Lightning Launcher 7.2.1

🔳 Shortcut Updates

• Now that sideloaded apps can be properly added to the dock, Facebook and Monday shortcuts have been discontinued
  • They will continue to work for now if they're installed. You can uninstall them by uninstalling their replaced app from the default app library.
• People, Horizon Feed, and App Library shortcut services have all been updated
  • Strings are extracted programmatically and should accurately reflect all languages
  • It will be much easier to update shortcuts if updates break them
  • New icons! Icons have the LightningLauncher logo on the background color of the respective app
  • You can add each shortcut to your dock as an alternate Lightning Launcher window; this doesn't require activating the respective shortcut service
  • You no longer need to activate a shortcut to uninstall it
• A new "Store" shortcut has been added

🔍 Search Options

• You can now choose not to show hidden apps in search results #126
• You can now choose not to show web searches

🛠️ Misc. Fixes and Improvements

• Hidden apps will no longer appear in the search screen before a query is made
• Lightning Browser will now be checked for updates after launching a web page
• Apps now open in new windows by default (will not apply if a related setting has been manually changed)
• Windows opened from shortcut services will no longer sometimes fail to close #125
• Scroll position is retained when packages are installed or uninstalled #127
• VR apps are now more accurately detected; 2D unity games should no longer count as VR apps

7.2.1

• Fix an issue where the Lightning Browser updater would activate incorrectly
• Force an update to the latest version of Lightning Browser which fixes some relevant bugs

Addons for 7.2.0

App redirect addons are removed and no longer necessary, as you can now pin third-party apps to the dock.

All shortcut service addons have been updated, and should now work in all languages. Future updates will still be required if and when Meta changes strings again. Store shortcut has been added.

Lightning Launcher 7.1.1

🖼️ Icon & Banner Updates

• Thanks to an update to Basti's Icon Repo, Lightning Launcher will now display correct, high-res icons and banners for ALL apps from the Quest store, including app lab titles
• Basti's repo is now correctly prioritized for more up-to-date icons & banners for many apps
• Icons & Banners are now updated less frequently, which will drastically decrease internet usage by the launcher, and slightly decrease performance impact
• When selecting a custom icon (or custom wallpaper), a more standard interface is now used, which optionally allows for a full file browser

🔃 Updater Rework

• The updater has been reworked from the ground up (& could now be used in other projects)
• This shouldn't change anything super noticeable to the end-user, but should minimize potential issues in the future

🛠️ Misc. Fixes

• Non-Quest icons are now fetched correctly from Basti's Icon Repo, thanks to @basti564
• Machine-translated bits of Chinese have been replaced with proper translations, thanks again to @VMatrices
• Most panel apps now use official icons & banners
• Fixed a few crashes that could potentially occur due to manipulation of app data
• The window now correctly clears when background translucency is enabled in advanced settings
• Lightning Browser will now be downloaded correctly when it updates independently of the launcher

Changed in 7.1.1

• VR apps with missing icons will now check the repo more frequently, 2D apps will check the repo less frequently
• Fixed a crash that could occur when installing a downloaded apk

Lightning Launcher 7

✨ Improved App Grid

• If app names are hidden, they will now be shown temporarily on hover
• Square apps and banner apps can now appear on the same row
• The layout of apps has been slightly improved
• New animations for the app grid when apps are shown/hidden/moved

🤹 Improved Multitasking (Quest Only)

• If an app is open in the launcher window, and the launcher is minimized (but not closed), that app can now be resumed
  • The other app will only be resumed if Lightning Launcher is opened from the same method
  • Use different shortcuts as different windows
  • Use the close button & reopen to get back to the launcher (same as before)

📺 Better Cross-Platform Support

• Apps now have sharper corners on Android TV, similar to the native ATV launcher
• Hover animations have been updated slightly on Quest, and are more visible on Android TV
• Various optimizations have been made which should benefit low-power devices
• The default Android TV wallpaper is now much less bright
• Transparent backgrounds are no longer available on Android TV, as they caused numerous issues

🌐 Lightning Browser

• A browser is no longer included in Lightning Launcher
  • Instead, Lightning Browser is available as a separate download
  • When opening a website, you will now be prompted to install Lightning Browser, similar to installation of app updates
• The size of the launcher itself is now drastically decreased
  • The browser will receive its own updates only when needed, speeding up launcher updates
  • The browser can, of course, not be installed to save a bit of storage space
  • Separate 64-bit-only builds are no longer needed (LightningLauncher64.apk is provided for the updater, but is identical to the main build)

