One of the best parts about using Android is the good old-fashioned geeky fun that comes with finding new ways to improve your digital environment — and improve your day-to-day efficiency.

That capability manifests itself in all sorts of interesting freedoms that (cough, cough) other mobile platforms don’t trust their users enough to allow — from added on-screen elements to custom air gestures, advanced multitasking additions, and all sorts of other shape-shifting enhancements that can completely change the way you interact with your device.

Perhaps the most classic example of advanced Android customization, though, is a splendid little somethin’ called the home screen launcher — a fancy way of saying the system that controls how your home screen and app drawer look and work. Your phone has a built-in process that handles that by default, but here in the land o’ Googley matters, you can always replace that with something completely different and make your device adapt to the way you like to work instead of the other way around.

We’ve got no shortage of interesting Android launcher options, too, ranging from versatile blank slates for complete customization to carefully crafted frameworks for ergonomic efficiency and even throwbacks to mobile operating systems past.

The real beauty of this ecosystem, though, is how much power it gives to Android developers — and subsequently to us, as Android-appreciating animals who embrace these creations! — to experiment and try out all sorts of new concepts. Sometimes, an Android launcher approach speaks to you for its practicality. Other times, it’s just a refreshingly interesting take on how you can get around your phone and get stuff done.

Today, I’ve got a perfect example to share with you. It’s a whole new approach to the Android home screen that’s both unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in this arena and delightfully familiar, in a retro-tech sense.

Lemme show ya what it’s all about.

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The T9 Android launcher — with a modern twist

My friend and fellow enlightened Android phone owner, allow me to introduce you to a creative little concoction called Key Launcher.

Key Launcher has only been out and available on the Play Store for a matter of weeks now, but it’s impressively polished — and, even more important, impressively original while also having some fantastic geek-tech throwback vibes.

To that end, the core distinctive element of Key Launcher is the T9-style dialpad that sits front and center on the lower third of its primary panel. It is quite literally the same set of letter-packin’ numbers and characters you’d see on an old-school phone — or in the dialer of your favorite Android phone app.

And in this context, it serves some pretty interesting purposes:

• In true T9 style, you can find and access any app or contact on your phone simply by tapping the letter that corresponds with its name — and if you want to narrow down the list even further, you can keep typing letters to refine the results.
• You can long-press any number to create and then access a custom “super shortcut” — anything from a single specific action (opening a particular app or calling or texting a certain contact) to launching a group or category of apps or contacts, launching an on-demand pop-up widget or swipeable stack of widgets, or even launching a pre-filled search query.

JR Raphael, Foundry

• If you tap the # key (known as “pound” in this context — not “hashtag” — for any non-olds among us), you can set up and then access a special “vault” area, where apps are hidden and only visible and accessible with authentication.
• And, in an especially nifty touch, you can also just use the dialpad as an actual dialpad — to punch in any number you want to text or call, even if it isn’t already in your contacts.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Function-packed as all of that may be, that dialpad is still just one piece of the Key Launcher puzzle. Above it sits a grid of app shortcuts that includes both your own pinned favorites and a dynamic selection of recently opened items. And above that is a handy built-in widget that shows a rotating array of upcoming calendar events from your agenda along with the local time and weather — and, in an especially neat twist, can also be customized to act as an interactive stack that lets you flip through your own set of standard Android widgets right then and there as well.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Speaking of widgets, if you swipe toward the left on Key Launcher’s dialpad, you’ll reveal the launcher’s built-in “Widget Center” panel — which is an entire screen dedicated to holding however many widgets you want, in any configuration you like, for easy ongoing access.

JR Raphael, Foundry

A swipe in the other direction will take you to an enlarged view of your active notifications, meanwhile, while a swipe downward can be set to launch either a quick search (of Google or whatever provider you prefer), a search of your apps, or a direct Android app shortcut within any app on your device.

