Folio Launcher: a clean, iPhone-style Home Screen for Android
with the jailbreak tweaks I always wanted, and none of the lockdown.
| Version | Price | Android | Root | Tested on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.6.0 | Free | 12+ | Not needed | Galaxy Z Fold8 |
Status: very early. I just wanted to get something out. It's a bit rusty in places, and things will settle down as more people use it: more feedback means I can work on performance and fine-tuning. I plan to keep maintaining it. Developed and tested on a Galaxy Z Fold8. See what's changed in CHANGELOG.md.
Contents: Why I made this · Screenshots · What it does · What you need · Install · FAQ · Get involved · Contact · Credits · License
Honestly, I started this for fun. I've spent the last few months building an iPhone app, then I got a Galaxy Z Fold8 and got excited by how much Android lets you customize. At the same time I felt a little homesick for Apple, or at least for the jailbreak features I loved. I've been in the iOS jailbreak world since iOS 7 or 8, so this was me getting back into it.
The hardest part was learning Android: how permissions work and how launchers work. I got the hang of it. Anything that came from someone else, or that inspired me, is credited below. (Since I'm the only tester for now, AI helps with bug testing.)
I want to give back to the open-source community, so Folio is free and open source.
Anyone who wants a clean look, likes the Apple style without Apple's restrictions, or just wants their phone to work the way they want. I'm building what I knew I couldn't have on iPhone.
I found jailbreaking in middle school and loved it. iOS keeps getting more locked down, so I moved to something more open (for now, until Google locks theirs down too). I also have an app in testing on the App Store, and that alone was a three-month process, so I'll do what it takes to make what I want.
Have an idea? Tell me! And if you want to help build Folio, or make a theme or a tweak for it, let me know.
Some of my favorite days on my phone were spent with tweaks like Barrel, just making the phone my own. Folio is my way of bringing that back:
- Badges that match the app. Badges can take the color of each app's icon, like the ColorBadges tweak. It was more complex than I expected, but it's neat, so check it out (Settings › Icons & Side Bar › Badge color).
- Themes, and more on top. I loved SnowBoard. Android already has icon packs and themes, so Folio builds on them with its own themes you can save and share.
- The iPhone Duo Side Bar. The status bar, Dynamic Island and dock live on the right edge. Thanks to DuoLauncher, whose dev made it possible for me to build on top of their work.
- Left-handed mode and Spotlight. Flip the Side Bar to the left, and search everything from Spotlight.
- Coming soon: Page Effects, inspired by Barrel. See Settings › Roadmap for what else is planned.
There's a lot to this launcher, and it's fun. I hope you have as much fun with it as I've had making it.
Home, Spotlight, App Library, Control Center, jiggle mode, widgets and tweaks
Tinted icons, left-handed mode, themes, the Tweak Library, the Roadmap and the fold effect
| Cover screen | ||
|---|---|---|
 Home and the Side Bar |
 Spotlight |
 iOS-style Settings |
| Unfolded | ||
 Control Center |
||
 Settings in split view, like iPad |
||
| New in 0.6.0 | ||
 The Tweak Library: get only the tweaks you want |
||
 The Roadmap in Settings |
||
Screenshots use the Minimal O icon pack, and the wallpaper is my own. Song details and album art are hidden.
Icon packs and themes (like the iOS-style ones I use) are made by independent designers. If you use one, please buy it from its designer on Google Play and support their work. Much love.
Adapts to the screen, doesn't just stretch
- Lays out by how much room there is, not what device it is: phones, flips, foldables, split-screen, tablets.
- Open the Fold and you get two Home pages side by side. Portrait unfolded gets one centered page with a dock bar. The cover in landscape gets two columns.
- Knows where the fold is: when the phone is half folded, sheets, menus and Home rows move off the crease.
- Bigger screens draw everything bigger, like iPad, instead of a tiny phone layout in the middle.
The iOS stuff
- Side Bar with the status bar, a Dynamic Island that wraps the camera, and the dock.
- Notification Center, Control Center, Spotlight, Today View, Smart Stacks and the widget gallery.
- Jiggle mode, folders, Icon Stacks, per-page icon size and labels, and App Library search.
- Clear Badge from an app's long-press menu.
- Focus modes with schedules and the Home pages you want to see.
