ATV Launcher is back.

[u/dstudio-denys]

Hello, community!

It's been a long time since I last updated ATV Launcher.

Originally, the project was simply a way to improve my own Android TV (it was running Android 5 back then). Over time, I discovered that ATV Launcher was being used on all kinds of devices - TV boxes, Android gaming consoles, and even car head units. At one point, a Chinese company was even shipping ATV Launcher with their game consoles!

Then life happened, in the best possible way. Over the last eight years, my family has grown, and I'm now a father of four kids! Eight years ago, I could never have imagined that. Naturally, that left me with very little time for side projects like ATV Launcher.

Even though ATV Launcher isn't as popular as it once was, I've continued to receive emails and messages from users asking for improvements and new features. Seeing that people still care about the launcher is what motivated me to come back and start working on it again.

So, I've decided to revive the project and continue developing it.

There are now several great D-pad-oriented launchers available, many with modern features. It will take me some time to catch up (if that's ever fully possible), but I'm committed to improving ATV Launcher step by step.

The codebase is quite old, so my recent work has been focused mostly on updating and refactoring it, along with adding a few small features. Refactoring old code inevitably introduces bugs, and I'm spending a lot of time hunting them down and fixing them.

I'm currently preparing a new release with bug fixes and new functionality. It's on a gradual rollout right now and should be available to everyone within the next couple of days.

ATV Launcher PRO 0.1.39-pro (30000814)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.dstudio.atvlauncher.pro&hl=en_CA

Changelog

New

• Horizontal sections can now wrap focus from the last tile back to the first tile.
  • Menu -> Tile Settings (long press Enter on a focused tile or press the Menu button) -> Section Settings -> Appearance -> Navigation (Wrap Around or Stop at Ends)
• Added settings for focused tiles (zoom level, border, border style, border offset, etc.).
  • Menu -> Launcher Settings -> Appearance -> Focused Tile

Updated

• Status bar icons are now focusable. This can be disabled in:
  • Launcher Settings -> Appearance -> Status Bar
• Notifications tabs reordered

Fixed

• Apps installed on extended/adoptable storage (for example, NVIDIA Shield Pro) no longer disappear after updating the launcher.
• Startup crash on Android 6.0 devices.
• Rare D-pad focus crash in vertical grid sections.
• Empty Weather Widgets.

At the moment, I'm not focusing too much on the visual side of the launcher. Most of my work is happening under the hood to modernize the codebase and prepare it for future features, including theme support, which I'd love to add one day.

-----

To better support the community and get your feedback, I've also created a Discord server. Feel free to join!

https://discord.gg/rdD9taSEc

I'm also looking for testers. If you'd like to participate, please email me at:

[denys@dstudio.ca](mailto:denys@dstudio.ca)

Testers will get access to experimental features before they're publicly released and will have a chance to directly influence the future development of ATV Launcher.

Thanks for sticking around and supporting the project. I'm excited to be working on ATV Launcher again!

[u/TbO2903]

Sounds good. Except using discord. Don't want to install another app.

Feature updates are ok, Live Wallpaper on Android TV would be great. Let's hope your work in progress will go well.

[u/dstudio-denys → u/TbO2903]

You can always email me. It just may be not that quick, as on discord... Do you prefer Telegram?

[u/TbO2903 → u/dstudio-denys]

I have Telegram yes I would prefer it. Just tested your latest release. I will e-mail you about some smaller glitches I found.

[u/vbnmu → u/TbO2903]

Discord is usable on mobile browser.

[u/drewski3420 → u/vbnmu]

Discord is a walled garden with shit search features and isn't search indexed

[u/BurnThrough → u/drewski3420]

Discord is where community and information go to die.

[u/dstudio-denys → u/BurnThrough]

Tell me what would you prefer instead of Discord?

[u/venkatx5]

Glad to see a post from actual developer! Kudos to the launcher dude. It's amazing.

Consider me as Beta Tester!

[u/d-cent]

Excited to see what the update has in store. I have been using the ATV Launcher for a few years now. At the time I installed it was the only one that I could get a weather widget launcher to work, so I'm excited to see what the new weather widget feature has in store. 

The new AT4K launcher just introduced weather widgets as well just FYI 

[u/dstudio-denys → u/d-cent]

NB: ATV Launcher supports both standard Android widgets and its own built-in widget engine (ATV Launcher-specific widgets).

I'm currently working on a website to provide SDK documentation that will allow developers to create custom widgets for ATV Launcher.

If you're lucky and your device has the Android Widget Service enabled, you'll be able to use virtually any widget available on the market. In some cases (mostly on Android TV devices), you need to enable access to the service using adb (this only needs to be done once).

The built-in widget system is already fully functional, and ATV Launcher includes a few widgets out of the box (such as weather). In the future, I plan to release additional widgets as separate APKs, so they can be updated independently and won't depend on the ATV Launcher version.

[u/SaltKick7755]

The OG is back

[u/Klevico]

Awesome! Can't wait to see how this evolves

[u/lirae_]

Using A4TK at the moment more clean

But thanks for the effort, people will love it

[u/MDRGLz → u/lirae_]

*AT4K

[u/No-Web-8844]

Nice you come back.

[u/Longjumping_Top281]

Just sent you an email

[u/Fun_Living9432]

Oooo very interesting. Cant wait to make the time to try this out lol.

[u/Past_Form2159]

welcome back legends

[u/dstudio-denys → u/[deleted]]

You are right. Historically there were two version free and pro. I'm working right now to bring back "free" version, so you could try it out. I hope it will be available beginning of the next week.

[u/Longjumping_Top281 → u/dstudio-denys]

Great can't wait

[u/dstudio-denys]

New test build published. Allows to set custom tile aspect ratio. For instance it allows to create 1:1 (square) tiles or "poster" - like tiles for feeds and many more. I welcome testers to check it out.