JR Raphael, Foundry

And if all of that seems like a lot of productivity-boosting possibilities, just wait ’til you get into this thing’s settings. Key Launcher is overflowing with options to customize and control practically every facet of its operation, ranging from basic visuals to the specifics of how the dialpad works and even a toggle for optimizing the interface for left- or right-handed use.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Key Launcher is free on its base level with an optional Pro upgrade that unlocks certain limitations and more advanced features. That path is available for five bucks a year or $10 as a single lifetime purchase, and you get a month-long trial the first time you install the app so you can check it out in its full form.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Even if you just stick to the free version, though, this thing has an awful lot to offer — and it really is unlike anything else out there, with so many clever and potentially useful touches.

It’s that kind of creativity and constant discovery that keeps Android so interesting and advantageous, even after all this time — and that’s true whether you end up sticking with Key Launcher for the long haul or just giving it a go for a few hours and appreciating the deliciously original thinking it offers.

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Over the past decade, there’s something I’ve hinted at, mentioned in passing as a part of broader discussions, and told more people than I can count privately via email and other one-on-one conversations.

And now, as the writer of the internet’s longest-standing Android column and newsletter — a fancy way of saying someone who is apparently now old as molasses — I feel like I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t just come out and say it as prominently and plainly as possible:

There is no valid reason anyone should be buying Motorola Android devices in 2026. None.

It’s a shame, too, ’cause Motorola has a heck of a history within Android and the mobile realm in general. And, to its credit, the company does still make some impressive-looking and at times quite interesting hardware.

But the compromises that come with that package are just too serious and consequential to be forgiven. That’s been the case for some time now, truth be told — but with yet another facepalm-inducing infraction being added onto the list now, it’s time to say it loud and clear:

Please stop buying Motorola Android phones. And please join me in telling everyone you know the same thing. 

Trust me: You’ll be doing them a major favor. And here, with no punches pulled and absolutely no sugarcoating, is exactly why.

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The Motorola Android compromise: Part I

I won’t beat around the bush: The most pressing reason Motorola Android phones are completely inadvisable to buy is the reason that’s been present for the longest — and that’s the company’s complete and utter disregard for even minimally acceptable post-sales software support.

It’s something I’ve noted in my data-based Android Upgrade Report Cards for more years than I can even remember at this point, and it’s almost comically consistent: Year after year, upgrade cycle after upgrade cycle, Motorola simply does not give a damn about investing the time or the money to bring current Android versions to its existing customers in anything close to a timely manner. Once you’ve forked over your phone and put away your wallet, good luck: You’ll be lucky if you get a single software update from Motorola after that, half a year to a year after the fact — and you almost certainly won’t hear a single peep from the company about the progress (or lack thereof) at any point along the way.

Motorola has managed to score an almost impressive number of back-to-back “F” scores on my annual analyses; no other Android device maker even comes close to that record. And lest you think this is purely about pokiness in providing polish and surface-level progress, remember that practically every Android software update is packed with critically important changes around privacy, security, and performance — and the way apps are able to interact with both your data and your hardware.

Running outdated software isn’t just dangerous — it’s downright irresponsible, especially if you’re a professional using your phone for business purposes but even if you’re just a regular ol’ schmoe focused purely on personal stuff. No one who understands a thing about security would ever recommend that, and that’s exactly what you’re signing up for anytime you buy a Motorola-made device.

So that’s part one, and that’s the biggest problem with Motorola’s Android products. But it isn’t the end of this tale nor the reason I was finally moved to write this missive, with the hopes that it’d eventually reach any Android-interested phone-buyers with Motorola on their minds.

Motorola’s more recent Android offenses

All update-related issues aside, the problem with Motorola’s Android products is that they make all sorts of compromises that are all about lining Motorola’s pockets at the expense of your experience.

The most recent example and the straw that broke the Android columnist’s (increasingly creaky) back is the new discovery that Motorola had seemingly been indirectly hijacking the Amazon app on its devices and sneakily injecting an affiliate code into links. The end result of such actions, according to observations published this week, is generating unearned revenue from your day-to-day purchases.

That’s an underhanded and shady-seeming practice, to say the very least. It just feels icky and ethically reckless. And clearly, what was demonstrated was intended to go unnoticed, which is always a pretty apparent sign in my mind that someone’s doing something shifty.

