The Launch

A minimal, fast Android home-screen launcher focused on a clean, distraction-free app grid.

Goal

Most launchers are cluttered with widgets, feeds, and animations. The Launch aims to be the opposite: a lightweight replacement home screen that shows your apps, lets you search and favorite them, and gets out of the way otherwise. It's built as a personal-use launcher, prioritizing simplicity and speed over customization depth.

Features

• App grid with search-as-you-type filtering
• Dock of up to 5 favorite apps (long-press any app to add/remove)
• Work profile app support, with a badge to distinguish work apps
• Optional clock and wallpaper visibility toggles (Settings)
• Manual refresh button to force-reload the installed app list
• Automatic refresh on app install/uninstall/update via broadcast receiver

Tech

• Kotlin, single-module Android app (app/)
• LauncherApps + UserManager system services for enumerating installed apps across profiles
• MVVM-ish structure: LauncherViewModel (state via StateFlow) + MainActivity (view binding via findViewById)
• No external UI framework — plain Views, RecyclerView with a GridLayoutManager

Requirements

• Android 7.0 (API 24) or higher
• Must be set as the default home app (Settings > Apps > Default apps > Home app)

Building

./gradlew assembleDebug

APK output: app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk