Hi everyone! This is update was actually submitted on Sunday but is still being reviewed by Google. Since it's taking longer than usual, I'm making this post now to let folks know what's pending in this release.

The latest version of the Plex API has made changes to their watchlist endpoints. This update addresses those changes, fixing any broken watchlist functionality in Dispatch.

Dispatch will now display reviews on the movie details page.

Dispatch will now display a warning when it can't reach your Plex server. Selecting this notification will attempt to automatically resolve the problem if it can, and if not, it will prompt the user with some further diagnostic steps.

One potential scenario where this comes into play is when a user's Plex authentication session expires. Normally, your Plex authentication token , however, under certain circumstances it can occasionally happen.

From the user's perspective, while using Dispatch, this would result in Dispatch "no longer syncing". With these changes, Dispatch will now alert the user that the connection is failing, and upon selecting the notification they would be asked to re-sign in to Plex so that syncing can resume.

Various fixes and optimizations have been made regarding the media browsing features introduced in the last release.

I still have a few bug fixes that need to be made over the next week or so. After those have been implemented, all features in the beta branch will make their way over to the stable branch.

Work on multiple profiles / profile switching continues. It's progressing well and will hopefully be available shortly enough.

Hi everyone! This update is a large one, so there's a lot to cover. First though, while I originally intended for the next release to be for Profile Switching, I felt the need to re-prioritize the features in this release due to this unresolved issue with the Plex app

This bug essentially makes it impossible to navigate to Plex's movie, show, or episode's detailed pages from Dispatch. As such, I've worked hard to replicate the features these pages normally provide within Dispatch directly. This was always something I planned to do , so it was not a total detour, at least.

As this is a large update, some bugs or issues are expected. If you notice any, please let me know.

First, here's a walkthrough video of the features discussed in this post:

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With this release, the "info" button/action now navigates to a detailed view of the selected media directly in Dispatch, rather than in Plex. In many places, you will now see actions such as "Open Movie" or "Browse TV Show" instead of the previously generic "info" button.

When a movie is selected from either the Home tab, Movies tab, or Search page, users will now be presented with a detailed page for that movie.

Users will see trailers, teasers, featurettes, and scenes from both Plex and YouTube, powered by TMDB. Note that in a future release, and before this update reaches the stable track, YouTube extras will become optional. For now, they are always shown.

The movie's cast and crew are also browsable from this page. Selecting a cast / crew member will display all Plex media for this person.

From the main buttons on the movie page, users can now navigate upwards to highlight the movie's plot. Clicking on this will display some more details for this item. Users can scroll up and down in this page using the directional buttons on their remote.

Users can also browse TV Shows. In addition to the cast and trailers found in the movie page, a TV show's seasons are also displayed here. When a season is selected, the episode browser is shown.

Users can browse all episodes in a season and select which one to play, same as in Plex. By pressing down while an episode is highlighted, the user will be presented with that episode's cast and crew. Cast and crew for episodes are loaded once an episode is highlighted. Once the down arrow appears under the episode thumbnail, the cast is available for browsing.

These two buttons are now available from the home page when viewing a TV Episode or Season, giving a convenient way to navigate through your shows. These are also available from the context menu by long clicking an item.

Users can now browse their collections as well. If a collection is missing a background image, a composite image is generated using random posters from the collection.

In addition, users can use the "Select Something Random" button to randomly bring up the detailed view for a random item in the collection. This can be a fun way of picking out a movie or show from a large collection.

As this was a large and unplanned update, I'll be taking a small break before returning to Profile Switching, which I hope will be ready soon enough. Furthermore, there are a few final touches to the features outlined in this post that I'll be wrapping up as well (Which may come in the form of smaller updates in the next little while or perhaps will ship with the Profile Switching release.)

That's it for now. This update has been released to the beta track first. If testing goes well, it will be rolled out to the stable track as soon as possible.

Users who would like to join the beta track can do so here:

Thanks!

This is a minor update with some changes being tested on the beta track

This setting allows users to change the default action when a media item is opened in Dispatch. There are two options: Go to info page and Start Playback immediately.

These options are found in Settings -> Experience -> Playback Options

When this option is used, selecting a media item from the movies, televeision, or search pages will open the selected item's info page in Plex. This has not changed from previous versions, however, with this update the ethos is applied to the home page as well. When enabled, the from media items on the home page and the will always go to the info page in Plex.

This option is useful for users who encounter a bug where starting playback directly from Dispatch stops Plex from recording / updating the user's playback progress. Unfortunately, this is a bug within the Plex app that has existed for years and also exists when using the default Android TV launcher.

When this option is used, selecting a media item from the movies, televeision, or search pages will start playback in Plex immediately. On the home tab, the and the will always start playback immediately in Plex.

In earlier versions of Dispatch, some users reported some playback lag while using Dispatch. In order to make sure user's media playback experience was never impacted, a feature was introduced to automatically shut-down Dispatch while media is being played.

However, with all the recent optimizations, it's likely this feature is no longer required. As such, for the next while, releases on the beta track will have this feature disabled by default. If testers on the beta track don't report any regressions to their playback experience, this will eventually be rolled into the stable track.

