Origin
Re:TUI is an adaptation and continuation of the original T-UI Launcher created by Francesco Andreuzzi.
I cannot say enough how much credit belongs to Francesco and his original work.
T-UI was a breath of fresh air in the Android launcher landscape. Most launchers followed the same basic setup: a home screen, an app drawer, and a few customization options for grids and icons. If you wanted to make your home screen more useful, you usually had to rely on third-party apps.
T-UI was genuinely different.
My fascination with it was intense, but as often happens when you are young, I eventually moved on. I started using KLWP for customization with Nova Launcher underneath it, as many people did and still do.
But I never forgot the experience of using T-UI.
Without realizing it, I kept trying to create the same kind of thing in my own designs. Something minimal, practical, and productive.
I have always dabbled in programming, but I would not call myself a traditional developer. I know the basics. I can find my way around a codebase and understand what its different parts are doing, but I have always been more of a visual learner and designer.
Earlier work
You can see some of that in my earlier work:
I am sure you can see the inspiration.
My fascination with cyberpunk and its aesthetics has been there for a long time. Terminals, dense interfaces, neon, and technology that actually looks like technology have always appealed to me.
At the beginning of 2026, I started learning Kotlin properly. I created a few small apps while learning. Nothing worth writing home about, but it was a start.
Around the same time, I was getting fed up with AI being shoved into every editor I tried. I used AI to help me learn, and I still use it, but I did not want it to become a crutch for my entire journey.
Yes, I could prompt it to produce almost anything.
But what is the point if I cannot read my own code and understand what it does?
That frustration led me towards terminals, TUIs, and NeoVim.
Holy hell, what a journey that was.
I never managed to become comfortable with NeoVim. Years of graphical interfaces had not been kind to me. But the aesthetic brought back my nostalgia for software that felt minimal and practical.
Then I remembered T-UI Launcher.
Creating RETUI
I forked the original project and started trying to understand it.
Using Android Studio, I slowly ported the project to Kotlin, which is now the main language used by RETUI. There was no deep technical reason behind that choice. Kotlin was the language I was learning, so it made sense to use it.
I had one goal from the beginning:
Stay true to the original aesthetic.
The Android landscape has changed. The days of custom ROMs and deep phone customization are mostly behind us.
Even in customization communities, I often see screens covered in icons, widgets, animations, and flashing wallpapers. Honestly, it makes my head spin.
Each to their own, but that style of customization is not for me.
I knew from the beginning that RETUI would not appeal to everyone. It was never going to gain attention as quickly as a conventional launcher, and it may never become as popular as one.
That is fine.
The original launcher was close to my heart. I wanted to continue its legacy without removing everything that made it unusual in the first place.
Why there is a paid and free version
One of the biggest decisions I made early on was to keep the GitHub version free while offering a paid version through the Play Store.
I know that sounds counterintuitive. Most people discover Android apps through the Play Store, while the average user may never visit GitHub or install an app from there.
There are two main reasons for the decision.
First, Google controls the main distribution path for Android apps. If Android continues moving towards tighter restrictions on installing third-party apps, marketplaces such as the Play Store may become increasingly important.
I have plenty of thoughts about that, but they deserve their own post.
Second, the paid version gives people a simple way to support the project.
I am not doing this for the money, but every purchase shows me that somebody values what I am building. That support gives me more reason to keep working on RETUI and making it better.
The GitHub version remains free and open source.
Paying through the Play Store is a way to support the project, not the only way to access it.
How I use AI
I have always been transparent about my use of AI, and that is still the case.
I mainly use it for tedious work such as testing, lint checks, unit tests, and auditing battery, CPU, and GPU usage.
I have also started using it for Git commits because I honestly cannot be bothered to type the same commands every time.
I say "push," and it is done.
I still review and verify the code myself. I need to understand what is being added to the project and why it works.
Is the code clean?
No.
Some of it probably looks like noodles. I learned to code while using AI, so there is bound to be some influence from it.
I am still learning, but I do not want AI to replace my understanding of the project. It can handle repetitive work and help me find problems. I still need to know what my own code does.
Continuing the original work
I want this launcher to have a resurgence, not only for me but for the sake of the original launcher.
In my eyes, Francesco started something beautiful. I want Re:TUI to be a continuation of that work and a testament to its legacy.
That is what the name means:
RETUI - TUI Revamped.
The launcher is still at the heart of that story. It is just not the entire story anymore. Files and Keys now have their own identities, and RETUI has become the name for the whole thing.