5.2 KiB
+++ date = '2025-05-24T13:42:20+02:00' draft = false title = 'Home' +++
μLauncher
µLauncher is an Android home screen that lets you launch apps using swipe gestures and button presses. It is minimal, efficient and free of distraction.
The source code is available on GitHub and on my Forgejo instance.
You can also get it on Google Play, but I don't recommend that.
µLauncher is a fork of finnmglas's app Launcher. An incomplete list of changes can be found here.
Idea
µLauncher aims to turn your phone into an efficient tool. By default, the home screen only displays the date, time and a wallpaper. The most important apps (as well as some additional actions) can be bound one of 35 gestures, e.g. swipe right to open Signal, swipe down to open the browser or press a volume button to turn on the flashlight. An complete list of actions and gestures can be found here.
Pressing back or swiping up1 opens a list of all installed apps, which can be searched efficiently. Once only one app matches the search it is launched automatically2, usually typing two or three characters suffices.
μLauncher strives to be minimal software in the sense of Unix philosophy.
μLauncher is opinionated software. It is built around the main concept of actions and gestures and searching for everything else. Not every feature fits this approach well, e.g., μLauncher does not support organizing apps in directories or in a grid layout like other launchers do. If you dislike this approach, that is no problem, other great open source alternatives exist!
Screenshots
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This can be configured. Opening the app list is just a regular action. ↩︎
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This can be configured as well. Typing space before starting to search disables the auto launch temporarily. It can also be disabled completely. ↩︎