The feature will remain optional, however, and can be turned back on from Settings -> Experience -> Playback Options.

Note, however, that on devices with lower amounts of RAM, it's likely that the Android OS will close Dispatch during playback anyway. Higher RAM devices, however, will notice that pressing the home button will re-open Dispatch much more quickly if it wasn't previously closed by the above option or by the Android OS.

The following has been fixed:

Users who want to join or leave the beta track can do so from here:

With this update, enhancements that have been tested in the beta track over the last two months are making their way to the stable track.

Aside from the first change outlined below (), all other changes listed in this post have already been communicated by the January 15th and December 24th changelog entries.

When users opt to enable Auto-Start in Dispatch, they will now be presented with two options:

This auto start mode is the same as what was previously available in Dispatch. It uses an Android Accessibility service in order to set Dispatch as the default launcher on your device. Unfortunately, all Accessibility Services on Android incur a Users who want to maximize performance on their device should consider using the Advanced Auto-Start Mode instead.

Note: If you are using any other accessibility service, such as a , your device will still take the due to the accessibility service involved.

This auto-start mode uses the help of the ADB TV app from Google Play in order to set Dispatch as the default launcher. When selecting this mode, users will be shown a guide on exactly which steps need to be taken in order to use this mode. Since this mode forgoes using an Android Accessibility Service, UI performance is significantly better than the Simple Auto-Start Mode.

Note: if you already use ADB from your PC to disable the default launcher entirely, the advanced mode achieves the same result.

Each mode has their pros and cons, which are listed in the mode selector and screenshots above.

With this update, all trials have been reset once again. Anyone who has previously tried Dispatch will be able to do so again with a refreshed 14-day trial.

Please keep in mind that the update is being rolled out in stages, meaning you will need to wait until the update is available to you before taking advantage of the trial reset.

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The specific updates that affect performance are too numerous to list, as there are hundreds, but with this update, users should see improved UI performance across the board.

A huge number of changes and optimizations have also been made in order to speed up how fast Dispatch syncs your media. For instance, some operations, which used to be applied to every item in your home feed, have been sped up by ~15,000x

The sum result is that Dispatch will sync with your libraries much more quickly than before. This not only results in quicker syncs, but also better all around app performance, as Dispatch needs to spend far less time processing your media than before.

The clearest example would be Dispatch's

Before this update:

With this update:

When a custom wallpaper has been set, Dispatch will now theme the rest of the app accordingly.

Users can now also configure the wallpaper is shown. For example, in the following screenshots, the user has opted to show the wallpaper on the as well as on the pages.

The following options are available:

Additionally, the user wallpaper will now show in the page, allowing users to preview changes to the wallpaper and the wallpaper's brightness. Options have also been added here to control which pages the wallpaper is shown on, as explained above.

An additional option has been added to control the Shelf Peek opacity when that option is being used.

Dispatch can now optionally display watched indicators in the top right corner of your media items.

Additionally, Dispatch can now display indicators detailing unwatched episode counts, playback progress, how many episodes are in a season release, as well as whether a particular item is trending

These options are turned on by default and can be turned off from Settings -> Experience.

Users can now manually activate their screensaver by pressing the back button while the . This behavior is on by default, and can be disabled from Settings → Experience.

When browsing the home feed, users can now long press the back button to activate the no matter where they are. Previously, the Home Directory could only be activated by pressing the left direction button while the user is highlighting the first item in a row.

As a reminder, the Home Directory is a simplified view of your home feed that is more similar to other launchers and the stock Android / Google TV launcher. It's a great way to quickly see more content on your home screen or zoom out of Dispatch's large artwork focused UI.

These last few updates put a close to a set of efforts aimed at improving Dispatch's performance across many metrics. And while I have noticed some lamenting the fact that new features aren't been added as quickly as they'd like, I felt it was important to improve upon these issues as best as I could first. I believe as a result, Dispatch is on a much more solid foundation than at the time of release. I will of course always keep an eye out for any other potential improvements that can be made in these realms.

Otherwise, the roadmap hasn't changed and work continues on the following features, which I will have more to say about when they are ready.

This update is largely aimed at improving the speed with which Dispatch syncs your media. Like the previous update, the changes under the hood are quite sweeping, even if there are few visual changes.

A huge number of changes and optimizations have been made in order to speed up how fast Dispatch syncs. For instance, some operations, which used to be applied to every item in your home feed, have been sped up by ~15,000 times.

The sum result is that Dispatch will sync with your libraries much more quickly than before. This not only results in quicker syncs, but also better all around app performance, as Dispatch needs to spend far less time processing your media than before.

The clearest example would be Dispatch's

Before this update:

With this update:

Dispatch can now optionally display watched indicators in the top right corner of your media items.

Additionally, Dispatch can now display indicators detailing unwatched episode counts, playback progress, how many episodes are in a season release, as well as whether a particular item is trending

These options are turned on by default and can be turned off from Settings -> Experience.

