I would like to reuse an older Android phone as a digital controller for some applications. It would basically be a browser (or webkit) running full screen (which would display some buttons via javascript which in turn would interact with a backend API).

I have a similar (non-touch, display only) solution on Linux where I start at the end of the boot process `xinit /path/to/xinit/config`, where `/path/to/xinit/config` opens the browser full screen. Before `xinit` there is no concept of GUI, `xinit` starts the graphics core and then runs one single application (the browser).

**Is this a scenario which is reasonably doable on Android?** I would like to get rid of everything which is GUI so that the only graphical element running is the browser (including the notification area, launcher, ...).

In other words: is it possible in Android to separate the "headless" part of the OS from the "GUI" part?

Note: this is different from a classical ["kiosk mode"][1] where one tries to lock out users from accessing other elements of the GUI via an app. I do not have any security/usability considerations as this simple display will run in a safe environment.


  [1]: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=kiosk%20mode