Quick Update from Charlie - July 2026

I was originally going to post something in the Discord, but realised this is the most transparent and accessible way to "get the word out". Here's what I've been working on.

MP01 Updates

Firstly, Android 15 for the MP01 is just around the corner, and I'm extremely excited to be able to show off all of the new features and improvements. There's genuinely so much to talk about so there's a good chance I'm missing a heap of stuff while writing this.

All-New Minimal Launcher

Following a complete rewrite of the Minimal Launcher brings on a whole new host of features!

• Grid/"V2" mode
  • We don't exactly have a name for this, but I've called it "Grid" as it arranges the app names in a 2 column "grid", this allows for users who need a lot of utilities at their fingertips to do so without having to reach for the app drawer.
• Widget Support
  • If you're a fan of having information being on display, ready for you to check at a glance, you're now able to display events and such directly on your home screen.
  • If enabled, will replace the current clock/date/battery cluster, and replace it with individual card tiles, if you have more then 2 enabled, you'll be able to swipe to switch between pages.
• Reordering/App position support
  • In both List and Grid modes, you can now reorder apps on your home screen.
• Notifiation panel
  • You can now preview notifications by swiping down on the home screen, and easily acknowledge or dismiss them.

All-New Quick Settings

Quick Settings is finally being shown some love! With a major refactor, brings new improvements to existing features, as well as adding some more!

• Quick Settings now has,,, more settings!
  • You're now able have even quicker access to commonly toggled settings, such as connectivity, silent modes, and more!
• Warm and Cool frontlighting is now independent to each other, so you're able to find your most preferable lighting levels.
• With the display/frontlight management code write, this has also resulted in being able to reduce the minimum brightness, so users will have a more comfortable experience in very low-light scenarios. Reading in the dark just got a whole lot better!
• Lighting sliders now have + and - buttons
  • This should allow users to better adjust lighting values, allowing you to get the exact settings you prefer much easier, without fidgeting with a slider.
• Accessability service removal
  • A large portion of previously utilised code has been rewritten as proper system services, which allows for better stability, and less nags when using your device.

OpenMoji!

While messaging some friends in a group, I noticed the Emoji rendering on the MP01 was a bit rough, and decided to look for a replacement. After testing 10~ emoji fonts, I settled on OpenMoji, which has a decent enough amount of contrast, along with defining lines for outlines and seperators that are much more readable/recognisable on the MP01 display.

If this is not your thing, you can change back to the Google Emoji in the new Minimal Settings.

Custom Sleep Screens

Proper support for custom sleep screens has now been added, you can select any image from your gallery for your sleep screen. While the "Photos" dream from AOSP worked, your device will no longer stay on or randomly wake while sleeping.

Minimal Settings

When the update is released, you'll gain access to a new, aptly named settings menu: Minimal Settings. Here you can customise MP01-specific options such as the sleep screen and more.

Statement regarding "Server Unreachable"

So, the big thing a lot of people are interested in updates on.

I've updated some people across Discord, Reddit, and other platforms, but the current status is the fix does exist, however as I've had to modify a binary built by Mediatek (modem firmware), and had to use some rather hacky behaviour to load it (bypassing signing), we're unable to legally distribute it in this state.

At this point in time, considering the only issue for most people is outgoing calls, there will be a toggle in Minimal Settings for automatically resetting the modem when opening the Phone app, removing the manual step from the commonly known workaround, since this issue doesn't affect everyone, this will be opt-in, so please check Minimal Settings if you'd like to try this out.

Minimal Keyboard Retirement - Gboard Improvements

After a decent amount of internal discussion, I've made the decision to retire the Minimal Keyboard application, while it gives us the best control over the keyboard experience, the overhead of supporting multiple languages, layouts, and other features, it makes more sense to put the time into bettering the Gboard experience.

If you're looking for something that isn't from Google, or just have other requirements that Gboard doesn't fill, there are already a few amazing community options we're extremely appreciative to these members for developing and continuing to support. One I want to point out is the Minimal SymLayer Keyboard (From rickybrent - GitHub).

Other Improvements

Many changes/fixes have been made that I honestly don't think I even remember/can list them all. However:

• Proximity Sensor works, you will no longer experience unintended taps while on call.
• Hotspot Performance has been improved.
• Hotspot Stability has been improved.
• Battery Life has been improved.
• Issues with WPA3 WiFi Networks has been resolved. (Tested against a Unifi U7 Pro, If you still have issues please let me know).
• Bluetooth disabling itself randomly has been resolved.
• Backlight issues (such as randomly staying on), have been improved.
• SIM Detection issues have been resolved (previously the device would force you to reboot before data started working).
• Charging estimates have been improved.
• Battery percentage inaccuracies have been improved.
• FM Radio works properly now (If anyone uses this???)

There is for sure more, so much more, however they're most likely hiding behind nonsensical commit messages that I don't want to spend the time scraping through :P

The Plan for the future of the MP01

So, Android 15? In 2026?

This is the case for now, with the chipset in the MP01, Mediatek are only giving us access to the A12 vendor code, which makes it difficult for us to bringup support for A16, while the device is booting with Android 16, I can't release it officially unless we get proper approval, from a mixture of Google, as well as Mediatek.

At this point in time, Android 15 will remain supported by Google until around September 2027, which we hope will give us enough time to plan a proper migration plan, and hopefully gain enough pull to bring Android 16/17 to the MP01.

Security patches will be released for Android 15 while they are being produced by Google, and if required I'll backport critical/high security patches if required after the A15 EoL.

Additionally when time permits, I'm going to be seeding some development devices to the LineageOS team, where we can hopefully get official LineageOS support for our device, which is not only a win for the community members looking for a stripped back or "degoogled" experience, but also for long term ongoing support down the road when the device gets past the point we can officially support the device via GMS update methods.

Closing out

Thankyou to everyone for the ongoing support, not only for Minimal, but for me personally, there have definately been some rough issues to work with, and as a solo developer I really appreciate everyones patience and kind words during these times.

I'm excited for the future, both hardware and software, and thank you all for sticking around.

-Charlie - feel free to follow me on the previously-bird app for my ramblings if you want :p