u/aquelegajoalto

I'm a solo dev. I've been building *brute for about a year: a minimal, monochrome launcher built around a tile grid. I started it because it's what I wanted my own phone to look like. It just came out of open beta onto the Play Store properly.

What it does:

- Monochrome home screen with a tile grid, organised into groups

- Supertiles (live tiles on the home screen for weather, clock, music, battery, calendar, storage etc)

- Deep theming: fonts, accent colour, corner radius, blur, wallpapers, day/night palettes. Export your whole look as a file and share it

- A deck page for widgets, including normal Android ones

- Built-in RSS reader with a clean article view and on-device translation

- Universal search: apps, contacts, settings and the web in one bar

- Screen time per app

- Force any app to greyscale

- A countdown screen before you open the apps you waste time on

Good to know

- Free. There's a one-time unlock for all the extra features (supertiles, and importing custom themes). The launcher itself is free and always will be.

- No analytics, no account, no ads. It only touches the internet for weather and RSS. Translation runs on-device; contacts and calendar never leave the phone.

- Weather is Open-Meteo, so no API key and no sign-up.

- Much of brute's code was written with AI assistance. I direct it, review it, use it as my daily launcher (been doing so for almost half a year), and every release is tested on a real phone, and on a discord of 40 users.

Known limits

- There are, for sure, rough edges, and I'd rather hear about them than not.

- English only for now - more languages are on the roadmap.

- The theme store is in beta.

Giveaway: 40 Pro unlock codes.

Upvote the post and comment, and I'll DM the first 40 commenters.

If you end up liking it, a Play Store review helps a solo dev more than anything else.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brute.launcher

Site and public roadmap: https://brute.fyi

Discord: https://discord.gg/q92FXAFErt

a monochrome minimalist launcher for people who want to use their phone less

*brute is a minimal customizable Android launcher. The home screen is comprised of tiles organized into groups. You can highlight your most used apps for quick access or make them black and white to make them less attractive. Apps you mark as time-wasters open only after a confirmation screen.

- Monochrome home screen with a tile grid

- Force apps to be grayscale

- Confirmation screen before opening apps

- RSS reader so you can follow your curated content instead of doomscrolling

- Screen time dashboard

- Calendar and weather widgets and more to come (plus Android widgets)

- Supertiles - small widgets on the homescreen

- Deep theming: custom fonts, accent colour, blur, wallpapers

- Internet use only for weather or RSS.

I'm open to Beta testers to use brute for a couple of weeks.

Give me:

- Bugs

- UX sugestions - stuff that you think need simplifying

- Battery/performance feedback

- Feature sugestions!

To join the beta you need to do first opt in at https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brute.launcher

then install from the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brute.launcher

If for some reason the links are not working, so: just send me your e-mail via DM and I'll manualy add your e-mail to the beta group.

a monochrome minimalist launcher for people who want to use their phone less

*brute is a minimal customizable Android launcher. The home screen is comprised of tiles organized into groups. You can highlight your most used apps for quick access or make them black and white to make them less attractive. Apps you mark as time-wasters open only after a confirmation screen.

- Monochrome home screen with a tile grid

- Force apps to be grayscale

- Confirmation screen before opening apps

- RSS reader so you can follow your curated content instead of doomscrolling

- Screen time dashboard

- Calendar and weather widgets and more to come (plus Android widgets)

- Supertiles - small widgets on the homescreen

- Deep theming: custom fonts, accent colour, blur, wallpapers

- Internet use only for weather or RSS.

**I need Beta testers** to use brute for a couple of weeks.

Give me:

- Bugs

- UX sugestions - stuff that you think need simplifying

- Battery/performance feedback

- Feature sugestions!

To join the beta you need to do first opt in at https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brute.launcher
then install from the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brute.launcher

If the links don't work just send me your e-mail via DM and I'll manualy add you to the group.

You can also check out what it looks like at the app website https://brute.fyi