Orb Launcher (Experimental)

Flocs {dev}

About this app

Orb gives your phone a pulse.

Not a theme, not a live wallpaper, a genuine reaction to what's happening. The home screen becomes a single breathing orb that carries the state of your phone the way a face carries a mood. You glance at it and you know. Battery low, it looks depleted. Notifications building, it has a heartbeat. Driving, stars emerge from behind it and streak outward. Walking, it moves with you. Playing music, a waveform wraps around it. Tired from too long on screen, it dims and slows. Every state visible. Nothing hidden.

The colors don't switch either, they drift. The whole palette shifts continuously with the light in the room, the time of day, the weather outside. No toggle, no threshold. Just the phone gradually becoming the environment it's in.

Tap the orb and the apps you're most likely to need float up around it, learned from your habits over time. Everything runs on your device, no account, no cloud, no server.

There's also a scribble gesture for finding apps: draw a letter on the home screen and matches appear instantly, borrowed from the old Nokia Z Launcher and one of the few ideas from that era worth keeping.

Notification previews, media controls, weather, dock, icon packs, it's a full launcher. But the point isn't the features. The point is that your phone starts to feel present.

Orb is a solo project, actively in development. Not finished. Worth 5 minutes if you're curious what this feels like.

No ads. No tracking. No analytics. The only network request is your location sent to a free weather API (yr.no). Everything else stays on your device.

Requires Android 15+.

Ratings and reviews

A very unique launcher with a great idea! It’s visually very pleasant. There is one feature I really miss, though: when swiping to the app drawer, it would be great if the keyboard opened automatically so I could start typing immediately and launch app by pressing Enter. If you add this, the coffee is on me! Overall, great vision and a great start. Thank you!

It is a great idea! Keep the good work going. The contrast between informations and personal background image, needs improvement . the size of the 7 icons looks too big to me, perhaps you might consider having 3 choices (standard, medium, small). AI to answer commands and to chat with would be awesome...

Phenomenal!!! For a product that is "being developed" you would never know it. This is a polished product that is smooth and fast. It definitely uses more battery than other launchers I've used, but, other launchers are not aware of things and responding in real time. I can't wait to see where the developer takes this. I personally hope to see a toggle in the future to hide the notification/status bar. To me, that would be the last piece to completely clean the home screen.

What’s new

✍️ Custom Drawn Signs (Experimental)
Draw a sign on the home screen to instantly launch an app, open a website, fire a shortcut, jump into Widget Cosmos, or flip a built-in toggle like the flashlight.

🎨 Look & Feel
Text is crisper and easier to read across the app.
Notification Bar can be set to hidden.
Improved the spacing along the bottom edge.
Added a simple battery and alarm widget.
The charging animation now keeps pace with how fast your phone is actually charging.

Enjoy 🤗