Charcoal: Minimal Launcher

Charcoal is a minimal launcher that replaces the grid of icons with a short list of words.

Your home screen holds only the apps you chose, written plainly. No icons to scan, no folders to open, no widgets, no feed, no suggestions. Everything else is one swipe away in a text-only app drawer with an A–Z rail.

It was built for e-ink phones, where every animation smears and every redraw costs. That discipline made it fast everywhere: it draws nothing it doesn't have to, weighs under 200 KB, and opens in about a fifth of a second. On an ordinary phone it's the quietest home screen you'll find. On a Boox, HiBreak or Mudita it's the launcher that stops fighting the panel.

WHAT IT DOES
• Pin the apps you use to your home screen, in the order you choose
• Swipe up for the app drawer: every app, alphabetical, with an A–Z rail to jump the list
• One corner button for the app you reach for most
• Tap the clock or the date to open your clock or calendar
• Hide apps you never open, rename anything
• Five text sizes, left or right alignment, light or dark text over your own wallpaper

CHARCOAL PRO
Try everything free for 14 days. After that, one purchase unlocks Pro for good, on every device signed in to your Google account. No subscription, ever.

• Swipe left or right to open any app
• Double-tap an empty part of the home screen to lock your phone
• A note pinned to your home screen, always visible, no app to open
• Eight more typefaces, from serif to script

BUILT FOR E-INK, FAST EVERYWHERE

Charcoal uses no vendor APIs and no device detection, so it runs the same way on every eink device: Onyx Boox, Boox Palma, HiBreak Pro, Mudita Kompakt, Hisense, and on any ordinary Android phone.

Monochrome by construction: pure black on pure white, no gradients, no shadows, nothing that smears. The clock redraws when the screen wakes, not on a timer. A minute-ticking clock is 1,440 repaints a day into ghosting no cleaning gesture will reach.

QUIET BY DESIGN
• No ads, ever
• No accounts, no sign-in
• No tracking or analytics of any kind
• Under 200 KB. Smaller than a single photo.

ABOUT DOUBLE-TAP TO LOCK
Locking the screen needs Android's accessibility service. Charcoal's service exists solely to lock the screen when you double-tap. It reads no screen content, collects no data, and runs only while you leave it switched on in Accessibility settings.