Setting up Sanctuary Launcher

How to make Sanctuary your Android home screen, choose your essentials, and configure Intention Gates and daily app limits — plus answers to the questions that come up most.

Getting started

Set Sanctuary as your default launcher

When you first open Sanctuary, Android will ask you to choose a home app. Select Sanctuary and choose "Always". You can change this later in Android Settings > Apps > Default apps > Home app.

Pick your essentials

Select up to nine apps to display on your home screen. These should be utilities you need quick access to, like Calendar, Maps, or Settings — not the apps you are trying to open less often.

Set up Intention Gates

Go to Sanctuary Settings > App Limits and select the apps you find distracting, such as social media and news feeds. Enable Intention Gates for those apps and, optionally, give each one a daily time budget.

Grant the optional permissions

To make Intention Gates work when apps are opened from notifications, links, widgets, or Recents, grant the Accessibility permission. To use the Notification Digest, grant Notification Access. Read exactly what the Accessibility permission does.

Frequently asked questions

How do I set Sanctuary as my default launcher on Android?

Open Sanctuary and Android will prompt you to choose a home app — select Sanctuary and choose "Always". If you skipped the prompt, go to Android Settings, then Apps, then Default apps, then Home app, and pick Sanctuary. You can switch back to your previous launcher from the same screen at any time.

Does Sanctuary block apps entirely?

Not unless you want it to. Sanctuary is built on friction, not strict blocking. Intention Gates ask you to pause, but you can always choose to proceed. If you prefer something firmer, set daily time budgets or use focus modes to hide specific apps entirely during work or sleep hours.

Will Sanctuary drain my battery?

No. Sanctuary is designed to be lightweight. It uses a pure dark theme, which saves power on OLED screens, and it does not run heavy background analytics, location tracking, or continuous network syncing. The Accessibility service only watches for foreground app changes.

What happens to my data if I uninstall Sanctuary?

Because Sanctuary processes everything locally and keeps no cloud copy, your intention history, insights, and settings are deleted when you uninstall. If you plan to reinstall later, use the local export feature in Settings to save a backup file first.

Why do some notifications flash before disappearing?

Android delivers a notification to the screen milliseconds before a notification listener such as Sanctuary can process and dismiss it. Because of this platform limitation, you may occasionally see a notification flash briefly before Sanctuary moves it into your scheduled digest.

Can I use Sanctuary without the Accessibility permission?

Yes. Sanctuary still works as a minimal, text-based launcher. Without the permission, Intention Gates and app limits only trigger when you tap an app from the Sanctuary home screen or app library. They will not trigger when you open the app from a notification, a widget, or the Recents switcher.

How do I cancel Sanctuary Pro?

Subscriptions are managed entirely through Google Play. In the Play Store app, tap your profile picture, then Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions, select Sanctuary, and tap Cancel. Pro features remain active until the end of the billing period you already paid for.

Still stuck?

Sanctuary has no account system, so there is no support login to chase. Email us and a person will read it.

support@sanctuarylauncher.app Get Sanctuary for Android