Following the discovery and subsequent outcry, Moto released a statement saying that the behavior was “unintended” and the result of its partnership with a company called Device Native. According to Moto, it had teamed up with that organization to develop “an app search and suggestion experience for the Moto App Launcher.” You can choose to interpret that how you will, but the reality is that Device Native is a company that exists to inject personalized, native-seeming ads directly into the core Android software experience, as its website plainly establishes — with “no user opt-in required,” allowing for easier “scale” of “monetization globally.”

Device Native / JR Raphael, Foundry

On some level, at least, Motorola evidently decided to work with this company and integrate its ad technology into the Android experience on its phones. Regardless of whether the Amazon code injection was truly deliberate, which organization caused it to happen, and who was or wasn’t aware of the actions, Motorola opted to place this ad-serving system into the phones it was selling and to allow the company behind it to exert this kind of control over its customers’ experiences — as well as, one would imagine, likely leaning on it for other forms of invasive system-level ad integration.

And sure, maybe Moto will back down from this practice and perhaps even distance itself from the partnership entirely if the outrage grows loud enough. But does someone stopping a shady-seeming practice simply because they got caught and people complained make for the kind of company you want to trust in general?

It’s similar to the way Moto lards up its devices with so much preinstalled bloatware that you actually have to fight to get through it or — Goog forbid — remove it and reclaim the product you paid hundreds of dollars to purchase. Heck, even the company’s top-of-the-line, nearly $2,000 folding Razr Fold phone is guilty of this sin, and that’s just embarrassing for a device of that price and caliber.

Even with Motorola’s lower-level phones, though, we’re talking about devices that often cost $500 or close to that. These aren’t bottom-of-the-barrel, heavily subsidized garbage gadgets. You could get one of Google’s Pixel 10a phones for that same price or often even less — without any of the bloatware, the link-hijacking and potential ad-injecting shenanigans, or the unforgivable software support failures. You’d get a full seven years of guaranteed timely and reliable software updates, from major Android versions to monthly security patches and the quarterly feature drops that accompany those. And that’s to say nothing of the superior camera experience and other assorted advantages.

You could go with one of Samsung’s midrange models, too, imperfect as those are in their own ways, and it’d still be a massive step up from the Motorola madness.

We’ve reached a point where there really is just no comparison — and, again, no reason why anyone should be buying a Motorola phone anymore. The issue, unfortunately, is that most of the people who are buying Moto devices are the same people who aren’t reading columns like these. They’re the people who waltz into a carrier store, see whatever model is featured on the shelf or pushed by a commission-earning, partnership-promoting salesperson, and walk out with whatever caught their eye or had the best promotional pricing on that particular day.

Make no mistake about it: These types of devices give Android a bad name and propagate the myth of the entire platform being a second-rate dumping ground for “folks who can’t afford iPhones.” Android is so much more and so much better than that. You deserve so much better than that.

Plain and simple, this isn’t the Motorola of yesterday. At this point, there’s no excuse — and no reason to keep setting yourself up for failure when so many better options exist.

Say goodbye, Moto. And make sure everyone you know who won’t be reading this column knows why they should do the same.

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Google’s shiny new Android 17 update may be on the brink of making its way out into world, but one of the most consequential Android notification upgrades I’ve seen in ages is actually available for anyone, on any device, this instant.

It’s one of those things you don’t even realize is missing — and awkwardly has been, all this time — until you have it in front of you and see just how helpful and at times even invaluable it is.

And that’s the ability to have any or all of your notifications saved and restored whenever you restart whatever Android device you’re using — so that nothing important gets awkwardly tossed aside, lost, and forgotten, likely without your ever even noticing or being aware of what you’ve missed.

How many potentially important pending alerts have you lost as a result of that reboot trash chute? I couldn’t even begin to count, myself, and am slightly terrified to think of the answer. But with this easy new improvement in place, it’ll never happen again.

And best of all? It’ll take you roughly two minutes, once, to set up and then forget about and just know it’s working on your behalf from that moment forward.

Lemme show ya how.