- Download rings on updating apps, blue dots on new ones, and Add to Home Screen for shortcuts and websites.
- Settings built like iOS: menus with checkmarks, segmented controls, switches, sheets and alerts. What's New shows up after updates.
Tweaks (you pick which ones you get)
- Ideas from jailbreak tweaks I liked (Velox, Activator, Velvet, Axon, ColorFlow, Harbor), rebuilt from scratch.
- Get the ones you want from the Tweak Library, Sileo-style. Only those show up in Settings, and you can remove them any time.
- Turn a tweak on for just the cover or just the inner screen, and Safe Mode if something crashes.
Themes
- Save your look as a theme file, import one, or share a
.jsontheme straight to Folio from Files or Chrome. - Grab community themes (or add yours) in
themes/. - Pick an app icon (Teal, Soft or Olive), and live Clock and Calendar icons that match your other icons.
Betas (off until you turn them on)
- Layout History: saves Home before big changes so you can go back.
- Recent App Dots: a dot beside dock apps you used in the last hour.
Private
- No accounts, no ads, no analytics. Folio itself doesn't send anything anywhere unless you share a crash report or check for updates (which only asks GitHub for the latest release). Google search, Discover and widgets from other apps use those apps' own services. Every permission is optional and explained where it's used. More in PRIVACY.md.
- Android 12 or newer. No root.
- Made on a Galaxy Z Fold, but it's meant to work on any Android phone, flip, tablet or Chromebook.
| Device | Android | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 (SM-F971U), cover and inner screens | 17 (One UI 9) | Used for development and testing |
| Other phones, flips, tablets, Chromebooks | 12+ | Layout unit-tested on Android Studio's device sizes, not yet on real hardware. Tell me how it goes! |
Android doesn't allow everything iOS does, so a few things work differently:
- Lock screen: Folio can't replace Android's lock screen. The Lock Cover shows after you unlock.
- Status Bar in other apps: Android doesn't let an app reserve space inside other apps, so the Side Bar status stays on Home. The Dynamic Island and dock can float over other apps with the gestures service.
- Pull-down panels: opening Notification Center and Control Center from the top corners needs Folio's accessibility (gestures) service.
- Folding from Home on Samsung: set Settings › Display › Continue apps on cover screen to Always, or the phone locks when you fold.
- Google Discover needs the Google app and depends on your phone supporting it.
Download the APK from Releases, open it on your phone and allow the install. Then press Home and pick Folio, or open Folio and tap Set as home app.
To get updates automatically, add this repo to Obtainium, which installs and updates apps from GitHub Releases.
Each release lists the APK's SHA-256 and the signing certificate, so you can check an update comes from the same key.
Folio's signing certificate SHA-256 is bad8e099557b70c690e71a3fffe13561c8662c20612047ce1e2559a1c14d8441.
A release APK can't install over a build you made yourself (different signing keys); see
troubleshooting.
JAVA_HOME=/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@17 ./gradlew :app:assembleFast
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/fast/app-fast.apkassembleFast is the optimized build I use day to day. :app:assembleDebug works too (APK in
app/build/outputs/apk/debug/). After installing, press Home and pick Folio, or open Folio Settings and tap
Set as home app.
Tests: ./gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest
Does it need root? No. Folio is a normal Android launcher.
Why does it ask for so many permissions? It doesn't need most of them. Only being your Home app is required. The rest are optional and asked for where they're used, like notification access for the Dynamic Island, or the gestures service for pull-down panels. Every permission is listed with what it's for in Settings › Privacy & Permissions, and in PRIVACY.md.
Does Folio send my data anywhere? No. No accounts, no ads, no analytics. Crash reports stay on your phone unless you share one. Software Update only asks GitHub for the latest release when you check (or once a day if you turn that on).
How do I update? Settings › Software Update checks GitHub, verifies the download and installs it. You can also turn on daily checks and automatic installs there, or use Obtainium.
Can I try new features early? Yes: Settings › Software Update › Beta Updates › Folio Beta. Betas are GitHub pre-releases, signed with the same key, and may have bugs.
How do I go back to my old launcher? Settings › Apps › Default apps › Home app on your phone (the exact path can vary by phone). Your Folio layout stays saved if you switch back later.
Something broke. What do I do? Settings › Help › Report a Bug in Folio opens the bug form with your details filled in. If Folio crashes a few times in a row, it opens in Safe Mode with tweaks paused. More in troubleshooting.
