Faster app menu in Ubuntu 18.04

Yes, it is possible.

This link shows you how

The link shows you how to turn off all kind of animations especially the spreading icons on menu, searching, and window animations so you can work faster. To do it, just run this command:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations false

Then apply it by pressing Alt+F2 and type r and press Enter. This will reset the GNOME Shell to follow your command.

To revert it back (enable animation again), just change the command to:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations true

If you're annoyed by only the "Show Applications" animation, you can disable it by running the following in Terminal

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock animate-show-apps false

If you want to get rid of all the GNOME shell animations, run the following instead

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations false

You can also speed up GNOME shell animations following this: How do I change the speed of the app drawer appearing?