Almanac
Launcher
Book Uber
Drive to Airport
Huberman Labs
Office Party Planning
The phone interface
built for AI assistance
CALENDAR EVENTS
...
Zoom meeting with Sam
19:30
Flight to San Francisco
21:30
...
TO-DO
...
Pack training shoes to SF
Prepare Q1 presentation
...
LOCATION ACTION TRIGGERED
...
Distance to Airport
12 KM
Relevant Apps
Uber, Google Maps
...
SEARCH ACTION TRIGGERED
...
Restaurant Guide San Francisco.pdf
SF Boarding Pass.pdf
...
Phone Interface
How can we enhance phone interactions?
Phones are the most personal devices we own, practically extensions of ourselves. They hold rich contextual information, including calendar events, location, media playback, notifications, notes, to-do lists, files, and much more. Yet, the way we interact with them has largely remained unchanged: unlock the phone, choose an app, and perform a task.
With the advancements in AI, we have the opportunity to rethink this interaction. All the contextual information can be leveraged to infer the user's needs and assist them, from simple tasks to complex workflows. But the traditional phone interface is not designed for such interactions. Existing AI assistants are essentially chatbots on top of the phone interface with very limited set of capabilities.
Almanac Launcher takes a different approach, it enhances the phone interface with dynamic elements generated by an AI that is deeply integrated to access the contextual information on the device. This allows the AI to visually communicate with users, proactively surface actions and run background tasks based on their needs and requests.
With the advancements in AI, we have the opportunity to rethink this interaction. All the contextual information can be leveraged to infer the user's needs and assist them, from simple tasks to complex workflows. But the traditional phone interface is not designed for such interactions. Existing AI assistants are essentially chatbots on top of the phone interface with very limited set of capabilities.
Almanac Launcher takes a different approach, it enhances the phone interface with dynamic elements generated by an AI that is deeply integrated to access the contextual information on the device. This allows the AI to visually communicate with users, proactively surface actions and run background tasks based on their needs and requests.
User Experience
Scenario - Imagine you have to catch a flight in a few hours
Book Uber
Drive to Airport
Huberman Labs
Office Party Planning
Communication
A dynamic interface dedicated for the AI to communicate short messages, reminders and notifications with the user.
Book Uber
Drive to Airport
Huberman Labs
Office Party Planning
Semantic Search
Calendar events, notes, to-do lists, shared files, location, are all put together to retrieve relevant information.
Book Uber
Drive to Airport
Huberman Labs
Office Party Planning
Actions
Dynamic elements that are generated by the AI to surface relevant actions from apps and services based on the context.
Book Uber
Drive to Airport
Huberman Labs
Office Party Planning
Proactive Execution
With a semantic understanding of user needs, tasks such as document search are performed in the background automagically.
FAQ
Answers from the human behind the AI
What is a Launcher?
In the Android OS, a launcher is a special app that is responsible for providing the user interface when you unlock the device. It displays the home screen, it can host interactive widgets, app shortcuts, and allows you to launch other apps.
Almanac launcher goes beyond the basic functionality by integrating AI directly into the launcher. The AI is able to access contextual information, interact with the user and perform useful actions on its own.
How is Almanac different from other Android Launchers?
Unlike most Android launchers, which are based on Launcher3 from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) by Google, Almanac Launcher is built from scratch.
This distinction is crucial for developing a dynamic interface and enabling deep AI integration to access contextual information on the device without being constrained by Launcher3's technical and architectural limitations.
How can users access Almanac Launcher?
Alamanac Launcher would be available for Android on the Google Play Store. Users can download and install it like any other app.
Once installed, the user would be prompted to set Almanac Launcher as the default launcher. This would allow Almanac Launcher to be the default interface when the user unlocks the device.
Is an iOS version on the roadmap?
Our initial focus is on Android due to its open nature, which allows third parties to redesign the home screen experience. iOS on the other hand is more restrictive.
However, recent additions to iOS such as interactive widgets on the home screen could provide a gateway for a future iOS version that could offer a similar experience.
What is the status of the project?
The project is currently in its intermediary stages with a functioning Android prototype. The foundation of the launcher with its unique user interface is mostly complete. We are currently working on creating the inteface layer for the AI which would allow it to interact with the Android OS and the user.
The phone screens showcased in this website are close representations of the current prototype.
What is the monetization strategy?
The tentative plan is to offer Almanac launcher as a freemium app with a limited set of features, this allows us to grow the user base quickly and create an early feedback loop to test out new features. Users can then purchase a subscription to unlock the full set of capabilities.
In the long term, we also plan to form strategic partnerships with phone manufacturers allowing deeper integration with the OS, shipping Almanac Launcher as the default launcher on their devices with a licensing model.
What about data privacy?
The core motivation behind Almanac launcher is to enhance the way we interact with our phones, the real value lies in its ability to make sense of contextual information and perform relevant actions.
At the same time, we understand that the information on the phone is sensitive. Therefore, we plan to employ various technologies such as anonymization, end-to-end encryption, on-device machine learning, and data obfuscation to name a few. This is an active area of research, and we are constantly exploring new ways to enhance data privacy.