Phi Launcher — Guide Part 1: Getting to Know Your Launcher
Welcome to Phi Launcher. If you've just switched over, things might feel a little unfamiliar at first and that's okay. Phi is designed to be minimal and fast, but underneath that clean surface there's a lot of depth. This guide walks you through every screen in the launcher, explaining not just what each thing does but why you'd use it and how it fits into the bigger picture. Take it at your own pace, explore as you go, and by the end you'll feel right at home.
Let's start from where you spend most of your time — the home screen.
The Home Screen
The home screen in Phi is intentionally empty when you first set it up. That's not a bug , it's an invitation to build exactly what you want. But before you start customizing, it helps to understand the gestures, because the home screen is far more interactive than it looks.
Here are all the gestures currently supported:
Swipe Up — Opens the app drawer
Swipe Down — Opens Global Search or pulls down the notification panel (you choose which one in settings)
Double Tap — Either locks your phone or opens an app of your choice (configurable in Home Settings)
Long Press — Opens Edit Mode, or triggers the Radial Wheel if you've set it up
Single Tap — Opens the Classical Radial Wheel if that mode is enabled
That last two are worth understanding properly. Phi has two styles of Radial Wheel — Classical and Modern. The Classical Wheel opens on a single tap, while the Modern Wheel opens on a long press. If the Radial Wheel is turned off entirely, or if you haven't added any apps to it yet, long pressing goes straight into Edit Mode instead. You'll spend a lot of time in Edit Mode when setting up your home screen, so let's go through it in detail.
Edit Mode
Edit Mode is activated by long pressing on any empty area of the home screen (when the Radial Wheel isn't in the way). Once you're in it, a floating toolbar appears on the side of the screen. You can drag this toolbar anywhere move it out of the way of whatever you're working on. Tap the arrow on it to expand it and see labels for each button.
Here's everything you can do from inside Edit Mode:
1. Grid
The grid overlays your home screen with alignment guides, making it much easier to place elements neatly. When you turn the grid on or off, make sure to deselect and then reselect whatever element you're currently working with this forces the grid to apply properly to that element. If you want the grid to always be visible by default, you can enable that in Home Settings under Grid Settings.
2. Folders
Folders let you group multiple apps together and place that group on the home screen. When you tap the Folder option in the toolbar, a sheet opens where you can either pick from existing app categories on your phone or start a completely empty folder. From there, you configure it:
Give your folder a name
Choose a folder type — this is the most important decision and here's what each one means:
Single App — Only the first app's icon is visible on the home screen. Swiping up on that icon opens the full folder. Good if you want to save space but still access a group of apps quickly.
Single Folder — Shows a folder icon. Tapping it opens the folder. Simple and classic.
2x2 Folder — Shows a 2x2 grid of icons on the home screen. The first 3 apps are directly tappable without opening the folder at all.
3x3 Folder — Same idea but larger — shows a 3x3 grid, and the first 8 apps are directly tappable.
Tap Modify Apps to choose which apps go inside. Select your apps and tap Done.
If you want certain apps to always appear first (especially useful for 2x2 and 3x3 types), pin those apps first before rearranging. Once pinned, you can drag them into whatever order you like. One thing to watch out for: if you go back into Modify Apps to change the list, your pinned apps will be cleared and you'll need to pin them again.
Tap Save when you're done.
To edit a folder you've already placed, enter Edit Mode, tap the folder, and an "Edit Folder" option will appear in the toolbar. You can show or hide folder labels from Home Settings.
3. Shortcuts
Shortcuts are individual app icons that you can place anywhere on the home screen, completely freely not locked to a grid unless you want them to be. Tap the Shortcut option, choose an app or system shortcut, and it gets placed on screen. From there:
Resize it using the resize handle that appears when it's selected
To edit it, enter Edit Mode, tap the shortcut, and an edit option appears in the toolbar
Pro users can assign additional actions - a swipe up action and a swipe down action on the shortcut, essentially turning one icon into three different entry points
Pro users can also rotate shortcuts, which opens up some interesting layout possibilities
Whether the label shows under a shortcut follows the Pinned Label setting in Home Settings, so you have one central control for all shortcut labels rather than setting them individually.
4. Widgets
This option lets you place standard Android widgets directly on the home screen, positioned and sized however you like. Tap Add Widgets, browse your installed widgets, choose one, and it'll appear on screen. You can then drag it anywhere, resize it with the resize handle, and delete it with the X button. This is currently a Pro only feature, but it will be available to all users in a future update.
5. Phi Elements
These are Phi's own custom home screen components — they behave differently from regular Android widgets and are designed to fit cleanly into Phi's minimal style. There are four of them:
Clock — A resizable clock you can place anywhere. Tapping it opens whichever app you've assigned to it in Home Settings (great for opening your calendar or alarm app directly). Long pressing the clock takes you straight to Home Settings. You can customize the clock style, colors, and scale in Clock Settings.
Search Bar — Opens Global Search or goes directly to a search engine, depending on your setting. Resize it with the handle, and customize its look in Search Bar Settings inside Home Settings.
Pinned Apps — An adaptive row (or grid) of your pinned apps. What makes it interesting is that it adjusts how many apps it shows based on how large you make the element — so if you make it bigger, it shows more apps automatically. You can hide or show the icons and labels from Home Settings.
