Taskbar

Taskbar puts a start menu and a tray of recent apps on your screen, in reach over any app, the way a desktop PC does. Its developer designed it with a keyboard and mouse in mind, so it suits tablets, Chromebooks and phones connected to a monitor. By default it sits on top of your usual launcher, but it can also take over as the home screen.

What it does

• A start menu with all your apps, as a list or a grid. Pin favourites, hide apps you don’t want to see, and use ADW-style icon packs.
• A recent apps tray, which needs Android’s usage access permission.
• Collapse or hide it when you don’t need it.
• Quick Settings tiles that open a favourite app in a floating window, on Android 9 and later, and a Tasker plugin.

Floating windows

On Android 7.0 and later, Taskbar can open apps in resizable freeform windows, and remember a window size for each app. No root is needed, but setup depends on the Android version: a developer option on 7.x and on 10 and later, an adb command from a computer on 8.0 to 9. An app has to start fresh to open in a window. The developer calls the feature experimental, and on most Android 12 devices Taskbar hides the setting because it doesn’t work there.

Desktop mode on an external display

On Android 10 and later, Taskbar can run Android’s built-in desktop mode. Connect the phone to a monitor through a USB-to-HDMI adapter or a lapdock, and apps open in windows on the big screen, with Taskbar as the desktop, while your usual launcher stays on the phone. The phone itself has to support video output.

Setup takes two developer options, Enable freeform windows and Force desktop mode, then making Taskbar your default home app and rebooting. Android only lets the default home app drive an external display, so Taskbar takes that role and hands the home button on the phone straight to the launcher you pick. The catch, as the developer points out: your usual launcher then loses most app shortcuts, the menus you get by long-pressing an icon. Desktop mode isn’t offered on Chromebooks or Android TV, and the project says there is no need to switch if your phone’s own desktop mode, such as Samsung DeX, suits you.

Permissions it asks for

• Display over other apps, which Taskbar needs before it can start.
• Usage access, optional, for the recent apps.
• An accessibility service, optional, for Back, Home, Recents and power actions and for opening the notification shade. The developer says it collects no data through it.
• WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS, for a few desktop-mode settings, granted with an adb command. If Shizuku is running, Taskbar can grant it to itself instead. In the source code, that is all it uses Shizuku for.

The APK has no internet permission, and the project’s privacy policy says the app doesn’t connect to the internet in any way.

Project status

The last release, 6.2.2, came out in October 2024, and the code hasn’t changed since November 2024. Open reports in the project’s issue tracker describe problems on Android 15 and 16.

About this file

• This is F-Droid’s build of Taskbar 6.2.2, signed with F-Droid’s key, so it won’t update the Google Play version, or the other way round, without uninstalling first. It is the free version; Play also sells a Donate version, which the developer says is identical.
• The 2.8 MB file has no native code, runs on Android 5.0 and later, and declares 21 permissions.

Shizuku API. Uses the Shizuku API, so it can do ADB-level work without root once Shizuku is running. (rikka.shizuku.ShizukuProvider)

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one. Full changelog.