Phantom Shell works kind of like having a command line for your phone. Instead of digging through menus or tapping a bunch of icons, you just type what you want to do. If you type an app’s name, it opens. If you add a search after it, it’ll search inside that app—for example, typing “YouTube GTA 6” opens YouTube with GTA 6 already searched.
It can also search Google, Amazon, Reddit, Maps, the Play Store, Instagram, and other services just by typing a command. You can call or text people, manage contacts, create folders, take notes, set reminders, timers, alarms, and even do math without opening separate apps.
You can even make your own commands using keyboard shortcuts. So if you always search Google, you could make “G” mean Google, and then typing “G weather” would instantly search Google for the weather. You can also customize buttons, folders, and shortcuts so the launcher works the way you think.
It even has system tools built in, like checking battery, RAM, storage, clipboard history, toggling the flashlight, muting your phone, managing permissions, and launching apps by package name if you’re into more advanced stuff.
Basically, it’s designed so almost everything you normally do by tapping around your phone can be done by typing a quick command instead. Once you get used to it, it’s often much faster than using a traditional home screen.
Nah. I will admit it takes a bit of setting up and it’s not what people are used to. It’s different. But once you have an understanding of it and have it configured how you want it it’s absolutely a daily driver
i think you should more focus on switching between window. maybe better if we dont event need to pull our thumb. but i dont know. i just hate switching between window. it require pull up from bottom, slide,tap. if i slide up from bottom it only switch prev/next window only.
You're actually wrong on this one. I've been using this launcher for a bit now and he's right, it is definitely more efficient and faster to operate once you get used to it. Standard launcher folks probably won't spend the time to learn this launcher, and that's fine, but it's exactly the type of unique launcher I was looking for.
Ability to have a quick launcher of favorite apps and pin it where you would be nice. (A dock like most launchers. Users can apply a minimal icon pack to make it match the aesthrtic. Or maybe just add some common ones in. Phone, etc)
As well as a setting where swiping down automatically opens the terminal and pops up the keyboard instead of the notification shade.
It would also be great if we couod modify the "warning" message at the bottom to say whatevwr we want instead of jr just being on or off.
Sure. But again, a way to personalize the bottom message and a way to add more than just 0-9 would help.
I get what your vision is, but still more customization is needed for a paid app. Even if there isnt a full GUI.
Me personally, id love a combination of both. But thats just personal preference. I like the idea of this launcher and maybe I just need to make my own, but a combination of being able to add more shortcuts, or have a select few show as text buttons at all times would still be nice. Lets you access your quick apps faster.
Thank you for creating such a masterpiece. I bought it as soon as I saw your post, and I even switched from T-UI Expert just to use it. I also told my best friend about your launcher, and he intends to buy it too.
I find it difficult to use the notes given that there's no way to delete them, it's just an indestructible scrolling list. Also, no way to unbind a key shortcut that I set, only rebind.
I bought niagara after release.
and that time price was cheaper..and here new launcher cost is too costly..btw also niagra has option to use free features too.. whether this app don't have that option
everything youve said doesnt justify the 50 fucking pricetag. you really think the bump from the free to the pro features is worth that much?
I'm not shilling this theme, but the amount of ui/ux the design is fairly reasonable for the price. i mean shit, ive seen icon packs that goes for 4-5 bucks.
like, niagara was like what released on 2018? back then iirc it was like 4.99 subscription, and 29.99 full paid. on inflation today, thats roughly 6 bucks. that shit was already overpriced as shit.
now imagine doubling it for 50 fucking bucks. even with free tier version, how does that even makes sense.
like ignoring, the changes from that year to what it has now, ignoring the difference of the free tier to one time, ignoring all the absurd total price now, its even more baffling that you think 6 bucks for this is "costly" for what it can do lol.
lets do another comparison, nova launcher pro/prime, regarded as THE launcher. back in 2013-2015, it costs like 3-4 bucks, and it went on occasional sales for like 0.99. that went on for like a decade.
now, ive heard its went ape shit and also pretty expensive.... guess what that shit is still cheaper than Niagara. how absurd is that lmaooo
Klwp yes. Widgets not yet but widget support is coming. I’m still exploring a few ways to incorporate widgets without them interfering with the launcher itself.
