Tempo is an ultra-minimal Android home-screen replacement (launcher). It does three quiet things and nothing else: tell the time, find an app, and show your notifications — all on a calm washi-paper canvas with a single vermillion accent and Japanese typography.
There are no home-screen widgets, no app drawer grid, no folders, no wallpaper picker, and no settings menu. The design is deliberate: peace, no distractions.
Install the Tempo APK on a device or emulator running Android 15 (API 35) or newer. (For a build from source, see the README.)
Installing Tempo does not change anything on its own — it just becomes available as a home app. You have to choose it.
You have two ways to set Tempo as your launcher:
- Press the Home button / swipe up Home. Android shows a chooser; pick Tempo (tap "Always" if offered).
- Long-press the home-indicator pill. Inside Tempo, the slim horizontal pill at the very bottom of the screen acts as a shortcut. While Tempo is not yet your default home app, this pill is tinted vermillion as a gentle "hold me" cue. Long-press it and Tempo takes you straight to the system's home-app picker.
Once Tempo is the default, the pill turns a faint neutral grey — that's your confirmation. Tempo re-checks this status every time it returns to the foreground, so if you change it in Settings → Apps → Default apps → Home app, the pill updates automatically.
Note: App search works immediately and needs no permission. The Notifications screen needs one permission, granted once — see §5 Permissions.
Tempo has exactly three screens, reached from the dock — the row of icons fixed at the bottom of every screen:
| Dock icon | Screen | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Home glyph | Home (ホーム) | The clock, date, and ensō |
| Search glyph | Search (検索) | Find and launch an app |
| Bell glyph | Notifications (通知) | Your live notifications |
| Sun / Moon glyph | (not a screen) | Toggles the theme — see §6 |
The icon of the screen you're on is shown in vermillion; the others stay faint. The sun/moon theme toggle always stays faint (it's an action, not a destination).
Back never leaves Tempo — a launcher is the home screen, so there's nowhere "behind" it.
- From Search or Notifications, Back returns you to Home.
- On Home, Back does nothing (you're already home).
Pressing the device Home button while Tempo is open always returns you to a clean Home screen — it clears any search text and resets to the clock. This matches how every Android launcher behaves.
Home is intentionally sparse. From top to bottom you'll see:
- A faint ensō — the broken sumi-e brush ring drawn behind everything, very low-contrast on purpose.
- The date, vertically, in the top-right — written in Reiwa-era kanji across three columns that
read right-to-left, e.g.
令和八年 ・ 六月十七日 ・ 水曜日(Reiwa year 8 · June 17 · Wednesday). - A large clock in mincho type, e.g.
21:01. - A spoken-style reading of the time just below it, e.g.
午後九時一分("afternoon, nine o'clock, one minute"). When the minute is00, the "minutes" part is omitted (午後九時). - The 静 seal — a single small vermillion stamp meaning stillness (sei/shizu), the only splash of colour on the screen.
The clock updates once per minute, flipping exactly on the minute boundary (Tempo only displays hours and minutes, so it never needs to tick per second). When Tempo is in the background the clock loop suspends entirely — it causes no battery-draining wakeups — and re-reads the current time the instant you return.
The date, era, and reading all follow your device's system clock and locale-independent Japanese formatting; they recompute as the day rolls over.
Tap the Search (検索) dock icon. The screen opens with the text field already focused and the keyboard up, so you can start typing immediately.
- Type any part of an app's name or its package name (e.g.
chromeorcom.android). Matching is case-insensitive and updates live as you type. - The list shows every launchable app on the device, sorted alphabetically. This includes apps in a work profile or other user profiles, each shown with its proper badged icon. (Tempo itself is hidden from the list.)
- Each row shows the app icon, its name (mincho type), and its package name (small grey text beneath).
- Tap a row to launch that app. The app opens with a subtle scale-up animation that grows out of the row you tapped.
- Press the keyboard's "Go" / enter key to instantly launch the top result — handy for launching by typing a few letters and hitting Go without lifting your thumb.
Long-press any app row to open a small menu with two actions:
- アプリ情報 (App info) — opens the system App-details page for that app.
- アンインストール (Uninstall) — starts the system uninstall flow for that app.
・・・— the app list is still loading (only briefly, on first open).見つかりません("not found") — your query matched no apps.
