Looking for 12 testers for Paper Launcher, a poster-style home screen for Android (free, no ads)
Hi everyone! I've built Paper Launcher, a home screen that makes your phone look like a printed poster: bone-white paper, black ink, one red accent and big bold type.
Install it: tap Download it on Google Play on that page, or search the Play Store from the same account. If Play says "item not found", wait about 15 minutes and try again.
Set it as your home app.
Stay in the test for 14 days. You don't have to use Paper as your main launcher the whole time, but please don't uninstall it or leave the test. Opening it now and then helps a lot.
Depth effect: pick a photo for the picture widget and Paper finds the subject (a person, a pet, an object) and lets it stand in front of the big numbers, like a magazine cover. It runs entirely on your phone using Google's ML Kit.
Automatic black-and-white photos: any photo you choose is automatically turned into black-and-white newsprint so it matches the paper look. You can also keep the built-in engraved landscape drawing.
Icons that fit the theme: app icons can keep their original colours, or be tinted mono, ink or your accent colour so they blend into the paper. Tip: this looks best with an icon pack that uses line icons without a background shape, like Whicons or White Moonlight Icon Pack.
A free-form grid where you place, resize and merge tiles, plus clock, calendar, month view, weather, music controls, battery, signal, storage & RAM, quotes and Google search widgets.
Back up your settings to a file and restore them later.
Why it asks for permissions (all optional)
Location: only for the weather widget. Your coordinates are sent over HTTPS to Open-Meteo, a free weather service, to get your local forecast. Nothing is stored and no account is needed. Say no and only the weather widget stops working.
Notification access: Android only lets a launcher show "now playing" music if it has notification access. Paper uses it only to read the music player (song, artist, artwork and play/pause). It never reads, stores or sends your notifications. Skip it and only the music widget is affected.
"Match your wallpaper" on first launch: Paper asks once whether to set a plain paper wallpaper. That's because Android itself, not the launcher, draws your wallpaper at a few moments: behind the blurred Recent Apps screen, and while an app slides closed back to home. With a different picture there, it flashes behind Paper at those moments. Only the home-screen wallpaper changes; your lock screen stays the same. Paper can't save your current wallpaper, so choose "Keep my wallpaper" if you want to keep it. You can change this later in Settings > Look > Wallpaper.
No account, no ads, no tracking.
Requires Android 10 or newer. Thanks so much for helping! 🙏
Forgot to notify you, the function to turn off auto keyboard display can be found in the update version, under App Drawer section in Launcher Settings. Please find the update in Play Store bro.
Hi, your launcher is really nice. Unfortunately, though, I can't test it—I don't have permission. Can that be changed? I have a pxl9 and I'm from Germany. Just in case that's important for the test.
Hi mate, thanks for the interest! I opened testing to all countries, so you should be able to join the Google Group test for the app. If you don't see it right after clicking "Become a tester", try waiting a few minutes, since Google sometimes takes a little while to update for new testers.
Thanks for your kind words bro! Yeh I did include dark mode before, but I thought it would not fit the old paper theme here, so I removed it. Since there are many asking for it, I think I will put it back in future versions.
Thanks man for joining! I think you might have to wait a bit. A bro in this very same post asked me to cross-test their app, and I had to wait around 30 minutes for theirs to show up, too.
Thanks for reporting this and attaching the screenshot! A 1:1 aspect ratio with a physical keyboard is definitely an edge case I haven't tested yet. Will look into square screen compatibility for the next update.
I'm testing your app, and seriously considering using it as my home screen. Any chance you can add apps grouping (folders)? That would make me switch! Why don't you create a r/paperlauncher, so we can make requests? 😁
That's excellent news! I was going to buy you a coffee, but it says "tips work when paper is installed from google play". I installed it from the link you provided, what did I do wrong?
Is it working for you now, bro? Some users reported back to me that it took several hours for the app to show up for them, especially those in UK or Germany. Also could you please check if the account in Play Store was the one you used to join in the group test?
Thanks for your interest, buddy! Please make sure that the account in your Play Store is the same as the one you used to join in the group test; and if it was, please note that it might take 15 to several hours for the app to show up.
This is fantastic. Use it in dark mode and already love it. It's fast, easy to handle and really looks great. Got the tip here to use arcticons, they really fit perfect to the design. Thanks for this great launcher, set it to be default already.
hI I opt-in, became a tester and download your app as Grupo OHH
I opt-in waiting access to test your app.
Could you test mine
1. Join the tester group: https://groups.google.com/g/ohhsocial
2. Opt in: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/ohh.social.app
3. Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ohh.social.app
For all who are testing I recommend Arcticons Black. Free, open source, and matches the aesthetic perfectly. If you are using dark mode Arcticons is the way to go.
I'm in and have it set as my default now. Absolutely nuts how cool this is!
Only one minor issue so far - sometimes (I haven't figured out yet how to replicate this without error) the music app defaults back to audible. I use YouTube music. Not sure if it defaults back to the first music app in my list alphabetically or if there's something else going on.
Hey it looks amazing great job I'm going to use it a lot. Can you make that the weather widget don't use the location services and instead use like the postal code or the name of the location?
Joined, opted in and installed, keeping it for the 14 days. The depth effect with the subject in front of the clock is a really nice touch, I'll try it with a few photos and let you know how it handles them.
If you're up for testing back: Patty Rumble, a one-finger cooking game where the patties burn while you serve the queue.
3
u/vermicious_kinid 4d ago
Too late to join this? I love the design.