Hi everyone,

This update is a large one with many changes and features to cover.

Starting with the most visible changes: Support for multiple Plex servers at once, media version selection on play, Global State Restoration, enhancements for Plex's native Android TV recommendations, the ability to add any Android TV media to your Watch Next row, a new browsing style for Android TV rows in the home tab, extra image transition options while browsing, and a new UI for viewing a cast member / person’s media

Additionally, there have been a huge number of code changes involved in further pushing Dispatches' rendering performance, reducing RAM usage even further than previous efforts, and cutting down on the app's boot time from a cold start. These changes actually compromise the bulk of the effort made since the last update, even if there isn't much else to say about them beyond the following:

Users should expect smoother performance while using the app, quicker start times when the app is starting cold, and further reduced RAM usage throughout.

Multiple Plex Server Support

Dispatch now supports connecting to and enabling multiple Plex servers.

This means you can connect more than one Plex account, enable multiple servers, and assign the desired server/user combinations to each Dispatch profile.

A few things this enables:

• Multiple Plex servers can now be enabled at the same time.

• Connecting a new Plex account is additive and no longer replaces your existing server setup.

• Dispatch profiles can be made up of any mix of users from all enabled servers, all while keeping the watch next, watchlist, and recommendations merged into one UI together

• Users may also choose to create separate Dispatch profiles per server, turning the profile selector into more of a server selector

• The option (on by default)

• Cross-server version selection on play, allowing users to select and play a release for a media across all servers

• Playback and media actions now understand the selected server/version instead of acting on a collapsed item blindly.

Collapsed Media is on by default

By default, media are grouped by their TMDB ID, so that if 5 versions of a movie exist across 5 enabled servers, you don't see 5 copies. This option also collapses the same media within a server into one.

When you select play on a collapsed media, the version selector will show all options across all servers.

This options can be toggled from Settings -> Experience -> Collapse Common Media

Media Version Selector

Dispatch now has a media version selector.

When a movie or episode has more than one playable option, Dispatch will show a version selection screen before playback. This applies both to media with multiple versions on the same Plex server and media that exists across more than one enabled Plex server.

Global Session Restoration

Session restoration in Dispatch is the ability to restore the prior UI state after a full shutdown. The previous beta release came with its own rendering performance improvements that essentially broke this feature since the last release.

However, the old state restoration system was always very limited (it only ever applied to the home page) and planned for a rewrite anyway. This has now been completed.

With the newly written restoration system, Dispatch can now restore your exact focus and browsing scenario after being closed down. The idea is that if you start playing media or using a different app on a device with a lower amount of RAM, there's always a chance the OS will kill the app while it's in the background. With this feature, you will be able to continue browsing exactly where you left off even if Dispatch has to start up from scratch.

For example, if you browse through the home page, find a movie, open the director's profile, select one of the movies from their catalogue, select another person's media, open a result from their page, and then play that item, Dispatch will be able to restore that exact UI focus and page change should the app be killed while the movie is being played.

You could also be on the last movie of a 10,000-length movie library, and the session would still be restored.

This feature can be toggled on and off from Settings → Experience → Save & restore state

Here is a video of the state being restored and then backed out of multiple routes, every page restored:

This also includes a novel "auto-skeleton" feature that automatically generates the skeleton UI on session save, which will be used during the restoration phase on the next app start. If you've ever been annoyed by loading skeletons that don't EXACTLY match their incoming content, well then you're a little like me, I guess. The goal of all of this is to lead to, hopefully, more seamless and consistent browsing experiences for all devices.

Plex Android TV Enhancements

Plex media that appears through Android TV recommendations is now supplemented with metadata from your connected server. These are NOT recommendations made through Dispatch's direct integration with Plex, but rather recommendations surfaced by the installed Plex app on your device. Previously, these would show bare metadata and low-res artwork, as that's all the Plex app provided.

So if you use the recommendations surfaced by the Plex app itself, those rows should now feel much closer to normal Dispatch media. (I’m not sure how common this is but I’ve been made aware that it is part of some people’s preferred setups.)