Dock Rows — Adds a row of apps at the bottom of the screen, like a traditional dock. You can customize which apps appear and how many rows to use from Home Dock in Home Settings. That said, the dock is getting a complete rebuild in a future update — it'll behave more like a proper persistent dock that stays fixed at the bottom. For now, if you want something more reliable, using individual Shortcuts achieves the same result with more flexibility. Sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime.
Global Search
Swipe down from the home screen, or tap the search bar, to open Global Search. It's one of those features that seems simple at first but quietly becomes something you use constantly once you discover what it can do.
When you open it without typing anything, it immediately shows a few quick-access options — a toggle for Focus Mode, and shortcuts to Launcher Settings, Home Settings, and Drawer Settings. These are genuinely useful for jumping into settings without having to navigate through menus.
Once you start typing, Global Search reaches across several different data sources at once:
Apps — Searches all your installed apps by name
Shortcuts — Finds shortcuts you've set up on the home screen
Contacts — Searches your contacts by name (requires contacts permission)
Calendar Events — Finds upcoming events by title (requires calendar permission)
Calculator — Type any math expression and the answer appears inline, no need to open a calculator app
If you want to search the web instead of searching your phone, type your query and then tap the search icon on the keyboard. It'll open your chosen search engine with that query.
There's also a really practical feature for phone numbers: type any number and Phi will offer to call it directly or message it on WhatsApp. By default, Phi assumes the number is local and adds your country code automatically. If you're typing an international number, either start with a + followed by the full number, or start with 00 followed by the country code and number — either way, Phi will leave the country code alone and not double it up.
The App Drawer
Swipe up from the home screen to open the drawer — this is where all your installed apps live. It's straightforward to use, but there are a few things worth knowing.
Long pressing on any app brings up its details, which is handy for quickly jumping to App Info, checking storage, or uninstalling without digging through system settings.
Swiping up on the search bar inside the drawer surfaces more drawer-specific settings without needing to go through the main settings menu.
The drawer supports two layout styles — a grid (icon-based, good for visual scanning) and a minimal list (text-first, good for quickly reading app names). You switch between them in Drawer Settings.
When you install a new app, it shows up in a Recently Installed section at the top of the drawer so you can find it without scrolling. You can remove an app from that section by opening it through the Recent section. If you want to clear all recently installed markers at once, go to More Settings inside the drawer and use the Sync Installed Apps option this resets the list entirely.
Explore Drawer Settings for more options like columns, layout alignment, sort order, and more. We'll cover all of those in detail in Guide 2.
Phi Widgets Screen
Phi has its own set of built-in widgets — things like a quick stats overview, developer stats, and other utility cards. These all live on the Phi Widgets screen, which you can swipe to from the home screen.
You can reorder these widgets or disable the ones you don't need. To do that, go to Launcher Settings → Home Settings → Phi Widgets. Alternatively, if you're already on the Phi Widgets screen, you can access that same setting directly from there — as long as Minimalist Widgets is turned off. If Minimalist Widgets is on, the controls are hidden (that's kind of the whole point of that mode). Just toggle it off temporarily to make changes.
App Widgets Screen
This screen is a dedicated space for stacking standard Android widgets vertically. Think of it as a personal dashboard — you might put your calendar widget, a weather widget, and a music player widget all stacked neatly in one place, accessible with a single swipe.
To add a widget, tap the + button at the bottom of the screen, browse your available widgets, and select one. It gets added to the stack.
To edit a widget you've already added, long press on an empty area within that widget. Edit controls will appear, and here's how they work:
Down arrow — Increases the widget's height
Up arrow — Decreases the widget's height
Right arrow — Increases the widget's width
Left arrow — Decreases the widget's width
You can also reorder them within the stack. When you're happy with the sizing and order, tap Save to close the edit controls.
If long pressing a widget isn't triggering edit mode — which can happen with widgets that have interactive content filling the entire area — tap the Pencil icon instead. This forces every widget on screen into edit mode simultaneously, so you can always get to the controls no matter what.
The gear icon on this screen is a quick shortcut to Home Settings, saving you from navigating back manually.
One important thing: if Minimalist Widgets is turned on in your settings, you won't be able to add or edit widgets here. Turn it off first, make your changes, then turn it back on if you want the clean look again.
Dev Panel Screen
The Dev Panel is a screen built specifically for developers. It pulls in live data from your coding platform profiles and shows everything in one place — your GitHub contribution graph, LeetCode problem-solving stats, Codeforces contest ratings, and more. No need to open three different apps or browser tabs.
To connect your accounts, go to Launcher Settings → Home Settings → Dev Panel and enter your username for each platform you use. You can also reach this setting directly from the Dev Panel screen itself — look for the settings option while you're on that screen. Once your usernames are saved, the data loads automatically every time you visit.
Currently supported platforms are GitHub, LeetCode, and Codeforces
If you're not a developer or don't use any of these platforms, you can disable the Dev Panel screen entirely from the Screen Order setting in Home Settings. That way it won't appear as a swipeable screen at all and won't take up any of your home screen real estate.
That covers all the main screens in Phi Launcher. Once you're comfortable moving around and know what everything does, Guide 2 picks up from here walking through every setting in detail so you can tune the launcher exactly to your taste.