Lawnchair Lite v2.20.0

Minimal, fast Android launcher with professional-grade stability and smooth Compose-powered animations.

Stability Architecture

Built on crash patterns identified across Lawnchair v14-v15 beta releases:

• Global crash handler with notification-based bug reporting (modeled after LawnchairApp's UncaughtExceptionHandler)
• DataStore corruption recovery via ReplaceFileCorruptionHandler - corrupted preferences reset to defaults instead of crash-looping
• Defensive PackageManager calls - all PM/LauncherApps interactions wrapped for DeadSystemException, SecurityException, NameNotFoundException
• Package existence validation before operations - prevents the race condition where customizing an app being uninstalled causes a crash (Lawnchair 15 Beta 2 fix)
• Debounced package events (300ms) - bulk install/uninstall doesn't trigger N consecutive reloads
• LruCache for icon packs (500 entry limit) - prevents OOM on large icon packs
• Safe grid deserialization - malformed workspace data returns empty cells, never crashes
• Atomic DataStore writes - process death during save never corrupts settings
• Reflection-based API calls for status bar expansion - OEM ROMs that block it fail gracefully
• Per-app error isolation during app list loading - one bad package entry doesn't prevent loading the rest

Features

• Multiple home pages with swipe navigation, add/remove pages from long-press menu
• App drawer with alphabetical fast scroller (haptic feedback on letter changes)
• Folder creation via drag-and-drop with 3x3 preview for large folders
• Icon pack support (ADW/Nova format) with 4-icon preview per pack
• Custom icon labels, hide apps from drawer with batch unhide
• 6 theme modes (Midnight, Glass, OLED, Mocha, Aurora, Neon) with per-theme error colors
• Custom accent color with 12 presets + hex input + theme-default reset chip
• Configurable grid (3-8 cols, 3-10 rows), dock (3-7 icons), icon sizes (S/M/L/XL)
• 9 gesture actions: double-tap, triple-tap, swipe-down, swipe-up, pinch, dock-tap, dock-swipe
• Gesture app binding: assign any gesture to launch a specific app (with icon preview in settings)
• Smart fuzzy search with relevance scoring (exact > starts > word > contains > pkg > subsequence)
• Inline calculator and unit converter in drawer search
• Time-aware app suggestions (morning/afternoon/evening/night usage patterns)
• Search history chips with fade gradient, recent apps row with clear button
• Home screen widgets via AppWidgetHost with grid-cell-based sizing
• Contact search with permission chip, web search fallback
• Notification badges (count/dot/hidden), app shortcuts via LauncherApps API
• 5 page transitions (Slide, Cube, Stack, Fade, Depth, Carousel)
• Wallpaper dimming (0-80%) with parallax effect
• Backup/restore layout as JSON with import error feedback
• Uninstall confirmation dialog (all paths: D&D, home menu, drawer menu)
• Reset all settings with confirmation dialog
• Settings search filter across 8 collapsible sections
• Device admin for screen lock gesture, flashlight toggle gesture

Smoothness

• Compose VelocityTracker for accurate drawer fling velocity (no manual nanoTime)
• Always-composed drawer preserves scroll position, eliminates recomposition on open/close
• Material 3 icon press - crisp no-bounce spring animation (dampingRatio 1.0, stiffness 800)
• Memoized theme computation - remember-cached, no recompute per recomposition
• Conditional auto-focus - keyboard only opens when drawer opened via search bar, not swipe
• Pager scroll guard - horizontal paging disabled during drawer transition

v2.19.0

• VelocityTracker drawer fling - Replaced manual nanoTime velocity with Compose VelocityTracker for consistent, accurate flings
• Always-composed drawer - Drawer stays in composition tree, hidden via graphicsLayer alpha; preserves scroll position
• Remove Page - "Remove Page" in home long-press menu (checks empty, shifts widgets, greyed out on last page)
• Clear Recents - "Clear" button on the RECENT row header in the app drawer
• Reset confirmation - "Reset All Settings" guarded by confirmation dialog
• Fast scroller haptics - Light vibration on each letter change while dragging
• 3x3 folder preview - Folders with 5+ apps show 9 icons in a 3x3 grid
• Error color slot - LauncherColors.error with per-theme tuning (rose for Mocha, coral for Neon/Aurora)
• Accent reset chip - "Default" chip at start of accent palette to revert to theme native accent
• Theme preview 4-swatch - Adds background color dot for better theme differentiation
• Gesture picker app icon - Shows small app icon inline when gesture is LAUNCH_APP
• Search history fade gradient - Right-edge gradient hint for scrollable chip row
• Conditional auto-focus - Keyboard only auto-focuses when opened via search bar tap
• Pager scroll guard - HorizontalPager disabled while drawer is partially open
• Hidden indicator zero height - HIDDEN page indicator no longer wastes 6dp
• Adaptive icon widths - Drawer icon items scale with icon size setting
• App size split APKs - Sums sourceDir + splitSourceDirs for accurate size
• Widget picker cell sizes - Shows "2x1 cells" instead of raw dp dimensions
• Widget span actual cell width - Uses real grid cell width instead of hardcoded 73dp
• Import failure toast - Error message instead of silent failure
• No-bounce icon press - Material 3 spring animation (dampingRatio 1.0, stiffness 800)
• Memoized theme - themeColorsWithAccent cached via remember
• Theme.kt reformatted - Named-parameter multi-line constructors for all 6 themes
• SearchOff empty state - Icon above "No apps found" in drawer

