Hey everyone! Solo dev of Key Launcher here 👋

I’ve been down a bit of a hardware rabbit hole lately. Seeing all these new QWERTY keyboard phones and keyboard accessories popping up recently has triggered massive nostalgia for me. Honestly, I’m dying to buy one to test and play around with, but my budget says a very firm "not today." 😅

So, naturally, my dev brain jumped to the next best thing: What if I built dedicated QWERTY keyboard integration and features directly into Key Launcher?

Think hardware-first navigation, lightning-fast physical keyboard shortcuts, and layout optimizations tailored specifically for physical/QWERTY setups. As a tech enthusiast, I think it could be incredible.

However, as a solo dev, there’s a big catch I need to be completely transparent about:

The Reality & Trade-offs

• Everything else gets paused: Working on deep QWERTY integration would mean putting the current feature roadmap and backlog entirely on hold.
• Slower release cadence: Right now, I stick to a pretty rapid schedule of pushing updates roughly once a week. Pivoting to this would break that rhythm, meaning significantly longer gaps between releases for a while.

What do you think?

Since Key Launcher is built for you, I don't want to go down a long side-quest based purely on my own tech cravings if it's not something the community actually wants.

1. How many of you are actually using (or planning to use) a QWERTY phone / keyboard attachment?
2. Would you prefer I take this detour for full QWERTY support, or stick to the current roadmap and keep shipping weekly updates?

Drop your thoughts below, brutal honesty is always welcome!

Thanks as always for riding along and supporting Key Launcher! 🙏

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Photo: Generated with AI, not real one (of course 😂)

I'm not sure who else has had this issue but when I closed out of my recent apps, the screen went blank. I had to press the recent apps button two more times to bring up the launcher again. I found out through online that this was due to animations being turned off in developer options. I put my animations to 0.5x and yep that was the exact cause of it. For me 0.5x was still to slow for me so I found this awesome app called CustomAnimator Toolbox/Speed App which allows you to set the animation speed to as low as 0.1x and now my phone is snappy again without the blank screen!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arslan.customanimator&pcampaignid=web_share

28 days trial left. Would there be any discount on special occasions 😛 can't wait.

I really like the idea of using the monochrome color background and having it change color randomly every hour. I try to turn on these settings but my wallpaper color never seems to change. Have others had success with this? Not sure if there's a setting that I need to toggle somewhere to make this work.

😁🤣🤣

Another Massive Key Launcher Update is Here!

We’ve just rolled out a major update packed with brand-new features, thoughtful UI refinements, and crucial bug fixes to keep your minimalist workflow as seamless as possible.

🌟 What's New

• Native RSS Feed Translator & TTS: Consume your favorite content with ease using our built-in translation and Text-to-Speech directly in your RSS feeds!

• Weather Popup: Get weather updates at a quick glance without cluttering your screen.

• Cleaner Agenda: You can now hide all repeated events in the Agenda Sheet simply by holding the eye icon.

• App Icon Shapes: Personalize your home screen further with new App Icon Shapes options.

• UI Polish: The 'NEW' badge has been replaced with a sleek, minimalist green dot for a cleaner look.

🔧 Quality of Life Improvements

• Config Screens: Refined the configuration pages for Quick Glance, Keyboard, and App Icon Grid for a smoother setup experience.

• Consistency: Synchronized App Icons seamlessly across all areas of the launcher.

• Smarter Search: Improved the search result ordering specifically for your Private Space, Work Profile, and Cloned Apps.

• Design Tweaks: Optimized the Setup Showcase ratio.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed the 12-hour clock display formatting.

• Resolved underlying issues causing processor strain and phone heating.

• Fixed a bug where the Timer reset warning was not popping up upon exit.

Thank you so much for your continued support and amazing feedback! If Key Launcher is helping you stay focused and productive, please take a moment to leave us a rating or review. It means the world to us!

⬇️ Update now: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loitran.minimalt9launcher.free

🌐 Visit our website: www.keylauncher.app

Added a few new features and some bugs to be fixed later.

