Holiday Break & Update

I hope everyone is enjoying the GCA Launcher Open beta as much as I am. I’m pretty excited of how things are turning out this time around. Just hoping we can secure more users over the next couple of months. It’s almost Thanksgiving here in the states and I wanted to post a quick blog about a holiday update around the corner and catch up on some details.

Cost

With the launch of our last update, users are able to forecast just how much GCA Launcher will cost in its next segment of development. Now, a few of your mouths dropped when you looked at the full price. That’s not fake, that’s real and I wanted to talk about that.

If you use Niagara Launcher, you will see that launcher also has a large full time license price. In all honesty, I think that launcher probably should cost less becuase of the amount of customization it offers but where it lacks in customization is reliability and standards. With the launch of GCA Launcher v3 Open beta, users were met with several subscription options and a whopping 42 dollar user license. The development of GCA Launcher has been very in depth, critical to my image and eventful for me. In V3, new technology had to be invented to make this work. We are trespassing in environments that have not been created yet, Launcher code that has never seen the light of day. There’s not github repo that will save me. It’s all on me to make this work. So with that 42 dollar price tag, your paying to use code that’s never been invented before and I think that’s fair. This license sku is also the perfect place to hand out free license codes to founders who take the beta seriously and provide active feedback during the beta. The subscription cost were calculated to be fair, profitable and flexible. They exist to allow users to fluxuate their usage and partnership with me.

What’s Next In The Beta

Our next beta update is expected to drop around Thanksgiving. It’s taking alittle longer this time around as I didn’t really have a target or an objective. I decided to take a deep dive into icons and make sure they are doing what I want them to do. In our current build, users had noticed that applying a legacy icon pack and enabling the Wrap Older Icons feature in the icons category section caused some graphical issues. The icons did not render properly nor did they wrap properly. Wrapping was only acuring to adaptive icons which wasn’t necessary. Almost like it was confused by its logic. Thankfully, Launcher icon view is one of the few classes in GCA v3 that isn’t jetpack compose and has been designed to work as a compatibility view. Jetpack just doesn’t offer the options we need to display the icons how we want them so we just use it as a driver to power the view. This view has been in development for well over a year. It was the main focus of how I wanted apps to interact with users. Updating launcher icon view has been alittle more relaxing than the launcher itself and thankfully since it’s code is alittle more natural, I was able to refer to an instance in Lawnchair that actually helped me fix an issue with wrapping legacy icons. Launcher Icon View is basically the equivalent to Bubbletextview if anyone here is fluent is aosp and launcher3 code. It’s job is to present users launcher icons for apps, decide when and how to show notification badges and the behavior of adaptive icons. GCA Launcher has way more in depth control over the launcher icons so my custom view had to be alittle more complex. It actually has more classes than the launcher homescreen. Long story short, in our next update this holiday, you’ll see that icon packs will render faster, apply faster, wrapping legacy icons will work properly and  behavior will be more online with proper instances and events. Localized icon packs from Capenter app will also see some improvements.

Dynamic Calendar and Clock icons will be available as an option. This was actually one of the last things I was working on for GCA Launcher v2 but it never seen the light of day. By default, GCA will render its own calendar and clock icons from vectors it’s created. The calendar icon will render a new icon for each new day and the clock icon will update by the minute. Each icon will have a set of options and can be toggled off if it seems to bog down performance or battery life for your device. These icons will also be themeable based on compatible icon packs.

Folder Icons in the dock will see some improvements. Right now, the base folder icon view is based on jetpack compose so users have noticed that badges and bahavior arnt natural to the launcher icons and that’s very true. I may keep to this as it just works and folder icons need to be alittle more interactive than a standard launcher icon but I do plan to allow folder icon theming so this will be in the books. Users will be able to edit individual folder icons or allow a theme pack to auto theme them if they allow them to.

I will be looking to integrate a brand new issue and feature request tracker. This is for the long term and quality of life aspect of GCA Launcher. We had something similar in V2 but not a whole lot of people used it and it was alittle complex as it required a github account. This time around, I’m hoping it will not and you’ll be able to track these things as users start to submit them is the goal. This information may even be visible for the new page il be adding to GocalSD for GCA. Basically, we will be getting a featured page at GocalSD that will basically be an instructional manual for the launcher.

Speaking of instructions, the next update will hopefully start to shed light on instructions and tuturials. My Pantry app already has a Spotlight like feature I want to embed that in the launcher. This will allow me to walk users through instructions and tuturials on startup and help you learn GCA easier.

