Minimal text-only Android home screen. No icons. No analytics. Zero network.
About this app
Slate is a minimal text-only Android home screen built for focus.
Most launchers want to keep you on your phone. Colourful icons trigger recognition without thought, notification badges create artificial urgency, and recommendation widgets are optimised for engagement, not intent. Slate removes all of that. Apps are presented as plain text, the same way a to-do list presents tasks. You open the app you meant to open, not the one that looked most appealing.
APPEARANCE
* Two homescreen layouts: Flow (apps wrap like text, sized by usage) or Minimal List (one app per line with optional alphabetical fast-scroll) * Fully customisable background and text colours with a live colour picker * Follow system theme: switches automatically with system dark mode * Apply background colour to the lockscreen for a uniform look * Per-app colour overrides to highlight what matters * Notification highlight: app names change colour when an app has a pending notification * Typography control: font family (Google Fonts plus import your own), weight, line spacing, word spacing * Font size scales with usage in Flow view
INTERACTION
* Swipe up to search apps * Configurable single-finger swipe gestures (any app, notifications, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location, camera, more) * Double-tap to lock screen (via accessibility service) * Long-press an app to pin, hide, rename, recolour, uninstall, or move to a folder * Pin apps to the top regardless of sort order * Sort alphabetically or by most used * Custom folders: each folder is a text label with a marker (chevron, slash, bullet, brackets, count, or plain). Tap to expand inline. Long-press to rename, recolour, or delete
QUICK TOGGLES STRIP
An optional row of text widgets at the top or bottom of your home screen. Choose from Clock, Date, Next alarm, Battery percent, Charging, Time to full, Battery temperature, Uptime, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Mobile data, Airplane mode, DND, Volume, Ringer mode, Torch, Brightness, Location, NFC, and contact tap-to-call or tap-to-text shortcuts. Off by default. Pick widgets, position, and typography from Settings.
CONTROL
* Lock orientation to portrait * Optional persistent search bar on the home screen * Optional contact search: turn it on to surface contacts inline with apps when you type. Read at search time, never stored. Google-only sub-toggle skips duplicates from WhatsApp, Telegram, SIM * PIN-lock the hidden apps list (4 to 8 digits, PBKDF2 hashed) with optional biometric unlock. Hidden-app launches stay out of Android Recents * Export and import all settings as a JSON backup. Hidden-apps list and PIN are omitted by default. Opt in via Settings, with an in-memory PIN check on import
PRIVACY
Slate does not collect, transmit, or share any data. No analytics, no crash reporting, no network activity. All preferences are stored locally. App usage counts never leave the device. Each Android permission Slate declares is requested only for the specific feature that uses it. Full details in the in-app privacy policy.
OPEN SOURCE
MIT licensed. Source at github.com/roufsyed/Slate-Minimal-Launcher
Licensed under MIT.
What's New in v1.3
Imported from the F-Droid repository index.
- First release of Slate on F-Droid. See the GitHub releases page for the full feature timeline.
Version history
Jun 21, 2026 · 2 MB · Android API 26–36 · code 4
Imported from the F-Droid repository index.
- First release of Slate on F-Droid. See the GitHub releases page for the full feature timeline.
SHA-256 e4eb8c0ddf8bcc6eaac5291b77d16166aa3523fd638f8729ae950af3e2aa792d
Will it run on your device?
78%
- Runs on a broad range of modern Android versions.
- ABI coverage is focused on newer 64-bit devices.
- Aligned with the latest Android target SDK expectations.
Installation Guide
Open Settings on your Android device
Go to Security → Unknown sources (or Install unknown apps)
Enable "Allow from this source" for your browser or file manager
Open the downloaded APK file from your Downloads folder
Tap "Install" and wait for installation to complete
Launch the app from your home screen
Make sure to re-enable Unknown Sources restrictions after installation for security.
How to install this safely
How to verify the file you downloaded
Before you install anything, confirm the file is the one described here. On a computer, run shasum -a 256 your-download.apk (macOS or Linux) or certutil -hashfile your-download.apk SHA256 (Windows), then compare the output character-for-character with the SHA-256 on this page. If a single character differs, the file is not the build we recorded — delete it.
What the signing certificate proves
Every Android app is signed with a private key that only its developer holds. The fingerprint on this page is a hash of the matching public certificate, and it proves continuity rather than identity: it tells you a build came from whoever signed the earlier ones. Android enforces this at install time — if a package claiming to be com.slate.launcher is signed with a different key, the system will refuse to install it over your existing copy. A fingerprint that changes between releases is worth pausing on, because a repackaged app that has been modified by someone else cannot keep the original signature.
How to roll back to an earlier version
No earlier build is on record for Slate, so there is nothing to roll back to yet. When a second version is published, this section will explain how to move between them safely.
Why we list sources instead of hosting everything
The official store channel is almost always the right choice: it updates automatically and carries the publisher's own distribution guarantees. A direct APK is useful when a device has no store access, when a rollout has not reached your region, or when you need a specific version — and only when the publisher has authorized that copy. APKBrowse does not list pirated, cracked, or unauthorized rebuilds of Slate, and a listing is removed when the evidence for it stops holding up.
Get Slate
Every source we list for com.slate.launcher is legality-reviewed. Pirated or cracked builds are never offered.
Other sources
F-Droid listing
officialF-Droid builds this app from source and signs it. This is its official listing, with older builds and full release notes.
Source code
verified publisherThe upstream repository this build is compiled from.
We check legality and signature continuity, but device behaviour still varies. Install at your own discretion.
App Information
Security Verification
We record provenance; we do not run malware scans. Verify the hash yourself before installing.
SHA-256 Hash
e4eb8c0ddf8bcc6eaac5291b77d16166aa3523fd638f8729ae950af3e2aa792d
Signing certificate
12035293daabc95bba142e0deebab9ec36dfcb85e30a0f1f83bd7005cdea41f6
Permissions Required
What each permission lets Slate do. A highlighted one is worth a second look — not necessarily wrong, just worth asking whether this app needs it.
Previous Versions
No earlier build is on record — this is the first release we have listed.
The signing certificate fingerprint for this release is on record, so a build that does not match it did not come from this publisher.
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