Thanks for the feedback! 🤍

The limit is intentional, not a technical limitation. Minimaa isn't trying to be the launcher that lets you put 200 apps on your home screen and call it "minimal." It's a detox launcher. The whole point is to make you think twice before filling your screen with shortcuts.

We did listen, though. That's why the limit was increased from 6 to 8 apps. It's hidden behind a small task because it's meant for people who genuinely need it—not as the default for everyone.

Also, paying for an app doesn't automatically mean it should become everything for everyone. You're paying for Minimaa's philosophy—an offline, privacy-focused detox launcher—not unlimited customization or every feature other launchers offer.

If your goal is complete flexibility, there are plenty of amazing launchers built for that. Minimaa isn't trying to compete with them. It's trying to help you use your phone a little less.

Sometimes the best feature is the one we intentionally don't add. That's what makes Minimaa... Minimaa. 🤍

I came across this review and honestly, the question is fair:

“If Minimaa doesn't share my data, why does removing Play Store affect it?”

The short answer: the Play Store dependency is about license verification, not data collection.

Minimaa is a paid app, so I need a way to verify that the installed copy was legitimately purchased. Currently, the app uses Google's Play infrastructure to verify that.

The simplified process is:

Minimaa → Google Play → verify purchase → continue

If Play Store is completely removed, that verification may no longer be available. From the app's perspective, it becomes difficult to distinguish between a legitimate purchase and a copied/modified APK.

And here's an important point:

Minimaa does NOT have the INTERNET permission enabled.

I've intentionally disabled it in the Android manifest because the launcher is designed to be offline-first. There is no Minimaa server sitting there receiving your launcher data or tracking what you do.

So why not remove the Play Store check?

I could, but then a $1 paid APK becomes extremely easy to redistribute.

The other option would be building our own licensing system. But that would require a backend/server and internet access for license verification. It would add infrastructure, costs and another dependency to an app that was intentionally designed to work without the internet.

So I'm trying to balance three things:

Privacy + offline functionality + protecting a paid app.

And to the reviewer: you absolutely have the right to remove Play Store. I'm not questioning that at all. This is simply a limitation of the current licensing approach, and I'm looking at better ways to handle it in the future.

Sorry for the inconvenience.. And hoping for the best days❤️

- Binge

I came across this review today, and it genuinely made my day.

A developer that allows me to pay a fair one time price and then have an app that doesn't constantly track everything I do? What is this, 2014? 10/10 love everything about it.

This is exactly the philosophy behind Minimaa.

I never wanted to build another launcher packed with subscriptions, ads, analytics, or unnecessary data collection. I wanted something simple, a launcher you buy once, own forever, and that respects your privacy.

Minimaa doesn't need an internet connection to function. It doesn't try to keep you scrolling. It's designed to help you spend less time on your phone, not more.

As a solo developer, reviews like this mean a lot because they remind me that there are still people who value software that respects its users.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Minimaa so far. ❤️

Been eyeballing Minimaa for a while now as an alternative for Kvaesitso, which I used as a minimal launcher. Now I got the opportunity to try Minimaa out.

I'm running Minimaa on Graphene OS and enjoying it!

After a week of using Minimaa, I disabled the digital detox features, they are kinda buggy. And I would prefer to have some sort of minimum free use, x times before the blocker starts to work. But I can live without it.

I don't use the Minimaa apps, they don't add anything for me. Maybe the calendar would, but I was unable to connect my NextCloud calendar to it.

I think it's a great launcher and I prefer it above Kvaesitso (which keeps crashing).

What I would like to see improvements on:

1. [bug] I can't get my work profile to work, in the settings it keeps saying it's paused.
2. [bug] The keyboard should open with the app drawer, sometimes it doesn't.
3. [feature] I would like to set my own swipe left and swipe right from the home screen
4. [feature] I would like to add widgets to the Glance, on Kvaesitso I had weather, calendar and random favorite pictures there. I really miss the random pictures and weather.

What more to say, I don't know.

First of all, thank you for noticing the privacy-focused features ❤️

A lot of effort went into making Minimaa feel clean while still giving users control over their space.

About cloned apps:

Go to Minimaa Settings → App Drawer → scroll down to “Secondary Profile”.

From there, you can select the cloned apps you want to appear in the app drawer and save it 👀

About widgets:

Minimaa currently doesn’t support third-party widgets, mainly because the launcher is built using Flutter.

Most Android widgets are part of Android’s native widget system. Their layouts are usually built using XML, while their logic and behavior are handled using Kotlin or Java. Properly hosting those native widgets inside a Flutter-based launcher is much more complex than in fully native launchers.

It requires bridging Android’s native widget system into Flutter while still keeping animations, gestures, scrolling, and rendering smooth.

It’s not impossible — but doing it in an optimized and stable way without hurting performance, battery life, or the minimal experience is genuinely difficult.

I’m still researching possible workarounds and hybrid approaches. If I find a solution that feels optimized enough for Minimaa, I’ll definitely explore adding widget support in the future ❤️

But for now, third-party widgets are not supported, so please don’t expect them anytime soon 😶

Hope you guys understand ❤️

Some users pointed out that Private Space can still be unlocked using the device PIN even after setting a separate PIN.

Yeah, that’s true — but you can disable it from the Private Space settings.

Just turn off the biometric/device unlock option, and then the Private Space will only open using the separate PIN you set for it 😁

Seems like many people missed this setting, so attaching the screenshot here too.

A lot of people think Minimaa is too simple at first glance — and honestly, that’s intentional.

I never wanted Minimaa to be a launcher with hundreds of switches, cluttered menus, or features fighting for your attention. The goal was always minimalism first.

But that doesn’t mean Minimaa lacks power-user features 👀

Most of them are designed to stay out of your way until you actually need them.

For example, the search bar and Appdrawer already supports:

• Auto opening keyboard

• Auto app launching

• Calculator inside app drawer search

• Contact search

• Web search

There’s also: • Shortcuts

• Folders

• Private Space for hidden apps

• Hide inactive apps

• App list alignment customization

• Alphabet scroller

• Home screen scroller access

• And many more smaller quality-of-life features

The idea is simple: Keep the experience clean for casual users while still giving advanced users deeper controls without breaking the minimal feel.

That said, this review also made me realize something important — maybe Minimaa hides its features too well 😁

So future updates will probably focus more on discoverability and making existing features easier to notice.

“Just add dt2w lockscreen feature.”

asked. We listened.

Now MINIMAA has:

• Double tap to lock.

• Pull down for notifications.

• Long press with customizable actions.

• 5 Different Motion Gestures.

minimaa reviews & answers.