This makes Plex items from Android TV rows feel more like regular Dispatch media instead of generic Android TV recommendation entries.

Add Any Media to Watch Next

You can now add any Android TV media to Dispatch's Watch Next row.

This means any recommendations you see from YouTube, Apple TV, or whatever other app recommendations are on your device can be saved for later viewing. Items added show up in your Watch Next row alongside your other media.

Alternate Android TV Recommendation UI

This update also adds an alternate presentation style for Android TV recommendation rows.

With this option toggled, you can choose between Android TV rows that match the style completely of the normal Plex media rows or continue using the "Collected" UI, which uses a common app banner for those rows.

Extra Image Transition Options


There are now more options for how Dispatch transitions between media images.

The available modes now include the default behaviour, blink-style transitions, crossfade, and slide. The new modes are a little experimental for now, but they will be stabilized shortly. You may notice some random minor glitches with the slide mode in particular.

Here's two small videos with the slide mode enabled:

On the home page

While browsing episodes:

Android TV Sync Rewrite

The synchronization system for Android TV media has been completely re-written. Android TV media should sync now with far fewer (hopefully none) issues, as well as much more quickly than before.

However, since this is a full rewrite, some unexpected bugs may still occur or crop back up. Please let me know of any current issues you have with the new release, if any are present. Once whatever edge cases for the new system are ironed out, I don't believe there will be any issues regarding syncing ATV media going forward. It's my goal to get any and all remaining quirks in the new system ironed out as quickly as possible, so I'll appreciate any feedback on the new system testers can give.

Plex Sync Optimizations

Plex sync has also been optimized with many changes and fixes. The same applies as above: Synchronization should be much faster, but some edge cases may occur that still need to be completely ironed out.

Rendering, Memory, and Startup Improvements

As previously stated, this update includes a lot of performance work across startup, focus restoration, rendering, media transitions, image loading, and app list handling.

A lot of the rendering and memory improvements are due to some heavy rendering engine customizations, which were not trivial at all. However, if all goes well, it should only translate to smoother performance for all devices.

Some weird visual glitches may occur that still need to be resolved. If any are noticed, let me know.

Repeated onboarding bug fix

This release should once and for all fix an issue where users could have their onboarding status wiped, leading to repeated onboarding prompts. I've never personally experienced this issue; however, I know it's been a long-standing annoyance for some users.

What’s Next

The largest priority now for me is getting all beta changes pushed to the stable release. I'm aware the stable release, at this stage, lacks many of the features of the beta branch. I understand that this may be frustrating to some users, so I will be working very hard to stabilize any remaining beta-only issues and get these features to the bulk of Dispatch users in the next 2-3 weeks.

Work for Jellyfin support is already underway, with Stremio support to follow soon after.

I’m also prioritizing multilingual support as well now.

Future Release speed

It’s my goal and expectation that, going forward, updates will be coming at a faster rate across both beta and stable channels. The multi-profile support and multi-server support both constituted large rewrites of core parts of the app. Now that they are feature complete, the road ahead for future integrations, features, and improvements is far smoother than behind.

Thanks!

Hi Everyone! This update brings quite a few features and changes to cover.

Multiple Profiles

Dispatch now supports multiple profiles, allowing you to create personalized experiences for everyone in your household.

Most existing personalization options are now profile-specific. This means each profile can have its own favorite apps, feed customizations, wallpaper, and other preferences — all independent of one another.

Here's what else is included with profiles:

• Create profiles and assign one or more Plex users

• Customize avatars

• Set app and content restrictions per profile

• PIN protection and profile locking

• Configurable sign-out behavior (not a profile specific setting)

Create Profiles & Assign Users

You can create any number of profiles. Once you create a profile, you may assign one or more Plex users to that profile.

Note: the Admin profile cannot be deleted as it is in charge of content and app restrictions.

When multiple users are assigned to a profile, your libraries, Watch Next list, and other media recommendations will be merged and displayed together.

Avatar customization

You can customize your profile's avatar in a few different ways:

• Create / generate a human or robot avatar in the Avatar Editor

• Select a Plex user's account image

• Select an image from your device

In terms of using the Avatar Editor, you can mix and match parts, styles, and colors to customize your profile's avatar to your liking.

