RETUI is a project, not one app.

The Launcher is the beginning, not the boundary

RETUI began as my continuation of the original T-UI Launcher. I still care about the thing that made it special: Android becoming a place you could drive with commands, inspect through visible configuration, and shape into something personal.

For a while, it was easy to describe all of that as “the launcher.” Then the project started reaching parts of the phone a launcher should not own.

Files needed broad storage access, real previews, batch operations, and a safer deletion model. Typing needed an Android input method that could appear in any app, with its own local dictionary and privacy boundary. Stuffing both into Launcher would have made the name simpler and the software worse.

Each app gets a colour because each app has a job

The colour system is not decoration added after the fact. It lets a post, release, or screen say where it belongs before the reader has to inspect the title.

They should recognise each other without depending on each other

Launcher can open Files at the current directory and pass along the active visual settings. Keys can receive the same colours and terminal treatment through Android's input-method channels. Those handoffs make the phone feel coherent.

But Files still opens by itself. Keys still types without Launcher. Each app has its own package, permissions, defaults, settings, source, and release cycle.

Terminal-inspired does not mean hostile to touch

I am not trying to make Android behave like a Linux terminal at any cost. The command line is the centre of Launcher because it is fast, readable, and direct. That does not mean every button is a failure.

The app drawer makes organisation visible. The settings hub helps people discover controls that still map back to real configuration. Files supports keyboard navigation and touch. Keys is, quite literally, a touch surface.

The visual language matters, but the deeper idea is control. Commands should remain powerful. Files should remain inspectable. Settings should not rewrite a person's choices in secret. Local data should remain local unless the user decides to move it.

Open source is part of how the project stays honest

The code is public because these apps reach sensitive parts of a phone. A launcher sees habits. A file manager sees storage. A keyboard sees text. Trust should not depend only on a privacy paragraph written by the same person asking for that trust.

Public source also keeps the project connected to the original T-UI spirit. RETUI can modernise the architecture without acting as if it appeared from nowhere.

The project can grow without becoming a pile of features

Making RETUI larger does not mean forcing it to cover everything. It means being more honest about the parts that already deserve their own identity.

Launcher is teal. Files is yellow. Keys is green. Project updates are purple. They belong together because they share the same instincts: local where possible, visible rather than mysterious, customisable without hiding the machinery, and a little strange on purpose.