The guide

Everything Orbital does and the settings behind it, in roughly the order you'll meet them. Anything marked ✦ is part of Orbital Premium.

Getting started

Set Orbital as your home app and it will offer to fill the dock from your default apps and the ones you open most. Nothing changes until you accept. Orbital doesn't ask for any permissions up front: each feature asks when you first use it, and anything you decline simply stays off.

Three gestures get you everywhere. Hold an empty part of the home screen to arrange it, with Widgets, the clock, the wallpaper and Settings on a ring around your thumb. Swipe up for the app drawer, and swipe sideways to move between pages.

The dock

The dock keeps your favorite apps under your thumb. Its settings live under Settings → Orbital Dock, in three tabs: Shape, What is on it, and Other apps.

Style

The orbit

Apps ride an ellipse along the edge of the screen. Turn it with a thumb and tap what comes round to the front. Its shape can be Flat, Oval, Tall, Circle or Full orbit.

Flat

A straight row of icons along an edge. Down either side it stands up as a column.

Container

A card that holds a few apps and scrolls for the rest, placed left, center or right along its edge. The rest of that edge can hold nothing, frosted glass, more apps, quick controls, the clock or your battery.

Orbit Pad ✦

One small button that opens your dock's apps in rings around your thumb. Hold it, slide onto an app and let go. It works on the home screen and inside other apps.

Dock Menu

A small pill under the status bar that opens into a card of your apps. You can hide it in the apps you choose.

Nothing

No dock at all, so the whole screen is your page. You can still reach every app with a swipe up.

Where it sits

Anchored to

The bottom, the top, or either side.

Position, size, icon size, icon spacing

Where it sits along its edge, how far it reaches, and how much room each app gets.

Sensitivity, snap to slots, snap strength

How far a drag turns the orbit, whether it settles on each app or spins freely, and how firmly it settles.

Orbit when idle, wind back when idle

The orbit can drift slowly on its own, and return to where it started after a few seconds.

Keep icons upright

If your phone rotates, only the icons turn.

Names

Every icon, just the one in the middle, or none.

What is on it

The dock holds

Apps, or Drawer mode ✦: the dock becomes a letter scroller, and the apps for the letter in the middle appear just above it, either on a card of their own or gliding in on their own. It works on the orbit, the flat row and the container.

Orbital's own buttons

A slot that opens the app drawer, one that opens the settings, and a pencil for edit mode.

More orbits ✦

Up to three. The extra orbits can sit behind the first until you drag outward from an icon, or out at the edges. Orbital can fill the second and third from the apps you use most.

Dynamic dock

Fills the dock with the apps you open most and can put your three most recent apps on the end. Anything you pin stays put. Needs usage access.

Over other apps

The dock can stay with you while you use other apps. When you're not touching it, it rests as a slim handle, along the side, or as the dock itself, and it slides out the moment you reach for it. It can sit in the same place as on your home screen or in a place of its own, and you can keep it out of any apps you choose. This needs permission to draw over other apps, and it is free for everyone.

Home layouts

Under Settings → Home screen, choose how your home screen works. Switching never moves anything: your pages stay exactly as you arranged them.

Traditional pages

Pages of apps and widgets side by side, with the dock underneath. Add pages to the left, right, above or below, and name each one.

Free roam ✦

One open canvas you can move in any direction. Spread two fingers to open the folder under them, or to start a new one right there. Pinch to step back out, or at the top level to gather everything on a page into a folder. Drop one widget on another to make a folder of the two. Each folder shows a small picture of its first page on its cover, and inside it is a home screen of its own.

Drawer ✦

Every app on the home screen itself, as a grid or a list. Hold the background to add widgets; they sit at the top of the list, or at the bottom if you'd rather.

Orbit Pad ✦

Hold the pad where your thumb rests and every app orbits around it: your dock's apps on the first ring, your most used and newest apps on the second, and everything else further out. Slide onto an app and let go to open it, reach outward to pull the outer rings in, and slide along a ring to spin it. The first time, Orbital asks where your thumb rests. Choose faded or solid rings, apps arranged for you or A to Z, how big the icons are, and how quickly the rings spin and reach. You can have up to three pads, each with apps of its own, and a pad can sit inside another.

