Android app in development
Meet MEOW Island — a cat-inspired floating island for Android that brings everyday controls, notifications, reminders, and optional wellness tools a little closer.
Source-only for now: no Google Play listing yet. Build it from the repository.
Everything below is a mockup of what the Android app is built to do. Tap or focus any demo to step through it. Each card says what Android has to allow first.
A compact pill that floats above everyday app content. By default it sits in the status-bar band, and you place it from the app's own Settings.
Needs the Display over other apps permission. Android keeps system dialogs, the lock screen and secure windows above overlays, and overlays always sit below the status-bar icons.
Title, artist and album art from what you're playing, with previous, play/pause and next. The disc spins while music plays and stops when it pauses.
Needs Notification access, and the player must expose an Android media session. Not every app does. The track shown here is a placeholder.
A short preview of an incoming notification expands from the island, then tucks away again after a few seconds.
Needs Notification access. Your real notifications stay in Android; this card is a mockup.
Schedule one-off, daily or weekly reminders, snooze them, or start a timer. Alerts show on the island as well as in a notification.
Reminders use Android notifications and battery saving can delay them. This website demo does not schedule anything on your phone.
Pick an app and set a limit. The cat stays calm while you're under it, turns grumpy once you're over, and cheers when you leave the app.
Needs Usage access. Android can delay usage data, so reactions may lag. Off until you add an app.
A step counter, daily goal and contribution heatmap. All of it stays off until you switch each part on.
0% complete
Needs the Physical activity permission and a step sensor in your phone. The numbers shown are sample values, not live readings.
When walking is detected, the island shrinks to a slim progress bar toward your goal, then celebrates once on the day you reach it.
Depends on your phone's step sensor, the permission, and Android's background limits. Detection can be delayed.
A nudge appears on the island with Done and Snooze. You choose the start and end time, the interval, the days, and any quiet hours.
Off by default and yours to turn off any time. Reminders use battery-friendly alarms and can arrive late. A reminder on your schedule, not medical advice.
Size, colours, corner radius, animation speed and position all live in the app's Settings. Try the real controls below on a mock phone.
Android decides which surfaces an overlay may appear above. The island can't cover protected system screens, and it moves only from Settings, not by dragging it on the phone.
Build your own walking routine, one step at a time. Set a daily goal, follow your progress, and celebrate the days you reach it.
Health features are optional and built around your choices. Today’s progress sits up top; the grid below it is your history, where bright squares mean you hit your goal and dashed outlines mean the data was incomplete, never a failure.
Off until you say so
Step counting, the walking island, the heatmap and water reminders each have their own switch. Turning one off leaves the others alone.
Kept on the phone
The app's code stores step history, goals and the water log locally, and a review of the repository found no network or analytics code.
Clear it any time
A Clear health data button deletes history, contribution records and the water log after you confirm.
Needs the Physical activity permission and a step sensor, and Android may delay readings. Details are in the health notes. The app also includes a Meow Step Heatmap home-screen widget; the repository notes it has not yet been seen on a real launcher.
6,420 sample stepssteps
80%
complete
Daily step goal
Every day keeps the goal that was active when it ended, so changing today’s goal never rewrites your history. Nothing on this page reads a sensor or stores anything.
The first run asks for permissions one at a time. Say no to any of them and only the feature that needs it stays off.
01
Choose supported settings and personalize the experience.
02
Access supported controls, reminders, and notifications.
03
Opt into screen-time awareness and wellness tools only when you want them.
MEOW Island needs some powerful Android permissions to do its job, so here is each one in plain language. You grant them one at a time, each unlocks one feature, and you can take any of them back.
In the app’s source, settings, reminders, timers, limits and health history are stored on the phone (a local database and Android preferences). A review of the repository found no account system, analytics, advertising or network-request code.
That is a reading of the code, not a guarantee. Standard React Native and Expo builds can add permissions of their own, and the app has not been audited. Check the built manifest before relying on it.
Health features are optional and off by default. Clear health data in the Health tab deletes step history, contribution records and the water log. Android can still delay or stop background work.
Display over other apps for floating island
Draws the island above other apps.
Turn off: Android Settings, Apps, Special app access, Display over other apps.
Notification access for music controls, notification previews
Lets the app read media sessions (music title, artist, art, controls) and show previews of incoming notifications. While it is on, Android makes your notifications visible to the app.
Turn off: Android Settings, Apps, Special app access, Notification access.
Usage access for screen time guardian
Tells the app which app is in the foreground and for how long.
Turn off: Android Settings, Apps, Special app access, Usage access.
Physical activity for step counting, walking progress, heatmap
Reads the phone's step counter or step detector sensor.
Turn off: Android Settings, Apps, Meow Island, Permissions.
Notifications for reminders, timers, water reminders
Shows reminder, timer and water-reminder notifications.
Turn off: Android Settings, Apps, Meow Island, Notifications.
Alarms and reminders for reminders
Declared so reminders can fire on time. Water reminders themselves use inexact, battery-friendly alarms.
Turn off: Android Settings, Apps, Special app access, Alarms and reminders.
Foreground service and boot for floating island
Keeps the island running, and can restore it after a restart if you left it running.
Turn off: Stop the island in the app, or Force stop in Android app settings.
A cat-themed floating island for Android: a small pill that sits above other apps and shows music controls, notification previews, reminders, a Screen Time Guardian and optional step and water tools. It is an open-source project written with Expo and React Native (TypeScript), with Kotlin for the Android system parts.
MEOW Island is an evolving project. Explore the code, share feedback, report issues, and leave a star if you like the idea.
You need Node.js 20+, JDK 17, Android Studio with the SDK, and an Android 10+ phone with USB debugging. The full walkthrough, including first-run permissions and keeping the island alive, is in the setup guide.
git clone https://github.com/arib-khan/MEOW-Island.git
cd MEOW-Island
npm install
npx expo prebuild --platform android --clean
npx expo run:android