Built a dynamic phone OS that adapts to user needs
EverythingMe is an Android Launcher (Home Replacement) designed to create a contextual phone—one that adapts throughout the day to meet the user’s needs, long before the era of google assistant, or google now before that.
As a junior designer, I initially focused on the UI and UX of new features. Over time, my role expanded, allowing me to contribute to the development of the product’s core features.
The Challenge
EverythingMe believed that just as people are dynamic, phones should be dynamic and contextual too. The phone should adapt to user behavior, displaying relevant content and apps throughout the day—like the weather forecast in the morning, nearby places when out and about, and calendar events and to-dos while at work.
Android OS was the perfect foundation for this vision, allowing us to deeply customize the system and shape the experience exactly as we envisioned.
From a UX perspective, the main challenge was redesigning the user’s home screen while ensuring familiarity—keeping everything accessible—while subtly and intelligently learning user preferences over time.
Approach
To achieve a truly dynamic experience, we developed core features over time—features that automatically organized apps, made content more accessible, and, most importantly, surfaced apps and information based on the time of day, location, and user behavior.
Prediction Bar
The Prediction Bar was the contextual heart of EverythingMe, positioned above the app dock for easy thumb access.
It displayed four context-aware apps and tap cards—a minimal version of our content cards—providing relevant information from the phone and web. Users could interact with tap cards or dive deeper into the context feed.
Context Feed
This was where users received updates about their phone and relevant content through cards, triggered by their actions (e.g., downloading an app, taking a photo) or contextual factors (e.g., location, Wi-Fi, battery status).
Conceptually, while users had some control over the content they saw elsewhere, the context feed was fully powered by our contextual engine—embodying the true vision of a “contextual phone.”
The Bigger Story
At EverythingMe, every feature blended dynamic and static content, each from a different perspective.
For example, users could access news in multiple ways:
• Quick Search for direct intent-based queries.
• News Smart Folder for categorized browsing.
• Context Feed for a passive experience, where relevant news appeared when we predicted users wanted it.
Our vision was to continuously refine our contextual engine, eventually eliminating the need for explicit user intent—so the phone would simply know what users want, exactly when they need it.
The End of Everything
Two years after launch, EverythingMe reached 15 million downloads and received great reviews. However, after five years of operation, the company shut down in October 2015 due to financial reasons.
It was an incredible journey—and the perfect time to embark on a new adventure.