SearchLauncher

com.searchlauncher.app
by Zapstore Catalog

Search apps, contacts and the web, and open results in an ad-free browser

Your home screen opens with a keyboard. One bar finds everything on your phone and everything on the web, and opens what you find in a browser that blocks ads. SEARCH ANYTHING Apps, app shortcuts, contacts, device settings, downloads, calendar events for the coming week, text snippets and your own custom actions. Ranking learns from what you pick, so the next time is faster. SEARCH INSIDE APPS, NOT JUST FOR THEM Type y for YouTube, m for Maps, w for Wikipedia, then what you are looking for. Add a shortcut for any site with a search URL, and give it whatever letter you like. ONE FIELD THAT KNOWS WHAT YOU TYPED A sum gets an answer you can tap to copy. A web address opens. "5m pasta" sets a timer. A phone number offers to call it, message it, or save it as a contact. An email address offers to write to it. A BROWSER WITH NO ADS Web results open in the app, with ads and trackers blocked by default. Swipe the search bar sideways to move between tabs, or up to see them all as live previews. Both work from the home screen, so your tabs are one gesture away without opening a browser first. Save a page under a title you choose, and find visited pages back from the search bar. Private windows, file uploads, picture-in-picture video and hardware keyboard shortcuts are all included. FEWER ICONS, MORE ROOM FOR WIDGETS Add a widget by typing its name, resize it by dragging, and tap the wallpaper to show or hide them all. On a tablet they lay out in columns rather than one widget stretched across the display. MAKE IT YOURS Swipe through your own wallpapers. The theme colour can follow the wallpaper behind the search bar. Monochrome icons are optional. Dark mode, a true black OLED mode, a row of favourites, voice search, and export and import of everything you have set up. Use it as your default launcher, or as a widget on the launcher you already have. PRIVACY Nothing is sent anywhere by default. Search suggestions are optional, and when you turn them on, what you type goes to whichever provider the shortcut names. Crash reporting is opt-in. Contacts and calendar entries are read on your device to answer what you typed and are never uploaded. The browser's blocklist is downloaded from the StevenBlack hosts project. SearchLauncher is free and open source: https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher

First release: Nov 2, 2026, 2 total releases.

Most recent release: Nov 4, 2026.

Repo

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0 sats / 0 zaps received in the past year.

Sats Received

Underlying data available via MCP: app_zaps, app_releases.

Zap Count

Underlying data available via MCP: app_zaps, app_releases.

Releases

  • Nov 4, 2026 0.1.5
    **Install `app-play.apk` for the same signing identity as Google Play.** GitHub and Play can update this installation interchangeably when the version code permits. `app-release.apk` is the F-Droid build, for existing legacy GitHub/F-Droid installs. It uses Android's system WebView instead of the Gecko browser engine, so the built-in browser has fewer features. Its older signing key is incompatible with Play. Switching from that copy requires exporting your data, removing it from every Android user/profile, and importing into the Play-signed app. # SearchLauncher 0.1.5: custom swipes, number row, accent-free search
    More…
    ## What changed - **Choose what each swipe does.** A new Gestures card in Settings has a row per home-screen swipe (up, down on the left, down on the right, left, right). Each can open notifications, Quick Settings, the app drawer, the next or previous background, an app of your choice, or do nothing. Keyboard swipes and pulling down on widgets follow the same choices. The old "Separate Quick Settings swipe" toggle is replaced by the down-right choice, and its saved value still sets that swipe's default. Closes #161. Includes [PR #199](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/199). - **Number row on the built-in keyboard.** Settings > Keyboard can add a row of digits above the letters. Letter keys keep their size; the keyboard grows a little. With the row on, the top letter row long-presses to symbols instead of digits. Closes #165. Includes [PR #197](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/197). - **Search ignores accents.** "tel" finds "Téléphone" and "tél" finds "Telegram". A result whose accents match the query ranks just ahead of one that differs. This also applies to open tabs, history, widget search and contact subtitles. Closes #190. Includes [PR #200](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/200). - **Always request desktop sites.** A browser setting, off by default, starts new tabs in desktop mode. Each tab can still switch from its menu. Closes #193. Includes [PR #196](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/196). - **Rounded icons in favorites.** Bookmark, tab and contact icons in the favorites row get rounded corners, like app icons. Includes [PR #179](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/179). - **WebView build for F-Droid.** The legacy `app-release.apk` is now built with Android WebView instead of GeckoView, so F-Droid can rebuild it from source (#175). The `app-play.apk` and the Play Store version keep GeckoView. Includes [PR #198](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/198). ## Updating The GitHub `app-play.apk` uses the same signing identity as Google Play. The legacy `app-release.apk` keeps its separate signature for existing GitHub/F-Droid installations, and from this version uses the WebView browser engine. ## Validation Each change passed CI (build and unit tests) before merging. The swipe actions, number row and accent folding have unit tests. None of the changes were checked on a device for this release.
  • Nov 2, 2026 0.1.4
    **Install `app-play.apk` for the same signing identity as Google Play.** GitHub and Play can update this installation interchangeably when the version code permits. `app-release.apk` is retained only for existing legacy GitHub/F-Droid installs. Its older signing key is incompatible with Play. Switching from that copy requires exporting your data, removing it from every Android user/profile, and importing into the Play-signed app. # SearchLauncher 0.1.4: new contacts in search, Google sign-in in the browser ## What changed
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    - **New contacts are searchable right away.** Contacts added while the launcher was in the background could stay missing from search until a restart. The contacts observer now retries once permission is granted, returning to the launcher checks for changes, and an open search re-runs when contacts, calendar or downloads are re-indexed. Includes [PR #191](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/191). - **Google sign-in stays in the browser.** Signing in to Drive in the built-in browser ended on "Could not open this page (Error 17)" because the redirect back to drive.google.com was handed to the Drive app. Page-initiated navigations now only leave for an app when they go to a different host than the one opened in the tab, so sign-in round trips finish in the browser while links to other sites still open their apps. Includes [PR #192](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/192). - **Drive searches open in the browser.** The Drive app claims Drive search links but shows a Google error page for them, so the Drive shortcut now always searches in the browser. - **Apps win ties with contacts.** A contact whose name matches as well as an app no longer outranks it, so searching "team" shows the Teams app first. A contact still wins when its name matches better. Includes [PR #194](https://github.com/ontola/searchlauncher/pull/194). ## Updating The GitHub `app-play.apk` uses the same signing identity as Google Play. The legacy `app-release.apk` keeps its separate signature for existing GitHub/F-Droid installations. ## Validation Unit tests cover the browser app-link rule, the Drive shortcut flag and the contact and app ranking ties. The contacts refresh fix has no automated test and was not checked on a device.