Showcase ✦

Large tiles in a row across the screen, recent apps first, over a backdrop in the color of the app in focus. Shelves hold your recent and pinned apps, games, music, your own collections and your library; under the focused tile are the app's shortcuts, and playback controls when it is playing. Widget bays below hold any of Orbital's widgets in small, medium or tall sizes, and a header greets you with the weather and your next event. The backdrop can follow the app, the theme, your wallpaper or what's playing. It works with a game controller or keyboard too.

On Free roam a small compass appears while you move around. It shows which folder you're in, how deep, and where you are on its canvas. Tap it to open a map of every level and jump straight to any of them.

Arranging your pages

Hold the background, or tap the pencil on the dock, to start arranging. The page steps back and its edges are drawn faintly so you can see where things will land. Tap a widget to choose it, drag it to move it, and drag an edge or corner to resize it. The chosen widget has a row of chips to lock it, resize it, or open its own settings. Drag it to the bin at the top to remove it, or hold it at the edge of the screen to carry it to the next page. Done keeps your changes and Cancel puts everything back.

Icon size, names under them

How large app shortcuts are on the page, and whether they're labeled.

Page marks

Dots, named tabs ✦, or nothing, along whichever edge you like. Tap a page's name while arranging to rename it.

Page turns

Swipe, or Fade and Flip ✦.

Lock the layout

Nothing on your pages moves, though you can still add new things.

Line up on a grid

Widgets snap into place when you let go, on a grid from coarse to fine.

The clock

Face, size, weight, color, position, alignment, the date beneath it, seconds, and 24-hour time.

“Add to Home screen”

When Chrome, Maps, Contacts or another app offers to add a shortcut or widget, Orbital places it on the page in front of you.

Widgets

Hold the background and choose Widgets. Orbital has twenty-one of its own, and any widget from any app on your phone can go right beside them.

How widgets look

The panel behind each widget is yours to style: a card, bracketed corners, ruled lines, frosted glass, a solid block or nothing at all, with its own corner radius, opacity, edge and shadow. Text inside widgets has its own size setting, which themes leave alone.

Look & feel

Themes

Picking a theme sets everything below at once, and anything you change afterwards stays changed. Orbital also offers to adapt your layout to the theme you've picked, and Revert to previous layout puts it back. Without Premium, you can try any theme on your own home screen for a minute.

Android

As the phone came.

Orbital

Mint on deep space, with an orbit that drifts on its own. The theme Orbital starts with.

Sleek

Monochrome and stripped back, with the orbit down the right-hand edge.

Classic

Familiar and simple, with a row of apps along the bottom.

Large Print

High contrast, a bold clock, and every app named.

Minimal

Muted icons, the hours over the minutes, and nothing extra.

Match my wallpaper

Takes its colors from your wallpaper, and changes when the wallpaper does.

Dusk ✦

Warm amber over plum.

Professional ✦

Restrained blue and square corners, with the drawer as a list.

Cybernetic ✦

Cyan on black, and a pulse that crosses the screen.

Galactic ✦

Violet nebula, with nothing labeled.

Terminal ✦

Monospaced phosphor green, with scan lines, named tabs and a list drawer.

Tiles ✦

Square tiles edge to edge on a flat dock, with live tiles that turn over.

Honeycomb ✦

Every app a hexagon, laid in a honeycomb, in warm honey gold.

Glass ✦

Frosted panels, and the wallpaper left to show through.

Cupertino ✦

Graphite and blue, with a row of apps at the foot.

Slate ✦

Bright white widgets and full-color app icons with their names.

Daylight ✦

Bright and soft, with dark lettering on light panels.

Blossom ✦

Blush and cream, with dark lettering and a serif hand.

Rose Gold ✦

Rose gold on warm charcoal, lettered in serif.

Lilac ✦

Soft lavender over a deep violet night.

Silk ✦

Champagne on midnight, with the drawer as a list.

Sage ✦

Sage green and oat, with every app on the dock named.

Fluid ✦

Teal and indigo, with a light running round every card.

Bubble ✦

Soft pinks on plum, and everything on the screen round.

Off Grid ✦

Red neon on black, with every card traced in glowing light.

