It’s been a while since we released Smart Launcher 6.4, but we’ve been working hard to make this update packed with exciting content—and now it’s finally ready!
Your Feed
We heard you. The News Page was not customizable enough, and the Google Discovery integration never worked well (not our fault).
So, we’re introducing Your Feed, a new page you can customize with sources that are more relevant to you. It’s based on RSS technology, so if you can’t find a specific website, you can simply add it if you know its RSS URL.
And if you’re not familiar with RSS, don’t worry! The feed comes with a wide selection of sources suggested by other users, making it easy to find your favorite websites.
Translucent Widgets
When we developed our own widgets, we realized we could do more with this synergy. So, we started thinking about unique features for our widgets. Today, we’re introducing Translucent Widgets, which blur the background behind them with a beautiful frosted glass-like effect.
All our widgets support this new feature, and we’re exploring ways to extend it to some third-party widgets.
New launcher theme: Opaque Glass
We introduced the blur effect in Smart Launcher almost six years ago with SL5. When we applied the same effect to our widgets, we quickly realized it didn’t work well. That’s why we rebuilt our blur effect from scratch and split it into two versions:
1. Frosted Glass, similar to the original blur effect.
2. Opaque Glass, which has more opaque surfaces to improve readability on any wallpaper.
Unlike Frosted Glass, Opaque Glass adapts its appearance based on the current UI mode (light/dark).
New launcher theme: Material You
In SL6.4, we introduced the Material You theme for widgets. Now, we’re extending it to the rest of the launcher. Selecting this theme will let Smart Launcher use the same colors as Pixel Launcher to tint its surfaces.
KWGT backup
This is a big one! Many of our users are avid KWGT fans, so we’ve partnered with them to let you back up your customized widgets as part of your Smart Launcher backup. This makes your backups much more effective!
We’re still working with KWGT to improve the experience. For now, we recommend installing both KWGT and KWGT Pro before attempting a restore for the best results.
Other Improvements
- Free version upgrade: Free users can now enjoy unlimited extra home screens, with no restrictions.
- Privacy enhancements: Sharing your app list with our server is no longer required. Automatic app sorting is now optional and only requires sharing your app list if you choose to enable this feature.
- Enhanced color picker: The color picker now includes the complete Material You palette, making it easier to choose your favorite colors.
- Optimized for foldable and tablet devices: More screens have been redesigned to make better use of large screens, offering an improved experience.
- Auto-complete added for Bing, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant, StartPage, and Yahoo.
- Option to disable vibration when performing gestures.
- Option to automatically hide the music widget when no player is running.
- Ability to hide shortcuts and settings in search results.
But wait, I’m already using some of these features...
You’re not wrong! Since we switched to a trunk-based development process, new features are merged into Smart Launcher as soon as they’re ready. Then depending on our development needs, some features are immediately available, others are unlockable in preview, and some are inaccessible.
Smart Launcher 6.5 will make all these features available to everyone.
When will it be available?
Beta users will receive the update to SL6.5 with the next build (before the end of November). SL6.5 is expected to reach production on December 5 2024.
We’re excited for you to try these updates and share your feedback! Whether you’re a beta user or waiting for the official release, we hope you enjoy the experience.
Get ready to learn more about our future plans after the Christmas holidays!