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Your new Android notification safety net

The secret sauce that makes this sorcery possible comes not from Google itself but from a crafty independent developer who’s been expanding our Android notification smarts for many a moon now.

His app is called BuzzKill. You’ve probably heard me rave about it before, with other noteworthy features and additions it’s introduced over time.

Whether you already have BuzzKill on your device or this is your first time encountering it, though, it’s well worth your while to take note of this new capability that snuck into the app not long ago.

First, a quick primer/refresher on what BuzzKill is, in case you aren’t already familiar: BuzzKill is essentially a way to create Gmail-like filters for your Android notifications. You use it to create simple custom rules for what happens when different types of notifications arrive — in an intuitive “if this, then that”-style form — with all kinds of interesting and advanced options for making your alerts more effective.

The latest addition to the app is an experimental option called, appropriately enough, “Restore after reboot.” And it does exactly what you’d expect: Anytime your device restarts, it automatically swoops in to save any active notifications that fit the parameters you select and then instantly restores ’em back into active status once your phone is back up and running.

Without such a system in place, any notifications that you either hadn’t yet looked at or maybe had glanced at and left pending as a reminder to deal with later would more often than not just vanish entirely — and you’d have no easily visible record of their presence or any real indication that they’d been there at all. That’s a dangerous recipe for forgetting something important, whether it’s an email you intended to engage with, a Slack message you needed to acknowledge, or even a task of some sort that had popped up for you to ponder.

The beauty of the BuzzKill approach to fixing this is that it really is a “set it and forget it” sort of system: You just create whatever rule you want now, get it up and running, and then rest easy knowing it’ll always find and restore any active notifications anytime your device restarts — as Android itself should but for whatever reason does not.

2 minutes to auto-restored Android notifications

All right — here are the specific steps to getting your new notification safety net in place:

• First, go download BuzzKill from the Play Store, if you don’t already have it.
  • The app costs four bucks as a one-time purchase, which — believe me — is nothing compared to the ongoing value it’ll give you with this and its many other notification-enhancing possibilities.
  • It doesn’t require any unusual permissions, doesn’t collect any form of data from your phone, and doesn’t have any manner of access to the internet — meaning it’d have no way of sharing your information even if it wanted to. 
• Once you’ve gone through the app’s initial setup and made your way to its main screen, tap on the circular button in the lower-right corner of the screen to create a new rule.
• On the screen that comes up next, consider which specific sorts of notifications you want to have restored whenever your device restarts.
  • You could always start with any and all notifications and then go back in to refine and limit the rule more once you see how it works. You might eventually want to ask it to avoid restoring alerts from certain low-priority apps — like, say, Google Photos — so that it doesn’t bother bringing back stuff that you don’t actually need.
  • If/when you want to create any such restrictions, tap the text that says “any app” to change which apps will be included and/or tap the text that says “contains anything” if you want to restrict based on what specific text a notification does or doesn’t include.
  • If you don’t want to create any limitations and just want all of your active notifications to be restored, at least to start, leave those lines alone and mosey on down to our next step.

JR Raphael, Foundry

• Tap the line that says “do nothing” and scroll down to find the “Restore after reboot” option. It’ll be toward the bottom of the list, within the “System actions” section.

JR Raphael, Foundry

• Tap that, then tap “Pick action” to confirm.
• And last but not least, tap “Save rule” to, y’know, save your rule and set it into action.

JR Raphael, Foundry

You should then see the rule showing up as active and running on the main BuzzKill screen.

JR Raphael, Foundry

And that really is all there is to it: Whenever your phone next restarts, any notifications that were visible and active at the time of the restart should just show back up via BuzzKill as soon as things boot back up. If you want to get fancy, you could even make certain especially important notifications “sticky” in general, so that if you inadvertently swipe ’em away while your phone is running normally, they’ll automatically come right back even in that scenario.

It’s not the flashiest feature you’ll see this year, and it doesn’t have any whizbang AI shenanigans to make it seem headline-worthy by current-day standards. But it will work and quite possibly be one of the most practical, actually helpful additions you make to your phone all year — even if and arguably especially if you only think about it once in a great while, when you notice it working its magic and saving you from losing something significant.

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