Forcefield ✦

Electric blue hexagons, with a shield of energy pulsing behind your apps.

Gravity ✦

Violet starlight on deep space, with every app in rings around your thumb.

Marquee ✦

Warm gold on velvet black, built around the Showcase.

Gallery ✦

Gallery white and charcoal, built around the Showcase.

Efficient ✦

Calm slate and one clear blue, with everything in reach and nothing in the way.

Your phone's colors ✦

Follows your wallpaper's palette and your light or dark setting, on Android 12 and later.

Icons

Shape ✦

As the app made it, squircle, circle, rounded square, square, tiled, or hexagon. Tiled icons fill their whole square with the app's name across the foot; hexagons stand on a point and fit together as a honeycomb on your pages and in the app list.

Style ✦

Original, flat, in the theme's colors, or in two colors of your own.

Icon set

Orbital's own Basic icons or any icon pack from the Play Store, free for everyone. Each app can also keep its own icon, match the rest, take one from a pack, or use one you pick.

Each free theme comes with an icon shape and style of its own.

Everything else

Color ✦

Keep the theme's accent, or pick one of eight named colors (green, blue, red, orange, yellow, purple, black or white) with a single slider to fine-tune it.

Lettering and shape ✦

The font (your phone's own, Sans, Serif, Monospace or Terminal), how round the corners are, and capitals for labels and headings.

Over the whole screen ✦

Glow, scan lines, a slow pulse of light up the screen, a light running round every card, or Matrix: glyphs falling behind every widget.

The orbit ✦

The notches around it and the line the apps ride.

Wallpaper

Dim it as much as you like, at the top, the bottom, both ends or evenly.

Motion

Off, Brisk, Normal or Relaxed, for every animation in the launcher, plus haptics with a strength of their own. Free for everyone.

The app drawer

Swipe up anywhere on the home screen. The drawer can slide in from the bottom, the top or either side, and be laid out as a grid, a list, or rows, with the columns and icon size you want. Down one edge is the alphabet: drag it and the list follows your thumb.

Orbital Assistant at the top

The search line reads what you type as you type it. An app name finds the app, a sum shows its answer, and an errand like “text mom running late” shows what it will do, with a button to do it.

Order

By name, or by what you actually open. Without usage access, Orbital counts the apps you open from Orbital.

Recently installed

Your newest apps first, above the rest.

The search bar

At the top, or at the bottom just above the keyboard. It searches your apps and, once you allow it, your contacts.

Hidden apps

Off the list, but still found by searching.

Across on the open screen

More apps per row when a foldable is open.

The glance hub

One line inside the orbit that shows what matters right now: your notifications, what's playing, your next event or reminder, the weather, and your battery when it's charging or running low. Choose which of these appear, how long each one stays, and whether they're ordered by relevance, by how often you use them, or in an order of your own. Favorite apps and contacts can jump the queue.

Notifications

The newest message

Who wrote last and what they said, across the top of the screen, from any messaging app or only the ones you choose.

Notification dots

A mark on dock icons that have something waiting.

Swipe down

Can open your notifications, the glance, or Ask Orbital.

Your own notes

Every note can also appear as a silent notification, and tapping Done on it deletes the note.

These need notification access, which you grant in your phone's settings and can turn off there at any time.

Orbital Assistant

Type an everyday errand and Ask Orbital handles it: texts, calls, emails, calendar events, notes and to-dos, reminders and alarms, sums, directions, web searches and voice. It always shows you what it's about to do and waits for you to confirm. Start a line with “todo” or “later” and it asks when to remind you, or try “clear Friday” to see that day's events with a way to remove each one.

Shortcut marks

Start a line with one of these to go straight to what you want:

@ Text

Message someone.

+ Event

Add something to your calendar.

- Note

Write a note.

* Reminder

Set a reminder.

^ Open

Open an app.

# Call

Call a number or a contact.

& To-do

Add a to-do.

Where to find it

At the top of the app drawer

On, always offering to ask, or off.

On your home screen

With a swipe down, or as a widget on any page.

As your phone's assistant

Choose Orbital in Android's settings and the assist gesture or button opens it over whatever you're doing.

