DumbPhone Launcher

A Nokia 3310-inspired minimal launcher for Android. Turn your smartphone into a dumb phone -- on demand.

Download the latest APK here

Features

• Retro aesthetic -- black background, monochrome text, monospace font
• Customisable colour -- choose from 10 colour presets for the clock and UI
• Configurable app whitelist -- choose exactly which apps appear in your menu
• Adjustable icon sizes -- Small, Medium, Large, or Extra Large app icons
• Swipe-up app drawer -- swipe up or tap MENU to open your apps
• Clock tap -- tap the clock to open your alarms
• Optional weather widget -- shows current weather on the home screen (requires internet and location)
• Greyscale mode -- system-wide greyscale toggle via Accessibility or Bedtime Mode
• Do Not Disturb -- auto-enable DND when on the home screen
• Wallpaper override -- temporarily sets wallpaper to black while the launcher is active
• No distractions -- only whitelisted apps are accessible
• Security hardened -- ProGuard/R8 obfuscation, backup disabled, cleartext blocked

Requirements

• Android 8.0+ (API 26+)
• Any Android device

For building from source

• JDK 17+
• Android SDK (API 35)

Installation (End User)

From APK

1. Download the latest app-debug.apk (or signed release APK) from the Releases page
2. Transfer the APK to your phone
3. Open the APK on your phone -- you may need to enable Install from unknown sources in your device settings
4. Once installed, press the Home button
5. Android will ask which launcher to use -- select DumbPhone and choose Always
6. You're now in dumb mode!

From Android Studio

1. Clone this repository
2. Open the dumbphone-launcher folder in Android Studio
3. Connect your phone via USB (with USB debugging enabled) or start an emulator
4. Click Run (green play button)

How to Build

Option A: Android Studio (Recommended)

1. Open this project in Android Studio
2. Click Build > Build Bundle(s) / APK(s) > Build APK(s)
3. Find the APK in app/build/outputs/apk/debug/

Option B: Command Line

# macOS / Linux
chmod +x gradlew
./gradlew assembleDebug

# Windows
gradlew.bat assembleDebug

The APK will be at app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk.

Note: If the gradle-wrapper.jar is missing, open the project in Android Studio first (it will generate it automatically), or run gradle wrapper --gradle-version 8.9 if you have Gradle installed globally.

Option C: GitHub Actions

1. Push this repo to GitHub
2. Go to Actions tab > Build DumbPhone APK > Run workflow
3. Download the APK from the workflow artifacts

How to Use

Home Screen

Action	What it does
Tap MENU	Opens your whitelisted apps
Tap SETTINGS	Opens the settings screen
Tap the clock	Opens your alarm/clock app
Swipe up	Opens your whitelisted apps

Settings

• Display -- clock colour, show seconds, 24-hour clock, greyscale mode, icon size, app labels
• Allowed apps -- check/uncheck any installed app to control what appears in the menu
• Weather widget -- toggle weather display on the home screen (needs location permission)
• Do Not Disturb -- auto-enable DND when on the home screen
• Wallpaper override -- set wallpaper to black while the launcher is active (restores original when disabled)
• Exit Dumb Mode -- opens Android settings to switch back to your normal launcher

Exiting Dumb Mode

1. Open SETTINGS > scroll to EXIT DUMB MODE at the bottom
2. Or manually: Android Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Home App > select your normal launcher

Customisation

Changing the default colour

The default clock colour is classic green (#7FBF3F). Users can change this at any time from Settings > Clock colour. To change the default for new installations, edit the DEFAULT_CLOCK_COLOUR constant in PrefsManager.kt.

Changing default whitelisted apps

Edit the DEFAULT_APPS set in PrefsManager.kt with the package names you want enabled by default on first run.

Nothing Phone 2a Emulator Setup

To test on a Nothing Phone 2a emulator profile:

Automated Setup

# Windows
scripts\setup-nothing-phone-2a-avd.bat

# macOS / Linux
chmod +x scripts/setup-nothing-phone-2a-avd.sh
./scripts/setup-nothing-phone-2a-avd.sh

Manual Setup (Android Studio)

1. Open Tools > Device Manager
2. Click Create Virtual Device
3. New Hardware Profile with:
   • Screen size: 6.7"
   • Resolution: 1080 x 2412
   • Density: 420 dpi
4. Select Android 15 (API 35) system image
5. Name it NothingPhone2a and finish

Launch

emulator -avd NothingPhone2a

Security & Permissions

• No data collection -- zero analytics, crash reporting, or telemetry
• Network security config -- all cleartext traffic explicitly blocked as defence-in-depth
• Backup disabled -- allowBackup=false prevents data extraction via ADB
• ProGuard/R8 enabled -- release builds are obfuscated and optimised
• Exported components locked -- only the home launcher activity is exported
• SharedPreferences in MODE_PRIVATE -- app data is not accessible to other apps

Permissions used

Permission	Required	Purpose
QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES	Yes	List installed apps for whitelist
INTERNET	No	Weather widget (Open-Meteo API, no API key)
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION	No	Weather widget (approximate location)
ACCESS_NOTIFICATION_POLICY	No	Do Not Disturb toggle
SET_WALLPAPER	No	Wallpaper override feature
WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS	No	Direct greyscale toggle (ADB-granted; falls back to Accessibility Settings if not granted)

Note: WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS is a signature-level permission that can only be granted via ADB. If not granted, the greyscale toggle guides the user to system Accessibility settings instead. This permission may cause review flags on the Play Store -- consider removing it for store-distributed builds.

Release Signing

To sign release APKs, set these environment variables before building:

export KEYSTORE_FILE=/path/to/your.keystore
export KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=your_store_password
export KEY_ALIAS=your_key_alias
export KEY_PASSWORD=your_key_password

To generate a keystore:

keytool -genkey -v \
  -keystore dumbphone-release.keystore \
  -alias dumbphone \
  -keyalg RSA \
  -keysize 4096 \
  -validity 10000

Never commit keystore files to version control. They are excluded via .gitignore.

Tech Stack

• Language: Kotlin 2.0.21
• Target SDK: 35 (Android 15)
• Min SDK: 26 (Android 8.0)
• Build: Gradle 8.9 / AGP 8.7.3
• Dependencies: AndroidX Core, AppCompat, Material, RecyclerView, ConstraintLayout, Preference

Project Structure

app/src/main/
  java/com/dumbphone/launcher/
    MainActivity.kt              -- Home screen (clock, date, weather, gestures)
    AppDrawerActivity.kt         -- App drawer grid (whitelisted apps)
    SettingsActivity.kt          -- Settings menu (features, wallpaper, DND)
    DisplaySettingsActivity.kt   -- Display settings (colour, clock, icons, greyscale)
    AppsSettingsActivity.kt      -- App whitelist manager with search
    PrefsManager.kt              -- SharedPreferences wrapper
    WeatherUtil.kt               -- Open-Meteo weather API client
  res/layout/
    activity_main.xml            -- Home screen layout
    activity_app_drawer.xml      -- App drawer layout
    activity_settings.xml        -- Settings layout
    activity_display_settings.xml -- Display settings layout
    activity_apps_settings.xml   -- Apps settings layout
    item_app.xml                 -- App grid item (icon + label)
    item_app_toggle.xml          -- App toggle item (icon + label + checkbox)

Licence

MIT -- do whatever you want with it.