The app list stays live: installing, removing, or updating an app, or changing the system language, refreshes the list automatically without you reopening Search.
Tap the Notifications (通知) dock icon. The header shows 通知 with today's date in kanji beneath it.
To read your notifications, Tempo needs Android's Notification access permission. Until you grant it, the screen shows a calm prompt:
通知へのアクセス タップして許可 ("tap to allow")
Tap タップして許可 and Tempo deep-links you straight to the system Notification access settings page. Enable Tempo there, then return — the screen detects the change automatically (it re-checks every time Tempo comes back to the foreground) and starts showing your notifications.
This permission is granted once and persists. You can revoke it anytime in Settings → Apps → Special app access → Notification access.
Once access is granted, the screen lists your device's current, clearable notifications:
- Each row shows the app's small icon (tinted to match the theme), the notification title, up to three lines of body text, the app name, and a timestamp.
- Timestamps are relative: today's items show the time (
21:01), yesterday's show昨日("yesterday"), and older items show amonth/daydate. - Notifications are ordered by the system's own ranking (most relevant first), then by how recently they arrived.
- Group summary rows are hidden — you see the individual notifications, not the "N new messages" bundle headers.
- Ongoing / non-clearable notifications (media players, active calls, persistent services) are intentionally not shown.
When there's nothing to show, the screen reads 通知はありません ("there are no notifications").
- Tap a notification to open it (fires its content action, exactly like tapping it in the system shade). If the notification is the auto-dismiss kind, it clears after you open it.
- Swipe a row left or right to dismiss it. This clears it from the system shade too — Tempo isn't a separate inbox, it's a window onto your real notifications.
Accessibility: Each notification is announced as a single readable unit to TalkBack, with an explicit 消去 ("dismiss") action — so screen-reader users can clear a notification without needing the swipe gesture (which assistive services can't see).
Tempo ships with two palettes, toggled by the sun/moon icon in the dock (the fourth icon):
- Paper — a warm washi-cream radial wash with sumi-ink text, a vermillion accent, and a faint paper-grain texture. The default.
- AMOLED — true black (great for OLED screens and battery), warm off-white text, and a slightly brighter vermillion. No grain.
Tap the toggle to switch instantly. Your choice is saved and restored next time you open Tempo. The system status-bar and navigation-bar icons automatically flip light/dark to stay legible against the active theme.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Tap dock Home / Search / Bell | Switch to that screen |
| Tap dock sun/moon | Toggle Paper ⇄ AMOLED theme |
| Back (from a sub-screen) | Return to Home |
| Device Home button | Return to a clean Home screen |
| Type in Search | Live-filter the app list |
| Tap an app row | Launch the app (scale-up animation) |
| Keyboard "Go" in Search | Launch the top result |
| Long-press an app row | App info / uninstall menu |
| Tap a notification | Open it |
| Swipe a notification (either way) | Dismiss it |
| Long-press the bottom pill | Request to be the default home app (only while not default) |
The Notifications screen is empty / still shows the "tap to allow" prompt. You need to grant Notification access. Tap タップして許可 and enable Tempo on the settings page, then return to the app. If you granted it but the list is still empty right after a phone restart, just reopen the Notifications screen — Tempo nudges the system to reconnect the listener.
An app I have installed isn't in Search. Search lists apps that have a launcher entry. System components and apps without a launchable activity won't appear. Tempo itself is also hidden by design. The list refreshes automatically when apps are installed or removed.
A notification won't go away when I swipe it. Ongoing notifications (media controls, calls, persistent service notices) are non-clearable by the system, so Tempo doesn't display them at all. If a row reappears, the app that posted it re-posted it.
The bottom pill is orange/vermillion. Is something wrong? No — that just means Tempo isn't your default home app yet. Long-press the pill to set it. Once set, the pill turns faint grey.
How do I get back to my old launcher? Go to Settings → Apps → Default apps → Home app and pick a different launcher.
Where are the settings? There aren't any, by design — the only preference is the theme toggle in the dock. Tempo's whole premise is to stay out of your way.
To preserve its calm, distraction-free character, Tempo has no widgets, app drawer pages, folders, home-screen shortcuts, wallpaper picker, search-the-web bar, notification snoozing, or in-app reply. It is a launcher for people who want their phone to be quiet.
For build instructions and the tech-stack overview, see the README.