v2.18.0

• Settings search filter - Keyword search across all 8 sections, auto-expands matching sections
• Uninstall confirmation dialog - All uninstall paths (D&D, home menu, drawer menu) go through confirmation
• Swipe-up home gesture - Configurable, separate from drawer open (default: APP_DRAWER)
• Haptic feedback on page limits - Vibration when swiping past first/last page
• Hidden apps "Unhide All" - Batch unhide button when >1 hidden app
• Settings sections auto-expand during search

v2.17.0

• LAUNCH_APP gesture action - Bind any gesture to open a specific app
• "Add Page" in home space menu - Pixel Launcher-style long-press menu
• Settings section summaries - Show current values when collapsed
• Drawer shows "X results" during search
• Gesture app picker UI in settings

v2.16.1

• Audit fixes: SearchPill shows engine initial+name, haptic on home space menu, dock swipe indicator dot, categorizedApps perf skip during search, contact search permission chip, icon pack preview async loading

v2.16.0

• Collapsible settings sections (8 groups), search engine picker (Google/DDG/Bing/Brave/Startpage), home space long-press menu, dock swipe-up gesture, icon pack preview (4 sample icons)

v2.15.7

• suggestFolderName tokenized, unit converter regex hoisted, flashlight TorchCallback sync, drawer columns range 0-6

v2.15.6

• Atomic resetAllSettings, widget picker toast feedback, all drawer close paths reset category

v2.15.5

• Zero compiler warnings, web search at bottom of results, drawer search auto-focus

v2.15.4

• AppCategorizer word-boundary tokenization, ProGuard tightened (APK 18.6->3.3MB), widget data in backup

v2.15.3

• RECENT_APP skips current app, resetAllSettings covers all prefs, backup includes suggestion/app usage

v2.15.2

• Folder columns setting, category reset, RECENT_APP hidden filter, drawer icon styling parity

v2.15.1

• Widget BoxWithConstraints, clock pending-job pattern, fast scroller from displayApps

v2.15.0

• Hide dock, Recent App gesture, grayscale icons, page line indicator, label weight

v2.14.0

• Z-A sort, Depth transition, dock pulse, scroll-to-top, XL icons

v2.13.0

• Accent presets, search clear, Carousel transition, app size, reset all

v2.12.0

• Neon theme, copy results, folder badges, drawer scale, clock cycling

v2.11.0

• Clock styles, unit converter, Edit Mode gesture, launch counts

v2.10.0

• Fuzzy search, inline calculator, hexagon/diamond shapes, fast scroller

v2.9.0

• Suggestions row, search history, themed badges

v2.8.0

• Widgets (AppWidgetHost), contact search, staggered animation

v2.7.0

• Flashlight/triple-tap/pinch gestures, dock handle tap, parallax

v2.6.0

• Section headers, dock/search/haptic styles, drawer opacity, folder columns

v2.5.0

• Categories, home lock, drawer columns, accent color, icon shadow

v2.4.0

• Page transitions, dock swipe, badge styles, grid padding, clock tap

v2.3.0

• Themed icons, drawer sort, label styles, At-a-Glance, web search

v2.2.0

• Notification badges, shortcuts, wallpaper dim, recent apps

v2.1.0

• Icon packs, folders, custom labels, hidden apps, gestures, backup

v2.0.0

• Stability architecture, crash handler, DataStore corruption recovery

Architecture

LauncherApplication    - Global crash handler + notification reporter
MainActivity           - Lifecycle, debounced package receiver, widget host
LauncherViewModel      - State management, debounced operations, package validation
LauncherPrefs          - DataStore with corruption handler, atomic writes
AppRepository          - Hardened PM calls, package existence checks, themed icons
IconPackManager        - LruCache, defensive XML parsing, preview icons
ShortcutRepository     - LauncherApps shortcut queries + launching
NotificationListener   - NotificationListenerService for badge counts
AppCategorizer         - Word-boundary tokenized auto-categorization
AppModel               - Safe deserialization, data types, enums
UI (Compose)           - HomeScreen, AppDrawer, Components, Settings, Theme

Build

JAVA_HOME="C:/Program Files/Android/Android Studio/jbr" ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/AppData/Local/Android/Sdk" ./gradlew assembleRelease

Debug build: ./gradlew assembleDebug

Requires Android SDK 28+ (Android 9), targets SDK 34 (Android 14).