The Android app

Pocket Homelab for Android is built on the same core as the iPhone and Mac app: the same service clients, the same env keys and the same encrypted configuration export. What differs is the shell around it. The phone has a bottom bar with a More list, Android home-screen widgets, long-press shortcuts on the launcher icon, ntfy alerts as Android notifications and a media notification for playback.

Requirements

Android	Android 9 (API 28) or later.
Processor	64-bit ARM (arm64-v8a), as in every current Android phone.
Network	The same as on iPhone: your Wi-Fi, a VPN, a Tailscale tailnet or a public HTTPS address. A service that only answers at home or on your tailnet needs that connection on the phone too.

Setting it up

The first launch shows one screen: paste your configuration. It takes either of the two things you may already have:

• the env file, the KEY=value lines the iPhone app and the Raycast extension use (see the env file format), or
• an encrypted export made on your iPhone or Mac with Settings → Move to another device. When you paste one, a Passphrase field appears; enter the passphrase from the other device and press Unseal and import.

After that the bottom bar appears and Home loads. To fill in a service by hand later, open More → Settings, pick the service, enter its values and press Test with these values, then Save.

Things that apply everywhere

• Polling. Home refreshes every 30 seconds while it is on screen. Polling stops while the app is in the background. Battery Saver doubles the wait, and so does a metered connection or Data Saver.
• Pull down on Home and on most lists to refresh them now.
• One failing service never blanks a screen. Each Home row and each screen loads on its own, and an error shows where that service would be.
• Writes wait when you are offline. New tasks, Firefly transactions and LubeLogger records made without a connection are saved on the phone and sent later. See Playback & offline.

Settings at a glance

Settings is one list behind More → Settings. Find a service at the top filters it.

Section	Rows
(top)	Pocket Homelab Pro, with your plan (see Free and Pro), and Notifications (see Notifications).
Service shelves	Every service, on the same shelves as on iPhone. A green tick means it is set up; Paused means it is set up but not one of your three free services. Each opens a form with one field per env key, Test with these values, Save and Clear this service.
Offline changes	How many changes wait to be sent, Sync now, and the list of what waits.
Configuration	Service check (tests every configured service at once), Replace configuration… (the import screen again; an import replaces the whole configuration) and Forget configuration.

Forget configuration deletes every address and credential on this phone and goes back to the import screen. Nothing is changed on your servers.

Where your configuration is kept

Addresses, keys and passwords are encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key held in the Android Keystore. The key cannot be exported and the encrypted file stays in the app’s private storage. It is left out of Android’s cloud backup and device-to-device transfer, so a new phone starts empty: paste the encrypted export there. Requests go from the phone straight to your servers, as on iPhone, and time out after 8 seconds.

Not on Android yet

These iPhone features are not on Android yet:

• The welcome screen with its service catalogue, the guided Connect form and the sample workspace.
• Arranging Home and choosing tabs: the bottom bar is fixed, and Home has no card editor.
• The floating quick-action buttons and the search sheet that reaches every service.
• Move to another device as an export: Android imports one but cannot make one.
• Downloading music, audiobooks, podcasts and video for offline playback.
• Saving a blank env template and the Diagnostics request log.