BrickOS: Retro Focus Launcher

New DOS inspired skin!

Turn your Android phone into the retro tech you miss and choose to block the apps that distract you when you need to focus. Then use all of your real apps whenever it's time to rest and doom scroll. Or use your own home screen and still block the apps that distract you the most.

BrickOS is a home screen launcher with retro skins, each one built after a device people still miss: the Apple iPod, the Microsoft Zune, and Windows Phone. All three are working Android launchers. Set any of them as your home screen and it runs your real apps.

FRUIT: INSPIRED BY THE APPLE iPOD
A click wheel you spin with your thumb, scrolling menus, and music controls. The Apple iPod layout, opening the apps you already have.

TUNE: INSPIRED BY THE MICROSOFT ZUNE
Oversized type, bold color, album art, and a directional pad. The Microsoft Zune look, rebuilt as an Android launcher.

TILES: INSPIRED BY WINDOWS PHONE
A grid of animated live tiles you can rearrange, with tiles for music, weather, calendar, photos and unread counts. Windows Phone live tiles on Android.

PREVENT DOOM SCROLLING WITH BRICK LOCK
Brick Lock is a timer you start yourself, and it is the app blocker built into every skin.

Pick how long you want off your phone. Pick which apps stay available. Start Brick Lock. Until it runs out, anything you did not approve is blocked: open it and BrickOS puts you straight back. Your phone app, your keyboard and Android Settings stay reachable the whole time, so Brick Lock can never stop you making a call or turning it off.

And if you want to end the app lock early Brick Lock makes you type out a passage first. A small barrier to give your self control a chance to win out.

Schedules run it for you. Every weekday at 9 PM for an hour, without having to remember. If your screen time goes wrong in the same window every day, this is the part that fixes it.

MAKE EACH SKIN YOURS
Many preset color palettes, or mix your own accent. Light, dark, or whatever the system is doing. Pick which app opens for music, camera, maps and the rest, reorder the launcher list, and put the skin you like on the Home button.

KEEP ESSENTIAL APPS CLOSE
Phone, messages, camera, gallery, music, calendar, clock, calculator, maps and everything else you have installed, all from the skin you chose.

FREE, WITH AN OPTIONAL UPGRADE
BrickOS is free. Starting a lock or changing skin spends a credit, and you earn a credit by watching a rewarded ad when you choose to. If you run out, BrickOS hands you one back the next day so you are never stuck. A one-time BrickOS Premium purchase removes the ads and the credits entirely.

OPTIONAL LOCK GUARD
Lock Guard does the blocking, and it stays off until you turn it on in Android Accessibility settings. While a Brick Lock you started is running, it checks which app is in front and returns you to BrickOS if that app is not on your list. It does not read screen text, passwords, forms or taps, and it sends nothing anywhere. Turn it off in Android settings whenever you like.

No account and no sign-in. BrickOS asks for Contacts so search can find people, and Notifications so a running lock can show its status. Both are optional and BrickOS works without either. The privacy policy has the full detail.

BrickOS is an independent app inspired by classic consumer technology. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc. or Microsoft Corporation.

Apple and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Phone, and Zune are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.