Translation support will begin as I will start to localize the strings for GCA as the infrastructure begins to be seen as complete.

I’m hoping to sneak a few more surprises in the next beta update but that is the run down of what il be working on for the next 2 weeks. Keep an eye on the GocalSD Facebook group for previews.

Holiday Break

IL be taking a break from coding for the holiday season so I can catch up on some video games, do some streaming, catch up on some chores before winter hits and of course spend the holidays with my family. I’m also eagerly awaiting my clicks communicator device so when that finally drops, il need to play around with that and than optimize GCA Launcher for small screens and keyboard access.

I will return shortly after Christmas events so I can get ready for the 2027 year. Even tho GCA Launcher launches in 2027, doesnt mean there’s a release date in stone yet. Take advantage of the beta, use up that free time and enjoy the free ride while it last.

IL be using this time to refresh myself and get ready for a succesful year. What I hope to be a successful year anyways.

GCA V3 Development Update

Before we get started, I seen this post from 2020 about icon customization in v2 getting to what we know today. I found that to be amusing when I had rebuilt all of that in about 3 months of time and with less code in jetpack conpose

Icons, Icons and Icons

This week has been a busy week as I cranked out alot of issues and we gained some momentum. It’s surprising to know how much I ignored while doing some internal test. Most likely becuase I was focused on the UI elements and not what it was actually providing.

Yesterday, I ended the weekend with one last hotfix update for this week’s spree of updates while including a new, we’ll old, feature. The all apps button returns and it’s theme able. I understand some users may have larger fingers so swiping and gestures may not be your thing and the swipe up indicator might be too small. To access the all apps button, simply remove an app from one of your dock slots and click on an empty slot and there will be an option to add an all apps button. Like other apps, you can edit the icon with an icon pack or a custom chosen icon. This icon has a similar ID as older launchers but behave similar to how older launchers would handle the button. We migrated it from an action in your dock as an action that could be moved around back in the day.

Clicking on an empty slot on your dock will now allow you to place folders and an all apps button. Since this button has an ID, it is also themeable but supporting icon packs and you can apply your own icon to it. Some icon packs have some cool all apps buttons that are now forgotten to age.

Additionally, this week’s updates improved on performance, optimization and and foldable support. I also cracked down on packages slipping into the app drawer that shouldn’t be in there. Apparently driver updates, time zone updates and other apex packages where making there way in our app drawer and we thought they were broken packages but they weren’t, they were just secret packages that android used that GCA was picking up. I might turn this into a feature actually… Some package monitor repo you can monitor to keep an eye on possible malware…

What’s next?

The base infrastructure of GCA Launcher v3 is nearly done that I’m proud to say. I’m not ffraid to advertise or push the launcher to other people to try without needing to standby and monitor for a bug I know exist.

Dynamic calendar icons are on the menu. Users will be able to toggle this new feature in the theme category settings.

Right now, the focus is not to add any more new features and crack down on what we already have. The idea is too either solidify pre existing features or add some needed customization.

I wouldn’t consider this a feature but a requirement for a launcher but dynamic icons will also be themeable.

Dynamic icons are the last added feature I wanna include in the base infrastructure. This includes calendar and clock drawables. Right now, I’m working on the clock icon but the calendar icon is pretty locked down. GCA Launcher will generate these icons by default and fallback to icon pack support if needed. If the feature is turned off, GCA will use default icons.

This week, il be working on UI touch up as you’ll notice some buttons kinda misplaced, maybe text not fitting or graphics not working as expected. This is me in training with jetpack. I’m completely new to the language so there are gonna be some issues we run into. My goal is to optimize ui and graphics in our menus and settings windows, add customization to panes still needing customization, unify any settings interfaces that may have been experimental at the time, ensure all customization is mapped correctly, ensure the search in settings is wired correctly.

We probably will not have daily updates this week since I’m confident now things are working as expected but I do want users to understand they are allowed to reach out and submit request.

The plus one button should also be added in our next update. If your unaware what that is, it’s a widget I created that unifies all of my apps. This widget is basically a signature board. You click it, add a name and it’s posted for everyone to see. It’s your way of saying, this app is awesome and I approve. If you download the gsd Mobile app, itl show the total clicks we got as a community.

