This iPhone App Wants to Replace Your Home Screen With AI
Your iPhone home screen has looked basically the same for over a decade. A grid of app icons. Maybe a few widgets. Tap, open, close, repeat.
A startup called Signull Labs thinks that’s about to change.
Their app, Skye, reimagines the iPhone home screen entirely. Instead of launching apps one by one, Skye uses iOS widgets to build what its creator calls an “agentic homescreen” — a layer of ambient intelligence that lives right on your device. And investors are already betting big on the idea, even before the app goes public.
Ambient Intelligence, Not Another Chatbot
Most AI apps follow the same pattern. You open them, type a question, and wait for a response. Skye works differently.
The idea is that useful information finds you, not the other way around. Through iOS widgets, Skye surfaces personalized insights about your local weather, your current health data, your calendar context, and more — all without you asking.
But it goes further than basic notifications. Skye can draft email replies, help you prep for upcoming meetings, flag suspicious charges in your bank account, and send reminders. Plus, when you’re out exploring a neighborhood, it can surface location-specific details about nearby businesses and local attractions.
Most of that data comes from connections the user explicitly authorizes. So Skye pulls from your existing accounts and apps rather than collecting data independently.
It’s a bit like having a thoughtful assistant who reads your morning quietly, then leaves helpful notes around your phone before you even know you need them.
$3.58 Million Before a Single Public User
Here’s what makes Skye’s story genuinely interesting. The app is still in private testing, and it’s already raised north of $3.58 million in pre-seed funding. That round closed back in September 2025, according to an SEC filing.
PitchBook currently lists Signull Labs — the New York-based startup building Skye — with a post-money valuation of $19.5 million. That’s a serious number for a product that hasn’t launched yet.
The backers include some recognizable names. The founder confirmed to TechCrunch that early investors include a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), True Ventures, and SV Angel, among others. Offline Ventures also lists Signull Labs in its online portfolio.
The founder goes by signüll on X, though his name is publicly listed as Nirav Savjani in SEC filings. He previously worked at both Google and Meta. He spoke to TechCrunch under the condition of protecting his pseudonymity, though TechCrunch confirmed his identity through public documents.
The Waitlist That Took Off Overnight
When Signull Labs announced Skye publicly on X, the response was immediate. A video promoting the app racked up about a million views. Thousands of people flooded a waitlist that already had 25,000 names on it. Hundreds of investor emails followed.
Savjani posted about the response himself, calling it “absolutely unreal.”
That kind of organic reaction matters. It suggests real consumer appetite for a more intelligent iPhone experience — one where AI works quietly in the background instead of requiring dedicated app sessions. And it hints at something broader.
If people are this excited about an AI home screen concept, that’s a signal worth paying attention to. The rumored OpenAI smartphone has generated similar buzz around the idea of AI-native mobile experiences. Skye’s waitlist numbers suggest that market might be bigger than skeptics think.
A Small Team, a Big Idea
Skye is being built by a small team at Signull Labs. Savjani has been posting regularly on X about his personal use of the app, and he appeared on the TBPN podcast as an avatar to discuss the project without revealing his identity publicly.
He told TechCrunch that Skye plans to launch to waitlist users soon, though he declined to give a specific date.
The timeline feels relevant. Apple has been gradually opening iOS to more widget and home screen customization over the past few years. That gives apps like Skye more surface area to work with than ever before. And with Apple Intelligence still finding its footing, there’s a real opening for a third-party experience that moves faster.
Whether Skye delivers on its promise is still an open question. The gap between a compelling demo and a polished daily driver is wide, especially on iOS where system-level access has real limits.
But the investor confidence and waitlist numbers tell you something important. People are ready for their home screen to get smarter. Skye is betting it can be the one to make that happen.
