A focus launcher for Android

Straight answers.

What is a focus launcher?

A launcher that changes what your phone offers depending on what you are doing, rather than presenting the same home screen in every context. In Sanctuary, focus modes such as Deep Work, Reading and Zen, and Sleep and Wind-down each define which apps remain available and how the home screen presents itself, and they can switch automatically on a schedule. The effect is that the constraint lives in the environment rather than in your willpower.

How is a focus mode different from Do Not Disturb?

Do Not Disturb controls what reaches you — it silences incoming notifications and calls. A focus mode controls what you can reach: which apps are available, how the home screen looks, and whether a pause appears before a distracting app opens. They address opposite halves of the problem and work well together, since Do Not Disturb stops the phone interrupting you while a focus mode stops you interrupting yourself.

Can focus modes turn on automatically?

Yes, on time-based schedules, and this is where most of their value comes from. A mode you have to remember to enable is available precisely when you are least likely to enable it — nobody turns on Deep Work at the moment they are about to open a feed, or Sleep and Wind-down at 11:40pm. Scheduling moves the decision to a calm moment and removes it from the difficult one. Automatic schedules are part of Sanctuary Pro.

Which focus mode should I start with?

Sleep and Wind-down, scheduled for the evening. For most people the hour before sleep accounts for the largest block of unchosen phone use and carries the highest cost, since it takes from sleep rather than from leisure. Set it slightly earlier than you think you want, because the boundary works better arriving before the drift starts than during it. Add a scheduled Deep Work block second.