A special thanks to Pablo Stanley for the original designs.

Hide and Block Apps

Dispatch now has the ability to hide apps as well as block apps with the experimental app blocker. Like the video player (discussed later), this feature is in early development and will likely have issues. That being said, it has been working reliably for me thus far.

To use App Blocking, you must enable the required permissions from Settings → Advanced → Permissions.

Like most options in Dispatch, app hiding and blocking is profile specific. When a user attempts to open a blocked app, an overlay will be displayed briefly before the user is returned to Dispatch.

Only the Admin profile can modify app restrictions.

Some additional notes about these features:

• App blocking is managed by the Admin profile.

• When all profiles are logged out of Dispatch, app blocking operates with maximum strictness. That means, when logged out, Dispatch blocks the combined set of all apps blocked across all profiles.

• You may block the settings app on any profile except the admin profile

• You have the ability to either hide an app from the UI, block an app from being accessed, or both.

A very important note about app blocking: Users should be careful when using this feature. It is technically possible to lock yourself out of your device, if it is not used with care, under these scenarios:

• If you PIN lock the admin profile, AND block the settings app on the other profiles, AND THEN forget your pin, you will have locked yourself out.

• If you PIN lock the admin profile, AND block the settings app on even one profile, log out of all profiles, thus causing the app blocker to operate with maximum strictness, AND THEN forget your PIN, you will have locked yourself out.

Content Restrictions

Profiles can have content restrictions applied to them. While it's true your Plex server already supports content restrictions, this allows you to set an additional layer of restrictions on a profile if you'd like.

Because of the complex nature of different content rating systems worldwide, the way this feature works is as follows:

• By default, no restrictions are applied to a profile. This means that the profile follows exactly whatever media is made available by Plex to the user(s) assigned to this profile.

• Applying restrictions works by age group. First, select an age group from the main Content Restrictions page (e.g., "14 and under"). Once selected, Dispatch blocks all content ratings above this threshold from all countries by default. For more granular control, you can use the Rating Editor to block or unblock specific ratings on a per-country basis.

• Content restrictions work via a simple evaluation of whatever rating is in the rating column for that media. This value is controlled by the Plex server, and, if the rating in that column does not exactly match whatever is in Dispatch, it will be ignored. That means that simple spelling differences will cause ratings to be ignored. If you notice any of this during your usage, please let me know. It may not be possible to always have the most accurate and up-to-date collection of content ratings for all countries and media set-ups

Please note as well: content restrictions do not apply to media suggested by other android TV apps, such as YouTube, Netflix, etc… it only applies to your Plex media.

Media Access Control

The administrator has the ability to whitelist or blacklist a piece of media for a content restricted profile. Please note that if your media server restricts access to a piece of media on the server level, Dispatch does not ever override it. Only media blocked via Dispatch's Content Restrictions layer is affected by this feature.

This feature can be accessed via the context menu for a piece of media, which is opened by long pressing the select button, or pressing the 3 dots on a highlighted media.

PIN Protection and Profile Locking

You can add a PIN to a profile, thus requiring the user to enter their PIN before switching to their profile. In addition, the administrator may lock profiles, which stops further customizations of that profile until unlocked.

Sign-out behavior

You can choose to have Dispatch sign out of the current user when the device sleeps or the screen is turned off.

You can also choose whether "signing out" in Dispatch returns to the Profile Selector, or always signs back into a "default" profile. For example, you may wish for Dispatch to automatically sign out on sleep and return to a Guest or Public profile, instead of the lock screen / profile selector.

Video Player

Dispatch now includes a video player. This feature is early and experimental, but can be enabled in the Settings → Experience → Playback Options.

The goal of this video player is to, over time, match the Plex app's player in terms of functionality, while addressing these issues:

Supports multiple profiles

Now that Dispatch supports multiple profiles, it's understandable that most users would expect that being on profile A would play media AS profile A. Unfortunately, the official Plex app does not support playing media as a specific user. Plex will simply play as whichever user was last logged into the Plex app on your device.

