[APP]GCA Launcher (Deprecated)

Being a fan of Chromium OS and a passion for developing new and interesting things, I decided to build a launcher inspired by chromium os, based on Material Components.

GCA or GO Custom Android Launcher is a pixel design inspired launcher with core component features from chromium OS desktop. Its designed and built for Android Go but also offers new devices a fresh and new experience for your homescreen.

Supporting Android 5.x+, GCA offers a single screen launcher replacement app for android users who want a pixel lite experience. Alot of the offered features come from my other launcher, Sapphyx Launcher, and rebuilt to be faster, lighter and ultimately offer a better experience in a small package. It runs beautifully on Android Go, smooth on devices with Android 5 (Like the Kindle Fires) and offers a theme engine that's customizeable by the user.

GCA features are dependant on what Google Apps are installed that depend on an action, whether Google services is installed or not and specific apps that are installed (Action Dash for Dash System Shortcut)

Core Features
-A single screen setup (no grid, one widget).
-A customizeable App Drawer with multi-purpose search.
-The App Drawer features apps with system shortcuts and app shortcuts and allows users to blacklist apps.
-App Drawer supports a secondary "Work" tab to help organize apps in a better fassion.
-App Shortcuts generate a list of selectable app shortcuts in a vertical menu of the app popup.
-Recent Apps
-Easy to use launcher customization
-Pixel/Chromium desktop like Cosmetics
-Launcher uses my wallpaper app, Drywall, as default wallpaper provider. If its not installed, fallback on user selected.
-Notification Badges and Underlining. Clicking on the app will dismiss. Is not supported on Android Go unless activated by OEM.
-Adaptive Icons
-Icon Packs

Adaptive Icons
-GCA Launcher uses James Fenn's adaptive icon view library. The code itself was inspired by lawnchair's backport of adaptive icons for pre oreo devices. It pulls v26 icon assets for foregrounds and backgrounds and relayers them as an adaptive icon view which behave similar to pixel launchers adaptive icons. How you choose to use them will affect performance of the launcher and should be chosen dependant of how capable your device is. Users can select which shape of adaptive icon path they want to use. This will also apply itself to app actions, predictions and app drawer button.

There are 3 options of icons you may use for your drawer.
Pixel Adaptive - will try and generate adaptive icons based on the assets gathered by the icon and created by the system, this will slow down your app drawer depending on your hardware. (Not recommended for Android Go, Does not support icon packs)
Palette Adaptive - will disregard any assets available from the icon and simply scale the icon drawable as foreground and apply the dominant color of the icon for the background drawable (Faster than pixel adaptive, supports icon packs)
Normal Icons - normal default icon behavior and style


What's Not Working / WIP
-Icon Packs that generate their own icons like Icon Pack Studio may cause crashes, please don't use them. Icon Packs developed with BluePrint library are recommended.
-If external data usage permission is denied on first start, homescreen scrim will not be available or work correctly. Homescreen scrim will set to default white if using a live wallpaper.
-GCA is setup to change available features based on Android OS, if you notice something that may not be correct or crashes, let me know. This is your only paywall.
-Android 5.X support is limited but work in progress. Cosmetics and style need updated but it is functional. Please report back any inconveniences and crashes.
-Android 10 support has been added but we are monitoring performance and compatibility.
-Adaptive Shape Views and Adaptive Icon performance may vary on devices.

Changelog
-A detailed changelog can be found in the application settings. It is written in html so translation is your responsibility, html can be copied.

Donations
/ Pledges
-Yearly pledges have been implemented in the app. You are not obligated for any reason to purchase these but if you want regular updates, its recommended. Pledges keep the project alive and a few cups of coffee or a beer is sent my way (depending on time of day).

Downloads

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gocalsd.symphlyx

Xda Labs: https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/app/com.gocalsd.symphlyx

Telegram: Support channel can be found in the app settings

Bug Reports / Request
Please use the telegram channel or xda forums for bug reports and request. Do not use the Google Play ratings as a place for this stuff.

While making request, take into consideration how itl affect performance. We are keeping Android Go as our target OS. If itl consume memory or increase size massively , im not interested. We are aiming to keep customization minimal and the launcher simple but their could be different ways to approach currently implemented features, and id love to hear your ideas.

Project update: 02/24/20
Things are going accordingly to plan. However, I planned for the beta to be active by the end of the month however that's not going to happen because of a few things happening in the background.

I don't wanna say to much about the project but its looking pretty awesome. Improved predictive apps, improved smooth scrolling, improved drawer tabs, reworked notification listener and badges, new app sheet and more.

I will open a new thread for V2 as alot will be changing and anything regarding V1 will be disregarded.

Android Go Nokia 1 performance demonstration

Nokia 1 and Essential Phone performance comparison

Quick Preview of Symphlyx (Latest build)

8/11/19

Il be uploading a new video soon comparing performance on a variety of devices using Symphlyx Official

Just an update on the project. There is still no release date for version 2.0 but things are coming along with the rewrite. Here are some screens from development.

Here we see the first look at the new companion page, a revised navigation menu, the new sheet menu brining multi-purpose features and Groups(folders) feature in concept design.

I'm currently experimenting with individual icon editing as well. Its become a core feature requirement over the years and figured i would tackle this in GCA Launcher V2 with the new sheet menu. In the preview, Icons have their adaptive backgrounds toggled to show proof of concept.

There are alot of changes i have planned and hopefully it'll make a new launcher experience we will look forward to this year.

I plan to release a new update this weekend if the tracked bugs we have found in the new build are fixed in time. If not, I will wait till next weekend.

I will also be renaming the launcher and designing a new icon. Originally, Symphlyx was to be a lite version of Sapphyx Launcher but its grown to be more than that and alot has changed in the background.

There is currently a bug were Pledges cannot be purchased, i will be looking to correct this as well as users gaining a "title" when the launcher has detected a pledge has been purchased.

Right now, development is focusing on touch up and finalization of the few new things ive added this week. Categorizing the launcher settings was a step toward making the launcher feel like a launcher. The next step after that was to implement a menu that was more based on Material Components than a laggy bottomsheet. The new "work" tab makes the app drawer feel more pixel like and more professional. Menu items have been moved around to proper locations i felt was best and ground work has been laid for future customization to gestures and backup and restore functionality. Cyanea fixes have been implemented to allow better themeing and app drawer performance has been slightly improved as well as launcher standby performance.

Theirs a few things up my sleeve i am experimenting with that will come later. Im just see how users react to each new implementation before going forward with large feature placements.