For those in the beta track who have noticed this error while updating to the previous version, this update also aims to address this issue. If you update and notice this error again, please consider doing the following:

These last two updates put a close to two efforts aimed at improving Dispatch's performance across many metrics. And while I have noticed some lamenting the fact that new features aren't been added as quickly as they'd like, I felt it was important to improve upon these issues as best as I could first. I believe as a result, Dispatch is on a much more solid foundation than at the time of release. I will of course always keep an eye out for any other potential improvements that can be made in these realms.

Otherwise, the roadmap hasn't changed and work continues on the following features, which I will have more to say about when they are ready.

Hi everyone! The bulk of this update are optimizations aimed at improving app performance. In addition, a couple of minor new features and bug fixes have been included as well.

The specific updates that affect performance are too numerous to list, as there are hundreds, but with this update, users should see improved app performance across the board. In terms of changes to the app's code, the performance improvements take up roughly 95% of the code changes in this update.

When a custom wallpaper has been set, Dispatch will now theme the rest of the app accordingly.

Note: A minor bug currently requires that Dispatch be restarted after a new wallpaper theme has been applied. This will be fixed before this feature reaches the stable track.

Users can now also configure the wallpaper is shown. For example, in the following screenshots, the user has opted to show the wallpaper on the as well as on the pages.

The following options are available:

Additionally, the user wallpaper will now show in the page, allowing users to preview changes to the wallpaper and the wallpaper's brightness. Options have also been added here to control which pages the wallpaper is shown on, as explained above.

An additional option has been added to control the Shelf Peek opacity when that option is being used.

Users can now manually activate their screensaver by pressing the back button while the . This behavior is on by default, and can be disabled from Settings → Experience. This feature is not available on devices running Android 14 and above.

When browsing the home feed, users can now long press the back button to activate the no matter where they are. Previously, the Home Directory could only be activated by pressing the left direction button while the user is highlighting the first item in a row.

As a reminder, the Home Directory is a simplified view of your home feed that is more similar to other launchers and the stock Android / Google TV launcher. It's a great way to quickly see more content on your home screen or zoom out of Dispatch's large artwork focused UI.

The following fixes are included in this release

The roadmap has not changed. Work continues on the following features, which I will have more to say about when they are ready.

While features selected for the roadmap are always my main focus, users can still expect other updates to be released here and there addressing smaller issues or features while those larger projects continue to be worked on.

Hi everyone!

With today's update, and many others over the past two months, the launcher has finally reached a level of stability that I'm happy with.

In addition, the trial has moved to a cumulative model, meaning only consecutive days of use are counted. So if you try Dispatch today, and don't feel like it's right for you yet, you can always try it again later and

Summary of issues resolved since the initial release:

The following features have been selected for development next:

I will also continue investigations into the possibility of integrating with , as it is by far the most popular feature request.

The first official release of Dispatch is here! V1 brings one (maybe 1.5) additional features + many more bug fixes as well as some performance improvements.

Media from Android TV's Play Next row will now sync to Dispatch's Watch Next row.

Unfortunately, since very little metadata is known about media in Android TV's Play Next row, these items won't be as visually rich as content from your Plex library (so no logos, for example.) Still, it's better than nothing!

Dispatch's App Peek feature also supports Play Next items from Android TV. If an app has added media to your Watch Next / Play Next row, those items will be contained in a special card in front of all the other media in App Peek.

It is not yet possible to manually add to the watch next row, but that enhancement will come in the future. , on the other hand, can always be added to Watch Next by clicking the "Add to Watch Next" button.

You can individually control which apps are allowed to add items to Watch Next (and Watch Next in App Peek) from Settings -> General -> Home & Wallpaper -> Personalize Media Feed.

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Dispatch comes with a free . Afterward, users have the option of buying the app outright. Pricing differs per region, but in general, the lifetime license hovers around the Big Mac meal range 🍔:

Lifetime license:

Monthly license:

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Lastly, I'd like to take this last paragraph to thank everyone who has helped with testing. Many of you have been very enthusiastic about this project from the start, and it's been a joy working with you all. Thank you for all your help and suggestions, ! 🫡

The control center has been redesigned with some new features, including the ability to put your device to sleep.

The control center also includes a new input switcher. Note that the input switcher will only show on displays with Android TV built in, and will not show on devices like the Nvidia Shield or Chromecast with Google TV.

Additionally, users can access a new recent apps menu from the updated control center.

As a reminder, the control center can be accessed by pressing right on your remote when the tab is highlighted, or by pressing the menu button on your remote. To use the menu button, your remote must be configured to send the menu command. I personally recommend users set the menu button to send the menu command with a single click, and a long click set to open the android device settings view.

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The context menu now includes options to mark media as watched / unwatched, as well as the ability to navigate to an episode's parent season or parent show.

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The following changes and fixes are included in this release as well:

In order for navigation sounds to work System Sounds must be enabled in the devices settings.

Instead of having to manually enable / disable each row one at a time, a button has been added.

Logo brightness modulation is a feature that attempts to keep logos visible as detailed here

This feature is now optional and can be disabled from Settings -> Advanced -> Graphics Settings.