Run with music, unhide the FOSS apps

A change to phone_focus_mode/config.sh — the location-based Android focus enforcer. Commit 7e59abd, 2026-07-11.

1 · Background

phone_focus_mode is a set of shell scripts running as root (via Magisk) on a rooted Android phone. A daemon polls your GPS location every few seconds. When you're within ~150 m of home, it enters focus mode and disables distracting apps; when you walk away, it re-enables them. The idea is that home should be low-distraction, but you're not locked out of everything when you're out.

"Disable" here means pm disable-user — Android's built-in way to make an app vanish from the launcher and stop running, without uninstalling it. The reverse is pm enable.

What decides if an app is allowed

Everything hangs off two plain-text lists in config.sh:

• WHITELIST — apps that stay enabled during ordinary daytime focus mode.
• NIGHT_WHITELIST — a much stricter list used only during the night curfew window, 23:00–05:00. It is not a subset expression of the daytime list; it's a separate, deliberately short allow-list. "When in doubt, leave it out."

On startup the daemon flattens each list into a state file (whitelist.txt, night_whitelist.txt) and a function is_allowed(pkg) checks the appropriate one for the current time.

The one subtlety that drives the whole change

The disable sweep only ever looks at third-party packages:

pm list packages -3 -e   # -3 = third-party only, -e = currently enabled

System apps (anything preinstalled — Gmail, Google Photos, the stock Clock, the dialer) are never touched by the sweep. The only lever that could disable a system app is a separate list, BLOCKED_SYSTEM_APPS — and on this device that list is intentionally empty, with a blunt warning in the file:

Keep that fact in your pocket — it's why half of this request could not be done in code.

2 · Intuition

The user wanted three things:

1. Go for a run with music — RunnerUp + a music player + the workout app usable even during the night curfew.
2. Unhide a batch of newly-installed FOSS apps (an open-source clock, camera, file manager, weather app, search, email) that replace Google's stock apps.
3. Hide the Google originals they replaced.

Why the FOSS apps were "hidden" in the first place

They're third-party apps that weren't on any whitelist. So every time the user got home, the sweep found them via pm list packages -3, saw is_allowed return false, and disabled them. From the user's point of view the app "disappeared." The fix is simply: add them to WHITELIST, and the sweep skips them.

Why music needed a second entry

Metrolist (the music player) was already on the daytime WHITELIST. But a real run might happen at 23:30 — inside the curfew — and the curfew uses the other list. Metrolist wasn't on it, so it got disabled after 23:00. Adding com.metrolist.music to NIGHT_WHITELIST is what actually closes the "run with music" gap.

Why "hide the Google apps" is not in this diff

Gmail, Photos, Keep, the stock Clock, the dialer — all system apps. The sweep can't reach them, and forcing them off means BLOCKED_SYSTEM_APPS, which risks wiping the phone. So that half was declined in code: the safe way to hide a system app is the launcher's own "hide apps" screen, which removes it from view without disabling the package. The diff only does the safe half.

A latent bug found along the way

The night list already had org.fossify.clock for morning alarms — but that package isn't installed. The user's actual clock is com.bnyro.clock. So nothing clock-related actually survived the curfew: a dead entry guarding a real need. The change swaps the dead package for the installed one.

▶ Play with it

The whole system is just: where are you, what time is it, is the app third-party, and which list is it on. Flip the controls and watch each app flip between enabled and disabled. Toggle Before / After to see exactly what this diff changed.

3 · The change

All of it lands in two string arrays in config.sh. Grouped by intent:

a · Unhide the FOSS replacements (daytime WHITELIST)

Five open-source apps added, and the dead org.fossify.clock removed from this spot (the installed clock takes its place):

 org.mozilla.fenix
-org.fossify.clock
+# --- FOSS replacements for stock/Google apps (unhidden per request; hide the
+#     Google originals in the launcher, NOT via package-disable — see the
+#     BLOCKED_SYSTEM_APPS note about MTK bootloop/wipe risk on BL9000) ---
+com.bnyro.clock          # Clock You
+com.vayunmathur.camera   # Camera
+com.rama.teyin           # Teyin file manager (replaces Google Files)
+com.yoshi.rain           # Rain weather
+com.jksalcedo.librefind  # LibreFind (replaces Google Search)
 ws.xsoh.etar

(Inline labels shown for clarity; in the file the comments are on their own lines, because the parser only strips whole # lines.)

b · The email replacement

 # --- Email & communication ---
+net.thunderbird.android.beta
 com.microsoft.office.outlook

c · The kicktipp app (daytime only)

A football-predictions app, wanted during the day but not the night curfew — so it goes on WHITELIST only:

 # --- Fitness ---
 org.runnerup
+
+# --- Sports / football predictions ---
+de.kicktipp.mbookmark

d · The run-with-music entries (NIGHT_WHITELIST)

Music survives the curfew, and the dead alarm-clock entry is replaced with the installed one:

 # Calendar
 com.google.android.calendar
 ws.xsoh.etar
-# Alarm clock
-org.fossify.clock
+# Alarm clock (Clock You — the installed clock; org.fossify.clock is not present)
+com.bnyro.clock
 ...
 com.kuhy.workout_app
 org.runnerup
+# Music player — kept so a night run has music in the background
+com.metrolist.music

4 · Quiz