Skies, usage-as-light & list mode
Once you know the sky, the stars, and the ring, a few more ideas round out the model. Each one is a different way of shaping the same surface. None of them changes how you hold and slide; they change what's there when you do.
More than one sky
A sky is your whole home screen — but it's also a whole saved setup. Its star chart, its regions, and its background all belong to one sky, and you can keep several and switch between them. One sky for work, one for the weekend, each remembering its own layout.
Keeping more than one sky is part of Zenith Gold (Gold). You switch, rename, and create skies in the skies section at the top of Settings. Tap ✕ to delete a sky — it shows only on skies you're not on, so the sky you're using is never deleted. On a folding phone, Gold can also bind one sky to the cover screen and another to the inner display, swapping as you open and close the phone: turn on "⊟ fold — cover & inner as separate skies" in Settings › system.
Folders and rituals
A folder is a star that holds its own ring. A ritual is a folder with a twist: instead of opening into its ring, releasing on it opens everything inside, one after another, in order, 650 ms apart. Point a morning ritual at your calendar, your mail, and your music, and one lift starts your day. You mark a folder as a ritual when you edit it.
Usage as light
Turn on usage as light and your most-launched stars glow brighter than the rest, so the sky slowly comes to mirror what you actually reach for. It's off to start with, and turning it on doesn't move anything — it only changes how bright your favorites shine. You'll find it in Settings › background & light.
The star index: every app, A to Z
The ring shows the apps you've placed. To reach anything installed, open the star index — the A–Z view of every app on your phone, sorted into letter groups and fanned out along the right edge of the screen. You can open it by drawing a quick circle on the sky, by dragging in from the right edge once you turn that on, by setting one region to open the index instead of a ring, or with any gesture or talisman set to "star index".
The deep sky is a different view of the same apps: every app in one list you can search, with the search box at the bottom. A flick up opens it, unless you've changed that flick. Between the two, you don't have to place every app to find it.
List mode: the sky as text
If the rings aren't for you, list mode draws the same apps as plain text panels that cascade down the screen instead of stars on a wheel. It runs on the exact same layout and the same slide gesture — only the look changes. It's off by default. At the top of Settings, pick "✦ ICON MODE" — "rings of stars" — or "☰ LIST MODE" — "cascading lists". Each sky keeps its own choice, so the pick changes only the sky you're on.
Together these are the edges of the model: many skies, folders that open all at once, a sky that brightens with use, the whole app list a gesture away, and a text view for when you'd rather read than aim. With that, the mental model is complete — the gestures come next.
See also. The sky — your whole home screen · The ring engine · The ring & list mode · All apps — Deep Sky & the star index