Dispatch's player does not have this limitation. If you enable using the new player, selecting media from the app will always play that media as that user, or users.

Supports multi-user profilesDispatch allows you to assign multiple users to a single profile. When you do this, the media shown inside the app will be a combination of accessible media by all users assigned to that profile.

Additionally, when you play media using Dispatch's internal player, playback progress will be updated for all users assigned to that profile. This will allow special use cases such as:

• Combining users across servers

Today Dispatch only supports Plex, but, in the future, support will be added for Jellyfin as well as other media servers. Multi-user support will allow Dispatch to combine, and track playback progress, for the same media across multiple servers.

• Combining users on the same server

Multi-user support can enable a "paired" profile set up. For example, perhaps you often watch media with your partner, and want the media you watch together to be tracked on both your Plex accounts, you can use a paired profile. Then later, when you are watching media solo, you can switch to your exclusive profile which only tracks media for you.

• Properly track playback progress when opening media from Disaptch

There's been a long standing issue with the official Plex app where opening a media externally (aka launching media from the home screen) stops the Plex app from properly reporting playback progress to the Plex server. This is not unique to Dispatch, even the default launcher on Android TV has this issue. With the internal Dispatch player, this is problem does not occur.

There are likely other use cases I haven't considered. Either way, the flexibility is there.

Other notes on the video player

As previously mentioned, the player is in early development. I currently use it as my main player and have had minimal (usually zero) issues playing my content. However, I expect as more users with varying media types, and on different devices, test the player, more issues will be uncovered.

Also, while there's a PIP button in the video player controls, it is mostly non-functional. It was a last minute addition to the release that was only exposed to satisfy some issues with the Google Play submission.

Adaptive Icons

Dispatch now supports Android's adaptive icons for devices that require it. This means that if a device forces a certain shape of launcher icon, Dispatch will respect it. Most Android TV devices aren't affected by this, but it can occur.

Reduced APK size and RAM usage

Dispatch now has ~50% less peak RAM usage as well as a ~50% smaller APK & base installation size.

What's Next

The following features are next on the roadmap

• Multi-server support

• Settings backup and restore

• Language localizations

• Jellyfin support

And one last note on the two experimental features in this release: these will make their way into the stable branch while they are still experimental. They will, of course, remain turned off by default.

Thanks!

Hi everyone! This update brings all features from the beta branch into the stable branch. Most of these changes have already been covered in previous changelogs for the beta branch, so this mostly serve as a summary

Note that for the stable branch, the update will be rolled out gradually over the next few days.

What's new for Stable and Beta

First, I'll start with what's new for both branches

App start-up performance improvementsLarge performance improvements have been made to how Dispatch starts up. Users can expect the app to start much quicker than before, as well as be much smoother during those first moments after launch.

Movie / TV Browsing performance improvementsPerformance improvements have also been made to the movie and TV browsing pages. These are the pages you see when selecting "open x media" from the home page or library tabs. Browsing through movie trailers, cast members, as well as browsing TV shows and episodes is much smoother than in previous beta releases.

Extra Details page is now accessible from the home pageLike in the browsing pages, you can now highlight the plot of a media item and access the "extra" media details page.

Toggle YouTube trailers, teasers and behind the scenes videosUsers can disable / enable extras from YouTube from the Settings -> Experience page.

Generic performance improvements and UI fixes

Overall performance while using the app has also improved, as well as a variety of visual UI bugs that existed previously.

*Everything below is a summary of features added to previous beta releases that are now in the stable branch.

*

Video Summary

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

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Media Browsing

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.

Movie Browsing

Users will see trailers, teasers, featurettes, and scenes from both Plex and YouTube, powered by TMDB.

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.

Extra Media Detailed Page

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.

TV Show Browsing

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.

Episode Browsing & Episode Cast View

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.

Go to Show / Season

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.

Collection Browsing

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.

Movie Reviews

Dispatch will now display reviews on the movie details page.

Connection Alerts

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 should not expire, 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.

Plex re-authentication

Users can also manually re-authenticate their Plex account from Settings -> Profiles & Connections -> Manage Connections

What's next

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