps? First of all, Sidebar's user interface is a lot less cluttered and complicated. Sidebar does not display all apps installed on your Android phone by default, and they aren't further organized into different categories, but rather only display apps you choose to have. It can also be said that Sidebar has a more aesthetically appealing design, with an opaque dock displaying enlarged icons of apps and has the novelty of simple and pleasant touch animations.

Sidebar is a well designed, well polished app with a simple, yet practical function allowing users to quickly access their important and favorite apps quickly and conveniently. With an active and committed developer and working with Android versions 2.1 and newer, the lite version is free of pesky ads and is available for free in the Play store. If Sidebar interests you, head over to the original thread for more details.