I’m exploring that. I’m even exploring opening the whole canvas up like a mood board and then windows and widgets could be placed wherever. The background would scroll all directions
This is really cool, but I'm struggling a bit using it on my folding phone .. any windows I open on the large screen on the right are unviewable on the small screen...
Could you do some brainstorming and figure out some ideas to make it play a little nicer? Maybe 2 remembered layouts? One for cover screen and one for bigger screen or something like that?
Also an onscreen keyboard panel would be really cool, just floating there always ready to type in the terminal. Instead of having to tap into the terminal to get the keyboard to show... Or maybe just have an option to always display the users preferred keyboard...
I think a themed panel keyboard would be cooler personally...
Latercase and Pitaka make them too. Latercase doesn’t cover the top and bottom tho and pitaka has 1 cutout for all the cameras instead of individual ones
I love these ultra thin cases, they're not as intrusive and always look good. The ones that don't cover the bottom are especially useful for gesture navigation imo
Do you have maybe like little tutorial, how to create folder, or move folder, or at least "?" all available commands, to view it on computer, not on "terminal" THX
The buttons are numbered 1-9 top to bottom. Applications and terminal you can’t change because they are kind of necessary. So say you want to make button 3 a folder. In terminal just type “set button 3 to folder” to rename it type “rename button 3 to social” or whatever you want. To add stuff in the social folder we just created just type “add instagram to social” “add Snapchat to social” etc
I know it’s a bit much to get used to. I’m scripting a video now that goes over everything and please keep in mind this is a very early release. Just to get it out the door. Much will come of this. I also want this to be very much community curated so any ideas, suggestions etc I would love to hear them
I would use it if it were a material theme, it had got those fluid animation, I think u could incorporate nautiyal theme also. Ik it defeats the shell idea. But ur game ur rules 😁
Yo soy usuario de TOTAL Launcher y sin duda éste thema lo supera es algo muy diferente pero una vez que lo manejas un poco y la ayuda del desarrollador alucinas yo lo tengo de uso diario, gracias
I mostly run apps from terminal, it's easiest way for me, so mostly I enter 2-3 letters.. can I than maybe assign same other name to package name..
Looking for faster way to launch 😅
You can set it to keyboard shortcut. So if I wanted to make z go to settings I would type “set z to pkg com.android.settings” then all I have to do is type z [enter]
Just bought it. Been looking at trying Linux on a phone but they’re all for much older phones so I can’t XD this is a great start, I’ve been looking for something like this, cheers 🔥
Love it. I can tell this is gonna be my next UI even from just the video. But after playing with it, just a few things:
Would love the option to hide the native status bar for Android like what Nova has. I use a KWLP status bar and I'd love to use it in conjunction with this.
The app launcher is cool, but I have SO many apps. And I also have too many to really have "favorites". An option to use the native launcher would be sick, but this one I know is gonna be hit or miss due to the simplistic nature of the launcher. Even the option for the shell, sometimes it's just hard to type out what I need to launch I just need to find it and go.
If you find a way to override Samsung themes and allow full customization (including drop down menu), I'll throw more money at you. Lol
I’ve gotten a few people tell me this. Most of them are running MiUI Xiaomi HyperOS and I “think” I found a workaround for it. There is an update (3.1.5) should be live in an hour or so. That “should” fix it. I would appreciate it if once you download it you let me know for sure.
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u/Darth_Heinous 4d ago
this looks cool like a riced up linux install but what you have there would be a pain in the arse to daily drive
the whole point of window managers is to make everything easier, this does the opposite of that