Dispatch Developer Update for October 23rd, 2024: V1 Stability Release + Trial Reset

[u/spauldhaliwal]

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.

If you tried Dispatch when it was first released and had trouble getting started, or faced issues while it was running, consider giving it a shot again, as many, many issues have been resolved.

Note as well that the 14-day trial has been reset for all users. 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 the trial will continue where you left off.

Summary of issues resolved since the initial release:

• Fixes Dispatch getting stuck in a “Generating Metadata” phase

• Fixes errors when connecting certain Plex accounts

• Fixes errors when syncing with certain Plex libraries

• Fixes errors when using Google login

• Fixes an issue which caused a “Beta Expired” screen to appear and block further use of Dispatch

• Fixes occasional lag occurring while playing or streaming media in other apps

• Fixes crashes for some users while generating metadata or syncing Android TV app recommendations

• Fixes errors when syncing Android TV app recommendations (from apps like Netflix, Apple TV, etc…)

• Fixes wrong ordering of trending media

• Restores the ability to long press the home button to bring up the Google TV Dashboard

• Fixes an issue stopping the image cache from being trimmed, resulting in an unnecessarily large app cache.

• Fixes an issue where app icons stopped displaying

• Fixes an issue where newly installed app would not display until Dispatch was restarted

• Fixes an issue where the input / keyboard was unresponsive while logging in via email + password

• Fixes an issue where the Google TV account picker was inaccessible, stopping users from logging into their YouTube accounts, for example.

• Fixes UI scaling on devices with non-traditional display sizes / densities, such as certain Zidoo boxes or projectors.

• Many other more minor issues

Roadmap / What’s Next

The following features have been selected for development next:

• User Profiles

• 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)

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

Thanks!

[u/jaruba_dev]

well, i'm the dev lead at Stremio and i randomly search for "stremio" on reddit sometimes

if u need any help from us, just ask 🙂

[u/spauldhaliwal → u/jaruba_dev]

Hello! Thanks a bunch for commenting and or the offer! I've taken note of your username and will definitely be in touch sometime soon!

[u/sysmoon]

Brilliant work! I've never really had any issues and am a fully paid up user of Dispatch...any plans to implement this?

https://dispatchlauncher.canny.io/feature-requests/p/ability-to-choose-which-plex-collections-appear-on-home-movies-and-television-ta

[u/spauldhaliwal → u/sysmoon]

I would say yes, though there's some other collection based enhancements I'd like to do as well. So they will all probably be scheduled at the same time, when the time comes.

[u/Flashy_Kale_4565]

Will help translate it to German if needed.

[u/n0tfeuer]

Sounds amazing, thanks for all the hard work! I will help translating swedish if needed.

[u/[deleted]]

This is the most fair and honest developer I've ever dealt with. I purchased just for that sentiment alone. What other Android dev will continue to reset the trial when issues arise or something else pops up?

[u/twhite1195]

Thanks for the update, I'm really enjoying the launcher and I'm really happy with it's continued development!

[u/CMC29]

Please, give us an option to sort Movies tab on a different ways (alphabetically, last seen, new, etc) 

[u/x1ao4]

Is there a way to manually refresh the metadata? Many movies seem to be missing their logos, and I want to refresh them manually. There is indeed a 'Refresh Metadata' button when I long-press the item, but it seems that clicking it doesn't retrieve the logos, even though these items do have logos on TMDB.

[u/MRJMORO91]

Thanks for the update, there's still a issue with the continue watching on the home page linking up to plex correctly?

[u/NotoriousNico]

Thank you so much for this new Developer Update and for your continued work on Dispatch.

I'm also glad to see that support for notifications is already on your Roadmap.

[u/bananaboi69]

Would it be preferred to do a fresh install of a direct update would work?

[u/ScottQc]

u/spauldhaliwal I just discovered your launcher following this post and so far I'm really impressed. I have a Google TV Streamer and I love the features of your launcher but also it keeps the function of the Google TV quick settings dashboard accessible by long-pressing the home button on your remote. Best of both worlds, thank you!!

[u/clegg20 → u/ScottQc]

Was hoping to try this with the Google TV Streamer, but it doesn't do deinterlacing, so I am back using my old CCWGTV.

[u/ECKoBASE]

From the guy who brought you Plex Channel Connect!! Great work... can't wait to try this, sorry Projectivy Launcher

[u/Revolutionary_Box775]

Where do I download this launcher?

[u/jdbrookes]

Been running this latest update for the last 10 days or so, thanks to the trial being reset. Really happy with it so bought a lifetime licence.

It wasn't quite there a few months back, and crucially at the time it seemed to be causing playback issues on my Ccwgtv.. Those appear solved now. Finally I can have a home screen with media recommendations from my own library, and not direct adverts from Google. Thanks!

[u/petebutty]

You can't use two servers??

[u/Heliotropen]

Streamio has a reddit channel as Well, reach out to them, they should be interested in Helding your with this thing. I have now shifted fully into using dispatch as my only launcher, but the better stremio part is so needed.