🐇 Under-the-Hood Improvements

• All settings have been migrated from SharedPreferences to the DataStore
  • DataStore is newer, asynchronous, and more performant
  • Old settings should be automatically migrated, but don't be surprised if not everything carries over
  • This will hopefully fix issues people have been having with resetting groupings/icons
  • Old settings backups will no longer work after the update
• Initial loading has been sped up significantly
  • Less data is saved persistently now - only what is needed
  • More tasks are performed asynchronously, so the app should no longer 'lock up' when reloading
• Deprecated classes have been updated
• App icons should now be updated automatically, no need to clear the icon cache
• Files are now only stored for downloaded & custom icons, reducing storage space used by the launcher

🛠️ Bug Fixes

• The Monday.com shortcut will no longer show up in the app list
• The addons menu in the browser can now be properly navigated on Android TV devices
• Addons have been updated to be case-insensitive and work when things aren't translated
• Press-up-to-search on Android TV has been removed as it caused issues with key-repeat
• The gradient effect option has been removed, as in incurred a significant performance impact
• The main scroll view should no longer be reset without user input
• Various regressions have been fixed since the pre-release of version 7

Changes in 7.0.1

• Added an option to export/import groupings
• Exported settings/groupings now correctly used the .preferences_pb file format
  • Backups from before 7.0.0 will no longer be erroneously used
  • Backups from 7.0.0 must be manually renamed
• Fixed a typo on github that could cause the updater to fail when automatically upgrading from older versions on arm64
• Improved null safety
• Importing settings now works properly if settings are currently in use
• Fix an auto-update issue present only in 7.0.0

Changes in 7.0.2

• Fix a regression where certain Meta Quest panel apps would not appear (Store, Move, Explore)
• Meta Quest browser will now be detected as a panel app (previously: VR app)
• Added the ability to open PWAs, including the Xbox Cloud App
  • PWAs are currently counted as panel apps, as they are handled the similarly by the OS

Icon Repo Update

• As of 2/3/2024, Basti's Icon Repo now supports app lab apps, and a few others
• That means Lightning Launcher will now display correct, high-res icons and banners for app lab icons
• If you are running Lightning Launcher 7.0.0 or newer, these icons will be downloaded automatically; No action is required

翻译 Chinese Translation!

• A Chinese (Simplified) translation has been added by @VMatrices
• Some pieces of text have been changed since their translation, and are instead machine translated
• The whole app is now in simplified Chinese, if your system is set to it. This applies to Lightning Browser as well!

Lightning Launcher 7 (Pre-Release)

Note

This is a major update, with potential for issues & regressions.
It is currently marked "preview" - as this is a release candidate that needs to be installed manually.
If you experience any issues, please let me know!
Once I have some feedback and confirmation it works as intended on others' devices, I will push it as a regular update to everyone.

Changes in pre-release versions:

Update 1:

• Fixed an issue where "display as banner" setting would not apply until the launcher was restarted
• Fixed an issue where migration would run every startup
• Fixed an issue where the app list would sometimes not load

Update 2:

• Fixed an issue where label changes would not apply immediately
• Fixed an issue where the same app would temporarily display twice
• Fixed a few issues which could lead to incorrect sizing & margins of apps

Check the main release for full change list

Addons for 7.0.0

All shortcut services have been updated to remove case-sensitivity. You only need to update if you have issues.

LightningLauncher 6.3.0

Update for Quest OS v60

✨ New Additions

• Background transparency can now be adjusted
  • This will only work properly when passthrough is enabled on the Quest
  • This may cause visual issues or poor readability
• New Monday.com App Redirect
  • This is functionally identical to the Facebook App Redirect, but instead replaces an unpopular productivity app
  • This is intended as an alternative for if Facebook becomes unavailable on the Quest (as has happened before)
• The new Remote Display (beta) app can now be launched
  • An icon for this app has also been added to my icon repository

🛠️ Fixes in 6.3

• The Library Shortcut now works correctly on v60 (This may break again in the future, as v60 is missing translations for 'Library')
• The internal browser will no longer cause a crash when a prompt is opened after changing activities
• All shortcuts now close themselves more reliably, which should reduce cases where certain apps do not open properly
• The search bar will now correctly blur the background on Android TV when groups are disabled

Addons for 6.3.0

All add-ons have been updated.

