Smart Island

A lightweight Android overlay that turns notifications, calls, and media playback into a floating glanceable island.

Current release: v3.2.1

Downloads | Features | Getting Started | Privacy | Roadmap | Contributing | Telegram Community

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Overview

Smart Island is an open-source Android app that adds a small animated pill near the status bar. It listens for notification events locally, groups active items, and expands into a richer view for quick actions, media details, incoming calls, and notification previews.

The project is designed to be transparent, hackable, and privacy-conscious: notification data is processed on the device, settings are stored locally, and the app currently does not request the Android INTERNET permission.

Downloads & Safety

• Download APK: Obtain the pre-compiled application package directly from the GitHub Releases (Latest) page.
• Total Downloads:
• Telegram Channel: Join our community at telegram.me/SmartIslandApp to stay updated, suggest features, and discuss the app.
• Security Verification: To ensure transparency and safety, you can inspect the files using VirusTotal or review the automatic building and packaging logs under the GitHub Actions tab.

Screenshots

Features

Area	What Smart Island does
Floating overlay	Draws a compact island above other apps using Android's overlay window APIs.
Notification listener & suppression	Intercepts notifications locally, presenting them in the island while suppressing system shade duplicates.
Landscape auto-hide	Automatically detects landscape orientation and temporarily hides the overlay during gaming and media.
Battery optimization guide	Includes dedicated setup cards to guide users in setting background battery optimization to 'No restrictions'.
Lock screen privacy	Opt-in support for displaying island status on the lock screen with optional sensitive content hiding.
Wavy music player	Renders an animated organic wavy seek bar with heart/repeat actions, active track metadata, and dynamic color pickers.
Smooth animations	Morphs seamlessly between collapsed and expanded states with Compose animations.
Multiple notifications	Maintains an active notification stack allowing users to page horizontally between active items.
Calls and media	Detects incoming calls, music/media sessions, album artwork, playback state, and seek progress.
Battery charging	Displays charging percentage, pulsing indicator icon, and dynamic remaining time-until-full estimates.
Quick actions	Opens, dismisses, or launches supported notification content into floating windows.
App shortcuts	Lets users configure up to eight apps for instant launch from the empty expanded island.
Custom controls	Provides sliders for width, height, X/Y offsets, corner radius, and preset/custom RGB color themes.
Theme support	Native light and dark theme styling for the settings interface and floating overlay UI.
Local settings	Persists all preferences locally using AndroidX DataStore Preferences.
Demo modes	Includes quick-test preview triggers for notifications, call alerts, music player, and battery charging.
Gesture guide	Interactive playground and animated tutorials demonstrating swipe up, swipe down, and horizontal paging.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    A[Android notifications] --> B[SmartIslandNotificationListenerService]
    B -->|Filter & Suppress| C[NotificationFilter]
    C --> Repo[SmartIslandNotificationRepository]
    E[DataStore settings] --> Repo
    Repo --> D[SmartIslandOverlayService]
    Sensor[IslandOrientationListener] -->|Hide in Landscape| D
    D --> F[WindowManager overlay]
    F --> G[Jetpack Compose island UI]
    G --> H[Open, dismiss, expand, or launch floating window]

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Tech Stack

Layer	Tools
Language	Kotlin
UI	Jetpack Compose, Material 3
Android services	NotificationListenerService, foreground service, WindowManager overlay
State and storage	Kotlin coroutines, StateFlow, AndroidX DataStore Preferences
Build	Gradle Wrapper, Android Gradle Plugin, JVM 17

Requirements

• Android Studio with Android SDK 36 installed
• JDK 17
• Android device or emulator running Android 8.0+ (minSdk 26)
• Overlay permission enabled on the test device
• Notification listener access enabled for Smart Island

Getting Started

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/agupta07505/SmartIsland.git
cd SmartIsland

Build a debug APK on Windows:

.\gradlew.bat assembleDebug

Build a debug APK on macOS or Linux:

./gradlew assembleDebug

Install the debug build on a connected device:

./gradlew installDebug

Then open Smart Island and complete the runtime setup:

1. Grant overlay permission.
2. Enable notification listener access.
3. Turn on Smart Island from the app.
4. Use the demo buttons or trigger real notifications to test the island.

Privacy And Permissions

Smart Island needs powerful Android permissions because it is an overlay and notification experience. The project keeps that behavior visible and local.

Permission	Why it is used
SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW	Draws the floating island above other apps.
BIND_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SERVICE	Reads notification metadata so the island can show notification, call, and media states.
FOREGROUND_SERVICE and FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE	Keeps the overlay service running while the island is enabled.

At the time of this README, the app does not request INTERNET, does not include analytics, and does not send notification content to a remote server. See PRIVACY.md for the full privacy note.

Project Structure

SmartIsland/
|-- app/
|   `-- src/main/
|       |-- AndroidManifest.xml
|       |-- java/com/agupta07505/smartisland/
|       |   |-- data/       # Settings model and DataStore repository
|       |   |-- model/      # Island notification and mode models
|       |   |-- service/    # Overlay and notification listener services
|       |   |-- ui/         # Compose screens and island components
|       |   `-- MainActivity.kt
|       `-- res/
|-- gradle/
|-- build.gradle.kts
|-- settings.gradle.kts
`-- README.md

Development Notes

• Use the Gradle Wrapper committed in this repository.
• Keep secrets, keystores, local SDK paths, generated APKs, and personal notification screenshots out of git.
• Test overlay behavior on a physical device when possible; OEM Android builds can handle overlay and background-service rules differently.
• Some floating-window behavior depends on Android version and device support.
• The pass-through touch region and freeform "open in floating window" gesture rely on best-effort platform APIs and may be unavailable on some devices/OEM Android builds.
• For signed GitHub Actions releases, see docs/RELEASE_SIGNING.md.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request, and use the issue templates for bug reports or feature ideas.

By contributing, you agree that your contribution will be licensed under the same GNU General Public License v3.0 terms as the project.

Security

Please report suspected vulnerabilities responsibly. See SECURITY.md for the reporting process and what information to include.

License

Smart Island is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Copyright (C) 2026 Animesh Gupta.