On the current state of MaxLock
As you might have noticed, there wasn't a lot of activity on the app in the last 1-2 years. In fact, I didn't even look into the source apart from a small maintainance release back in June. That means, there was no progress on meaningful changes this year at all.
What are the reasons for that?
First of all, it's lack of motivation. The code in it's current form (with the new locking algorithm partly implemented) is a huge mess, and always when I tried to get into it again, it kinda drove me away again. Also, to put it bluntly, there were just more interesting projects to work on - I spent a lot of time this year contributing to Niagara Launcher, but I also had many other small projects that were more interesting to me. Additionally, University is taking a huge cut of my free time as well.
What next?
I still want to get into and work on MaxLock again, because I know the huge potential and usefulness it has, and I don't want to let you down. The thing is, I want to make my work as painless as possible - that my motivation doesn't get instantly killed again because of weird framework bugs and having to support exotic configurations.
That means:
Dropping support for Android 6 and below - that makes testing much easier and removes a lot of compatibility code
Completely remove all Xposed-related code, as the locking implementation will be replaced anyway - unfortunately, that also means the recents thumbnail hiding will be gone. It was way too complicated to support throughout the different Android versions and OEM skins, so it's probably for the best.
Slim down the UI customizations - I know some of you love customization, but I think that I've gone too far with MaxLock - it has way too many toggles, and the sheer amount of options was always intimidating to new/inexperienced users. After working a long time with @8bitpit on Niagara, I've learned that it's better to have less, but meaningful options, to result in an all-in-all better product.
On the other hand, I plan to add a lot of improvements to MaxLock:
First of all, the new locking implementation - only requires root (preferring Magisk, because that also supports startup scripts)
Redesigned lockscreen, supporting in-screen FP readers and other biometric authentication methods
A much less confusing configuration experience
Hopefully better support for multiwindow, I need to do some tests on that though
Potentially digital wellbeing features, if I find enough time
Performance improvements
So, what do you think? I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback on my thoughts, as well as other feature requests or ideas for improving the app-experience.
By the way, there is also a Telegram group that I created way back, if you want, you can join and discuss with me there:
https://t.me/MaxLock