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. This update is being rolled out in stages to all users as I monitor for any potential issues.

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

Advanced Auto Start Mode

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

• Simple Mode

• Advanced Mode
  

Simple Auto-Start ModeThis 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 fairly significant performance cost. 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 button remapper, your device will still take the same performance hit due to the accessibility service involved.

Advanced Auto-Start ModeThis 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.

Trial Reset for All Users

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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From this point forward, all changes listed are repeats from the last two changelog entries

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Rendering / UI Performance Improvements

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.

Media Sync Performance Improvements

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 initial post-installation sync:Before this update: ~30 minutesWith this update: ~2 minutes

Wallpaper Themes

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

Wallpaper Page Customization

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

The following options are available:

• Navigation Menu

• Favorite Apps & Search Button

• Apps Library

• Media Libraries

• Home Feed

Additionally, the user wallpaper will now show in the Wallpaper Settings 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.

Watched Indicators

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

Status / Trending Indicators

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.

Manually activate the device screensaver

Users can now manually activate their screensaver by pressing the back button while the home tab is highlighted. 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.

Activate the Home Directory from anywhere in the Home Feed

When browsing the home feed, users can now long press the back button to activate the Home Directory 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.

Roadmap / What's Next

These last few updates put a close to a set of **very large **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.

• User Profiles / Profile Switching

• Multi-Server support for Plex

• Version / Quality selector when opening Plex media

• Support for Android / Google TV notifications, including Now Playing and Casted Media notifications.

• Translate Dispatch into other languages (If you'd like to help translate Dispatch, please leave a comment here)

• Continue investigations into the possibility of integrating with Stremio, as it is by far the most popular feature request.