From any app, with a slash

On a phone with a keyboard, type / anywhere to open it. This uses an accessibility service, is off until you turn it on, and asks first.

Settings

Put events straight in

Adds events without opening the calendar app. Without permission to do that, it opens your calendar with everything filled in.

Where notes go

A note widget on the page you're on, Google Keep, or both. See the privacy policy for what that sends.

Command prompt look ✦

Draws the assistant as a console window.

When it can't read a line

Most lines are understood right on your phone, and anything else becomes a web search. With Premium ✦ you can add your own key for Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini instead; only that line and the date and time are sent.

Foldables

Unfolding gives Orbital a screen about twice as wide. You decide what to do with it:

Same layout

The folded screen's arrangement, shown as two pages side by side (recommended) or as one wide page.

A layout of its own ✦

Each screen gets its own pages, widgets, dock and settings. Orbital shows a picture of each, and either can be arranged whichever way the phone is open.

With a layout of its own, a change you make in settings reaches only the screen in your hand. Turn syncing on and changes reach both, with an undo for the screen you're not looking at.

Accessibility & Kids mode

Large Print

The highest-contrast theme, with a bold clock and every app named. Its page can set your home screen up with your dock's apps as large labeled buttons. Free for everyone.

Motion

Slow things down, speed them up, or turn animation off. Free for everyone.

Screen readers

Undo messages and changes are announced as they happen.

Kids mode ✦

A simple home screen with just the apps you choose, shown large and labeled in three columns, and locked behind a PIN or pattern.

Keyboard phones

Start typing on the home screen to find an app, or to start a line for Ask Orbital with one of the shortcut marks. Hotkeys cover everyday actions, a touchpad swipe turns one page, and slider phones can keep the home screen upright.

Backups & starting over

Save a backup

Every setting, your dock, your pages and your widgets, in one file you keep. Saving and restoring are free for everyone.

Hotkey Layouts ✦

Save whole home screens as layouts, each with an icon such as Work, Home, Car, Gym, Travel or Night, and switch between them in one tap.

Save this layout to share ✦

Your arrangement without anything personal written on it, with a list of exactly what's included before it's saved.

Load a layout

Replaces your pages, widgets and dock. Orbital lists what will change first, and keeps a copy of what it replaced so you can put it back.

Putting things back

If Orbital ever has to reset a home screen after repeated crashes, This phone offers to restore it.

Restore defaults

Clears your settings, docks and home screen. Your assistant key and saved backups stay.

Orbital Premium

Orbital is free, and the free version is a complete launcher: every dock style on any edge, drawer mode, the dock over other apps, eight themes, up to twelve Traditional pages, everyday widgets, icon packs, backups, the app drawer, Ask Orbital and every accessibility setting.

Orbital Premium adds everything marked ✦ in this guide: the other themes and your phone's colors, the Free roam, Drawer, Orbit Pad and Showcase layouts, up to three orbits and styles for drawer mode, your own colors, fonts and effects, icon shapes and styles, page tabs and page turns, the Premium widgets, Hotkey Layouts, shareable layouts, Kids mode, answers from Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini with your own key, a separate layout for a foldable's big screen, and the Command prompt look. It's available monthly, yearly with a 7-day free trial, or as a one-time purchase.

If a subscription ends, Orbital goes back to the free look without deleting anything. Your choices are kept, and they return the moment Premium does.

Every gesture

Swipe up

The app drawer.

Swipe down

Nothing, the glance, Ask Orbital, or your notifications.

Swipe sideways

The next page. Up and down too, where you've added pages there.

Hold the background

Start arranging, with Widgets, the clock, the wallpaper and Settings close at hand.

Pinch

Start arranging, if you prefer. On Free roam, pinch steps out of a folder.

Spread two fingers

On Free roam, open the folder underneath, or start a new one.

Double-tap the background

Turns the screen off, if you switch that on.

Turn the dock

Drag along it. Drag outward from an icon to bring out the orbits behind it.

Hold an app

Everything you can do with it: open it, pin it in place, hide it, rename it, its own shortcuts, or uninstall it.

This guide describes Orbital as it is today. New features arrive regularly, and the search in Orbital's own settings always has the latest.