# TileShell > Live Tiles, Widget Stacks & Feed — the Windows Phone Start screen, reborn Canonical page: [https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.tileshell](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.tileshell) ## Overview - **ID:** `com.tileshell` - **Platform:** Android - **Type:** Android app - **Status:** Available - **Publisher:** Vivek Sovani - **Category:** PERSONALIZATION - **Downloads:** 104 - **Version:** 3.6.0 - **Last updated:** 2026-09-01 - **First published:** 2026-07-11 - **Publisher country:** IN - **Size:** 4.29 MB - **Data as of:** 2026-09-13 - **Store listing:** [Google Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tileshell) - **Privacy policy:** [https://vivek-sovani.github.io/tileshell/](https://vivek-sovani.github.io/tileshell/) ## Description TileShell brings the iconic Windows Phone / Windows 10 Mobile Start screen to Android — rebuilt in Kotlin, faithful to the original, with real Android widgets and modern personalization on top.

★ START SCREEN
4, 5, or 6 columns. Small, Medium, Wide, and Large (3×3) live tiles. Long-press to edit: drag, merge into folders or widget stacks, resize, recolour per tile or from the app's icon, or unpin. Prefer a normal Android look? Switch to Icons home style — weather/calendar/clock still live at a glance — with a matching Squircle/Circle/Rounded/Square/Original icon shape. Lock the layout so nothing moves by accident. Landscape puts the feed and Start side by side.

★ LIVE TILES
Clock with date, weekday, and your real next alarm. Live weather, forecast, and high/low. Next calendar event. Now-playing with album art and transport controls — any music app, or a dedicated tile. Contact-photo mosaic. Photos slideshow. Notification counts and message previews on every tile. All flip gently; pause automatically in battery saver.

★ GLANCE GADGETS
Pin TileShell's own live cards to Start or the feed, alongside real Android widgets: stock market (one stock, a sector/country basket, or your own list), commodities, currency pairs, sports scores, a second calendar system alongside Gregorian (including Hindu Panchang), a countdown, a sticky note, a shared notepad, an independent checklist per pin, plus battery, alarm, moon phase, flashlight, and step-count cards. Long-press any card for instant edit mode.

★ WIDGET STACKS
Merge two same-size tiles or Android widgets — on Start or the feed — into a swipeable carousel. Each member keeps its own colour and badge; every live face stays interactive inside.

★ NOTIFICATIONS
Unread badge on every pinned tile. Notification tiles flip through each pending message — sender, photo, snippet. A closed folder shows its total and which app inside has something pending. Unpinned apps with notifications surface in App List Recent too.

★ FEED PAGE (swipe right)
A greeting, live weather and today's agenda side by side, now-playing, and gadgets or widgets that resize, reorder, and merge into stacks. News across 8 categories — pick any number of regions, India plus ~20 other countries, or add any custom RSS/Atom feed.

★ QUICK PANEL
Swipe up from either edge. Resizable, reorderable square tiles for wifi, bluetooth, flashlight, DND, rotation lock, and more; tap-to-step brightness and volume; a one-tap theme tile; quick links to Personalize, Android Settings, and screen lock.

★ QUICK SEARCH
Two-finger swipe down on Start. Search apps, contacts, and the web in one gesture. Long-press a contact to call, message, or pin it to Start. Choose Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity.

★ EDGE STRIP
A quick-launch bar along the bottom. Search on the left, favourite apps in the centre, recent apps on the right. Collapses to a thin handle when not in use.

★ APP LIST (swipe left)
Alphabetical grid with A–Z jump grid and instant search. Recent and newly-installed apps up top with badge counts, even unpinned. Long-press to pin, hide, or uninstall.

★ PERSONALIZATION
14 accent colours, or pull one from your wallpaper · per-tile colour override or colour from the app's icon · dark/light themes · glass tiles tinted per tile · blur · wallpaper-behind-tiles · gradient, custom photo, slideshow, or daily Bing wallpapers with history · corner radius, gradient fill, 3 fonts, adjustable spacing · lock layout · built-in guide.

★ BACKUP & RESTORE
Auto-save on a schedule. Browse a visual history and restore any version. Export to a file to restore on your next device.

★ SCREEN LOCK
Instant lock from the Quick Panel or a gear long-press, preserving biometric unlock via the Accessibility API.

★ PRIVACY FIRST
No accounts. No analytics. No ads. All data stays on your device. Only weather requests leave (Open-Meteo, no API key), and only when you grant location permission.

Requires Android 8.0 (API 26) or higher. ## Rankings - #1,965,360 — Overall ## Permissions and access ### Permissions - `android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION` - `android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE` - `android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE` - `android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION` - `android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE` - `android.permission.INTERNET` - `android.permission.READ_CALENDAR` - `android.permission.READ_CONTACTS` - `android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED` - `android.permission.REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES` - `android.permission.REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS` - `android.permission.WAKE_LOCK` - `android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS` - `com.android.vending.CHECK_LICENSE` - `com.tileshell.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION` ## Similar extensions and apps - [sqTile - Live Tiles Launcher](https://chrome-stats.com/d/dev.gradomski.sqtilelauncher) — 317 users - [Square Launcher : Live Tiles](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.appmania.launcher.lumiaui) — 4,991 users, 4.10 / 5 - [Square Launcher Live Tiles Pro](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.appmania.launcher.lumiaui.prime) — 54 users - [Grid - Windows Phone launcher](https://chrome-stats.com/d/io.karn.grid) — 97,957 users, 4.18 / 5 - [Tiles UI Launcher](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.sagehuz.winfonelauncher) — 1,765 users - [Tiles Launcher](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.ssxv.launcher) — 15,082 users, 2.70 / 5 - [Metro Launcher - Lumia Styled](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.launchertrends.metrolauncher) — 8,053 users, 4.63 / 5 - [BIG Icons (Live Tiles) (Beta)](https://chrome-stats.com/d/rk.android.app.bigicons) — 1,086 users, 4.00 / 5 - [Lumina Launcher](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.echivalry.lumina) — 22,997 users, 3.50 / 5 - [Rectangle Launcher - Home App](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.sagehuz.rectanglelauncher) — 204 users - [Halo Widgets & Live Wallpaper](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.halostudio.widgets.panels) — 1,136 users - [Launcher 10](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.nfwebdev.launcher10) — 2,129,182 users, 3.75 / 5 --- Source: [Chrome-Stats](https://chrome-stats.com/d/com.tileshell)