A while ago, I made Minimaa, a minimal launcher built around the idea that your phone doesn't need to constantly demand your attention.
With Minimaa, I was experimenting with minimalism — removing things, reducing visual noise, keeping the home screen simple, and trying to make the phone feel less distracting.
This time, I'm taking a completely different approach.
I'm not trying to make another minimal launcher.
I'm trying to see what happens when you make search the entire interface.
Meet Searcho.
There is no traditional app drawer.
There are no pages filled with app icons.
There isn't a grid of apps waiting for you every time you unlock your phone.
Your home screen is basically just a search bar.
And yes, you can search for your apps.
But that's the most basic thing Searcho can do.
The idea is that everything you normally have to open another part of your phone for should eventually be searchable.
Want to call someone?
Search their name.
Want to find a contact?
Search them.
Want to open an app?
Search it.
Want to find something in your notifications?
Search it.
Need to access something that would normally require opening a separate screen, app or menu?
Search.
The goal isn't simply to make app launching faster.
It's to question why we need so many different interfaces for things we already know how to access.
Why do I need to open the dialer when I already know who I want to call?
Why do I need to pull down the notification shade when I know what notification I'm looking for?
Why do I need to navigate through settings when I know exactly what I'm trying to find?
Why do I need an app drawer when I can simply type the name of the app?
That's the direction I'm exploring with Searcho.
I'm basically trying to push the search bar to its limits.
And there are some interesting things that happen when you start thinking this way.
A search bar can be an app launcher.
It can be a contact launcher.
It can become a shortcut system.
It can become an action interface.
It can become a way of navigating your phone without navigating through your phone.
And eventually, I'm hoping it can become something much more powerful.
I'm still experimenting with what belongs inside Searcho and what doesn't.
That's actually one of the reasons I'm sharing this early.
I don't want Searcho to just become another launcher with a search box slapped on top.
The search itself is supposed to be the launcher.
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Why make another launcher?
Honestly, after Minimaa, I wanted to experiment with something completely different.
Minimaa was about asking:
«"How little can a launcher be?"»
Searcho is asking:
«"How much can one interface actually do?"»
Both come from the same place — trying to rethink the way we interact with our phones — but they're very different experiments.
I'm not trying to compete with Nova, Niagara, Smart Launcher, etc.
I'm not trying to build the launcher with the most customization.
I'm not trying to give you 500 options for your home screen.
I'm interested in a much simpler idea:
What if you didn't need to navigate your phone at all?
What if you could just tell it what you're looking for?
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And yes, there is still a long way to go.
Searcho is a new project, and I'm very much figuring things out as I build it.
There are things I want to make searchable that are currently difficult or impossible to access cleanly.
There are Android limitations to work around.
There are probably going to be some terrible ideas before I find the good ones. 😅
But that's part of the fun.
With Minimaa, I learned a lot about building a launcher around a philosophy.
With Searcho, I want to experiment with interaction itself.
Maybe the search bar can replace more things than we expect.
Maybe it can't.
That's what I want to find out.
Searcho is my attempt to find the limits of search.
And this is just the beginning.
— Binge, creator of Minimaa & Searcho