What's coming next? See Settings › Roadmap in the app, or suggest something with the feature form.
app/src/main/java/com/mccal/folio/: the launcher (Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Jetpack WindowManager)LayoutModel.kt: screen sizes, Home layout and big-screen scalingLauncherScreen.kt,HomeWorkspace.kt: Home, pages and editingStatusRail.kt,CutoutIsland.kt: the Side Bar status bar and Dynamic IslandCustomizationSheet.kt,IosControls.kt,FolioSheet.kt: Settings and the iOS controls
app/src/test/: unit tests, including the screen size teststhemes/: community themes and the theme formatdocs/: user guide, troubleshooting, architecture
Bug reports, please! That's the help I need most right now. Once there's a community, I'll give a shoutout (or something for whoever finds the most). Themes and code can come later. I'm one person doing this, but anyone who's interested is welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md first. No GPL code and nothing that needs root.
- Found a bug? In Folio, go to Settings › Help › Report a Bug, or use the bug form.
- Questions or want to show off your setup? Discussions.
- Security problem? Report it privately, see SECURITY.md.
- Everyone here follows the Code of Conduct.
If you want to support the project, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-fi. It's never expected, but it's always appreciated.
- Email: contact@mcc-cal.com (for serious things)
- Discord: mcc_cal
- Reddit: u/wolftech029
- X (Twitter): @mcc_cal_, where I'll post new features and sneak peeks until there's a community
To the iOS jailbreak community, for inspiring me since I was a kid. To the few people on Reddit making things I could build a bridge from. And to anyone else who's interested in my fun little project.
- DuoLauncher by jakesgoodapps and the Duo Launcher contributors (MIT): Folio's starting codebase — the iPhone Duo-style right-side dock and layouts for both Fold screens, paired Home pages and the unfolded workspace, Android widgets, folders, work profiles, wallpapers with sunrise/sunset switching, and Google search/Discover.
- iphone-duo by chuspeeism (MIT): the blur/darkening curves and hinge-angle model that Folio's fold shader follows.
- u/moomanjohnny on r/GalaxyFold: the Galaxy Z Fold 8 proof of concept that showed screenshots + shaders + hinge sensors can recreate the iPhone Duo unfold; inspired Folio's screenshot-morph fold style. No code was released or used.
- ZFoldDuo by nnnnnnn0090 (MIT): showed that a Galaxy Z Fold7/Fold8 can read Samsung's internal hinge angle on the phone itself, without root, using Wireless Debugging. Research for Enhanced Fold Tracking, which is being explored; no ZFoldDuo code is in Folio yet.
- FoldFX by u/FixHour8452 on r/GalaxyFold: ideas for the fold transition (a haptic tick halfway, a light sweep, a slight scale, and following a smooth hinge angle where the phone reports one). Re-created from scratch; no code was used.
- QuickLaunch by AhmedTheGeek (GPL-3.0): ideas for Spotlight — requesting the keyboard after the first frame, frecency ranking with a 7-day half-life, and drag-to-split-screen. Re-implemented independently; no QuickLaunch code is included.
- iOS jailbreak tweaks (ideas only, re-created from scratch; no code): Velox by Phillip Tennen (app panels), Activator by Ryan Petrich (gesture and event actions), Axon by Nepeta (notification app row), Velvet by NoisyFlake & HiMyNameisUbik (tinted notifications), ColorFlow by David Goldman (album-art colors), Harbor by Evan Swick (dock magnification), SnowBoard by SparkDev (themes), Apex by Sticktron (Icon Stacks), Icon Restore (Layout History), Lynx 2 (recent-app dots), ColorBadges (badges that match the app) and Barrel (Page Effects, coming soon). Authors for Velox through Harbor as credited by iDownloadBlog.
Folio started from DuoLauncher
(commit f1bc0f1, 10 Sep 2026), © 2026 Duo Launcher contributors, used under the MIT License (see LICENSE).
Third-party dependency licenses are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
Apple, iPhone and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions.
Google and Android are trademarks of Google LLC. Samsung and Galaxy are trademarks of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Folio is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple, Google or Samsung.
Folio is released under the MIT License. It started from DuoLauncher, which is also MIT; that notice is kept
in LICENSE. Third-party licenses are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.