In this article
I've been building Tree Launcher as a side project for several years, and it's finally on the Play Store. The story of how I got here — frustration with every launcher I tried, the realization that home screens should mirror the way brains actually organize things — lives on the about page.
This post is about something narrower: what Tree Launcher actually does, what it doesn't try to do, and what I cared about most while designing it.
A map, not a list
Tree Launcher organizes your home screen as a tree of pages. A page can contain apps, notes, tasks, links, images, and other pages. Those child pages can contain their own items and sub-pages, going as deep as you want.
Navigation is spatial. Swipe right to go deeper into the tree, swipe left to go back up. It's the same model your brain uses when you think about nested categories. Work contains Projects contains Project Alpha. You're moving through a hierarchy, and the gestures make that movement feel physical.
The point isn't to invent a new way of thinking. It's to give your phone an interface that finally matches the way you already do.
A note on the name: "Tree Launcher" comes from the data structure. In computer science, a tree is a hierarchy where each node can have children. Exactly the structure your pages form. But it's also just a tree: something that grows organically, with branches you cultivate over time. I liked that it worked on both levels.
Mapping, not replacing
A page can hold much more than apps. App shortcuts, text notes, tasks, reminders, links, images, and sub-pages all live side by side. That structure is the point: a "Work" page that opens with my most-used work apps, followed by today's task list, a few notes from this morning's meeting, and links to documents I reference often.
But I want to be clear about what Tree Launcher is not trying to do.
Tree Launcher is not trying to replace your note-taking app, your task manager, or your calendar. Those tools are excellent at what they do, built by teams who have spent years perfecting deep, focused experiences. If your work lives in a heavy-duty Notion workspace, Tree Launcher doesn't compete with that.
What it does is map. It connects the things you already use into a single spatial hierarchy. The built-in features cover good ground — enough that for many quick captures and small to-do lists you won't need to reach for another app — but the goal isn't depth in any one area. It's structure across all of them. A project page can link out to the Notion document, hold three quick tasks, and put your most-used apps for that context one swipe away.
A home screen that points to where everything lives, not trying to be everything itself.
If you want to see what that looks like in practice, the examples page shows a handful of real setups — people, recipes, reminders, workouts, and more.
Designed to feel calm
The other aspect I cared about deeply was the feel of the app.
Most launchers fall into two camps. There's the visually loud default, with a wall of colorful icons, widgets competing for attention. And there's aggressive minimalism, where text-only home screens deliberately strip anyway noise, designed to simply usage or discourage phone use entirely.
I wanted something in between. An interface that's quiet but inviting. Refined typography, soft transitions, customizable themes, reduced noise. No ads, no popups, no surprise chrome. Just your structure, presented clearly.
I also designed Tree Launcher around one-handed use. Modern phones are too big to comfortably reach across with one hand, so navigation lives within thumb reach. Swipes and taps handle the heavy lifting. Controls that need frequent precision don't sit in the upper corners.
The result is a home screen that does more, but somehow feels like less.
Launching into the world
Releasing something you've worked on for years is terrifying and exciting in equal measure. Tree Launcher has been my daily driver for a long time, and I know every feature intimately. But sharing it with other people is different. You can't control how they'll use it, what they'll expect, or how they'll react.
I've launched with a generous free tier and an optional Pro upgrade. The free version is genuinely complete: unlimited pages, all text editing features, full search, themes, and backup. I didn't want to ship a crippled free version that frustrates people into paying. Pro adds widget support, weather, AI-powered content generation, and advanced typography — features power users will appreciate.
What's next
This launch is the beginning, not the end. I have a long list of features I'm excited to build, informed by my own daily use and feedback from early testers. I'm not going to promise a specific roadmap — building software takes longer than you expect. But I can promise that Tree Launcher will keep growing.
If you try it, I'd love to hear from you. Join the Discord, visit r/treelauncher, or reach out on Twitter/X. Every piece of feedback helps me make this better.
I built this for me. But I believe others think this way too. Know where everything lives, and your home screen becomes a tool, not just a launch pad.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for trying Tree Launcher.
Sully