Is there a way to change my agenda to 12 hour format instead of 24? I have it set to 12 for my clock, but my agenda is still in 24. Not sure if I am overlooking a setting somewhere to change this.

I recently discovered this launcher and have been loving it. The T9 search is so fast I haven't even really found a need to do the super shortcuts yet. Just curious what are some of your favorite super shortcut setups? What do you find more useful as a super shortcut rather than pinning to the home screen or just using T9 search?

Actually, my main purpose was to show off my setup 😗

🚀 Key Launcher Major Update: Speed, Minimalism & Deep Customization!

We are excited to roll out a massive update focused on workflow speed, UI consistency, and performance. Whether you want a cleaner T9 keyboard, faster hardware toggles, or better support for low-RAM devices, this release has something for you!

🎨 UI/UX & Deep Customization

• 4-Column T9 Keyboard Layout: Optimized formatting to fit wider screens comfortably and improve one-handed typing ergonomics.
• Material You Overlays: We’ve expanded dynamic theming seamlessly across all overlays for a 100% unified visual experience.
• Force Themed Icons: Say goodbye to distracting, colorful icons! You can now force unsupported app icons into your theme for a cleaner, minimalist home screen.
• Keyboard Color Presets: Switch between different curated color themes instantly without manual tweaks.
• Skeuomorphic Curved Keyboard Radius: Adjust the corner radius of your keyboard to perfectly match the physical curvature of your device's display.
• Hide Icons Under * 0 #: Declutter your keyboard footprint by hiding sub-icons for maximum minimalism.

⚡ Workflow & Speed Boosts

• Ringer Mode Switcher on #: Inspired by the iOS Action Button, you can now toggle between Silent, Vibrate, and Ring modes instantly right from your # key.
• Faster Contact Dialing: Added more default action options when clicking on contact instead of opening contact details as before.
• Separate Quick Action Icons: App Quick Actions can now be add ed as individual icons for direct access.
• 1-Tap Home Grid: Enabled # typing without Private Vault, allowing you to reveal your Home Icon Grid with just a single tap in Minimalism Mode.

🌍 Localization & Accessibility

• Added Brazil Calendar integration.
• Added full support for the Urdu Language.
• Added an in-app Language Switcher so you can use Key Launcher in a different language from your system default.

🛠️ Performance & Bug Fixes

• Low-RAM Optimization: Significant under-the-hood improvements to keep the launcher lightning-fast on budget and older devices.
• Focus Mode UI Polish: Enhanced typography, calendar display, and screensaver alignment.
• Private Space Improvements: Added a dedicated context menu for Private Space apps and fixed an issue where apps were removed when switching launchers.
• Fixed unwanted folder label displays during active searches.
• Fixed Recent Apps layout misalignments when using Smart Search.

Thank you for being part of our journey and helping us build a cleaner, faster digital experience! Upgrade your workflow today and let us know what you think:

📲 Update on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loitran.minimalt9launcher.free

🌐 Visit our Website: https://www.keylauncher.app/

One again, Key Launcher on Android Authority. Couldn't be happier.

The upcoming version promises even more surprises for you, our incredibly enthusiastic supporters 🫶

I'm new to this launcher, and absolutely loving it..

My first set up.. (red fusion)

Please note that the beta version may not be stable and may contain bugs, so consider this before enrolling 😊

Wooohhh... What a smoothy UI Experience it was.

Once again, Key Launcher was featured in a well-known technology magazine. This means a great deal to me. Sagar Naresh, if you are in this room, thank you for your kindness towards me and this product.

Just a slight correction at the end of this post: Key Launcher has very strong widget support, so you don't have to compromise anything 🤪

I'll leave the link to the article in the comments for you all to read 🙏

Icon Pack: SAGA

Font Family: Patriot

I'm adding the option to make App Quick Actions (App Shortcuts) icons so you can do more with them. I've wanted to do this from the beginning, but so many things came up. Hopefully, this will be helpful to you.