• AppLibraryShortcut updated to work with v60
• MondayRedirect has been added

As of 1/1/2024, the App Library shortcut has been updated to hopefully resolve some issues with the latest Quest OS updates. You need to uninstall & reinstall the shortcut from the app to get this update for now.

LightningLauncher 6.2.3

Update for Quest v59 PTR

v59 broke a lot of stuff! This update should fix at least most of it. As always, bug reports are greatly appreciated.

🌐 Browser Overhaul

• The browser now uses GeckoView - the engine which powers FireFox - instead of android system webview
  • While not quite a straight upgrade, this has much better compatibility with a wide variety of websites
  • Discord is working perfectly once again
  • You can now upload files to the browser as well as download
  • APK mirror now longer crashes, added as a search option
• Background websites should run more smoothly with less impact on system performance
  • No more audio stutters when switching activities!
  • Background audio now works properly with YouTube
• WebExtensions are now supported!
  • Download your favorite addons from the official Firefox Addons site
  • Enable/Disable/Uninstall/Configure them from a new menu in the browser
• There are some regressions, unfortunately:
  • Tidal no longer works correctly and has been removed from the preset list
  • Spotify now uses the mobile site, though I've included a custom extension to improve it
  • The install size is a lot larger, expect the updater to take a minute or two

🐇 Updated Shortcuts

• Explore shortcut updated to work with Horizon Feed rebrand
  • Will now work on v59
  • Should still work fine on older versions
• Horizon Feed and App Library Shortcuts should now work on all system languages
  • Chinese has been fixed, missing languages have been added
  • The launcher itself is still English-only; translation PRs would be appreciated!
• Facebook Messenger shortcut is now replaced with Facebook Shortcut
  • The old version should still still work, but launches in a very small window
  • The new version works as the messenger shortcut used to
• A new "People" shortcut has been added as an extra option
  • The feed icon can now be hidden by disabling the Explore app, so this is the last non-removable icon!

✨ Misc. Interface Improvements

• The app options menu will now show the app's version on the bottom-right
• An additional size has been added to the advanced launch options
• Some strings have been made more clear
• The app should now reload itself a bit less
• General stability improvements

🛠️ Updates in 6.2.1

• Reworked Icon Cache
  • Your icons will be reset upon updating! (This shouldn't need to happen again after this)
  • Custom icons/banners are stored in their own folder and won't be touched unless you manually remove them
  • Custom icons/banners are retained when switching between banner/square display
  • When an icon download fails due to no internet connection, it will now be retried on the next cold launch
  • You can clear custom icons/banners or the icon cache separately from a new menu
  • Large icons/banners are now saved at a lower resolution for smaller file size
• Improved Background Audio
  • The background audio task now runs with a higher priority, which significantly improves choppy Discord calls
  • Some latency is still common
• Added a button to quickly open the Firefox Addons website when viewing the list of addons
• Moved advanced settings to their own menu
• Added explicit back buttons to some popups that didn't have an obvious way to exit
• Removed the scrollbar from the main view as it was interfering with hovering on apps
• Improved clarity in a few places

🛠️ Updates in 6.2.2

• Added option in app details to open added websites in Meta Quest Browser instead of the internal LL Browser
• Re-added support for 32-bit arm devices, updater will now check platform support for future updates
• Fixed an issue where you would not be prompted to select a custom wallpaper image
• Fixed an issue where invalid "Open In" options could be displayed for websites
• Updated GeckoView (119 -> 120)

🛠️ Updates in 6.2.3

• Fixed an issue where wallpaper would sometimes not display correctly when an activity was reused
• Fixed a crash when changing the "Enable Groups" setting

Addons for 6.2.0

All add-ons have been updated.

• Explore Shortcut -> Horizon Feed Shortcut, supports v59
• Horizon Feed Shortcut & App Library Shortcut now support all languages
• Messenger Shortcut replaced with Facebook Shortcut, has correct window size in v59
• New People Shortcut

"ShortcutFaceebook.apk" works around a typo in v6.0.0-6.0.1, 6.0.2+ will use "ShortcutFacebook.apk"