License options also went live this weekend as users are able to forecast the prices of GCA Launcher. As a beta user, you are privileged to a beta subscription founder price. You can either pay a full license price or do a yearly or monthly subscriptions. Once the beta ends, the founder subscription ends and the normal monthly price becomes active. Pro features have not been decided yet but you will soon see those badges start appearing next to settings. Once the beta ends, those settings will be locked behind a pay wall. My goal is to create a default user experience that makes Gca Launcher feel complete and allow pro features act as benifits and not requirements.

That’s all I got today, I hope to see you all return to Gca Launcher. Spread the word, we’re back and looking for a community again.

GCA Open Beta Starts Now

As a gift to the community for waiting patiently with what I wanted to do with Gca Launcher, The open beta is now available on Google Play. The old playstore listing was booted up and we are live.

There is a terms of service to quickly read over as it won’t kill you to do so, updating you on quality expectations, payment expectations and what I expect from you.

GCA Launcher v3 is about bringning excitement back to the table for customization and being modern. We aren’t like the other guys. I built something very unique and I invite you to try it. Several members have already noticed and reviews are updating almost instantly and that alone speaks for itself. “were you really hanging on to this Launcher for 4 years of inactivity?”

IL see you out there!

Carpenter Update Incoming

Oh look, A new look for the Carpenter app

Carpenter will be receiving a new look with its upcoming update that will be releasing besides GCA Launcher v3

This new update brings jetpack compose front and center and gives the app a brand new look and feel. With the new update, I focused on making the app being more approachable, new ways to create icons, a much faster database, a more compact interface and less “fluff” and some new features that bind itself to Gca Launcher as a companion app (sorta like lawnicons with lawnchair, icon pack studio for smart launcher and so on…)

Carpenter brings a few new features to Gca Launcher

• A new asset picker that allows users to access their assets list while editing icons in GCA. This means users can use custom built icons in GCA.
• A new categorized icon picker interface allowing users to browse icon packs for a specific icon to use in GCA icon editing.
• A new review action that allows users to view an apps community feedback based on Google Play reviews.
• Create local icon packs and install them to their internal storage and load it like a normal icon pack to Gca Launcher v3

As fas as new features in Carpenter goes

• A brand new interface that plays a big part in the revised database
• Improved cache systems to improve load times for huge icon packs
• An Improved system to understand the difference between legacy icon packs, adaptive icon packs and monochromic icon packs
• Legacy icon packs that have backing, masking and upon layers can be toggled while browsing icons
• These same layers can be accessed with compatible icon packs while crafting
• Improved search and data models
• Improved assets meta data and badge recognition
• Improved Google play publisher information models

Carpenters paid model will also be modified to support a subscription model. Users who have paid for an advanced or expert tier user experience are now treated as lifetime license owners (making these options unavailable anymore) while users who still use Carpenter as a pay as you go experience, can continue to do so while the new subscription model gives you unlimited access to the app.

This update should be launching in November alogn side a possible open beta to Gca Launcher v3

The new api described for GCA Launcher from Carpenter will be accessible to other launchers if they wish to use said features, all they need to do is ask.

Project Drosera Update

So, this is a project that we do need to talk about so let’s get into it.

It’s been roughly 3 years since I announced it and started releasing previews for the launcher. It’s been rewritten about 3 times and put on the bench several times becuase of its state of development. It’s still on the bench and it’s getting cold.

Due to recent development in the gaming era and Ai era for android, newer gaming technology has surfaced. Android is no longer just responsible for mobile gaming, it can now play console games natively. It can now play steam games natively. Emulation was just the starting point but native ports is the cake. We also have cloud streaming (which is expensive) and remote streaming (which can also be expensive based on the household tech you own).

So where does this leave Drosera Launcher? This Launcher was supposed to be a reimagination of the Xbox 360 blades ui. With the AI rampage currently going on the internet and jetpack compose tech literrly able to copy and build anything it sees. It’s hard to keep up with original development now.

Drosera will still launch but it will be for a different purpose. I have to sit down with myself and see what my options are. Right now, my plans are to use it to launch a new android tv launcher. Something could also be used in tablets and handhelds. This Launcher is currently being designed to be a holder for your games and that’s about it. I was going to go full on with cloud and server back end features but I don’t think it’s worth it anymore seeing how Droid deck works, game native and some other cool projects in the makings. Maybe, il team up with someone and we’ll turn it into a Droid deck alternative.

I basically lost the race in the project as I didn’t have what I needed to complete that journey so we will see where this project leads. Maybe il just focus on the Xbox community and create some mobile Xbox experience. Seems like a good fit.

IL have more information leading up to more development later but long story short, the original vision I had for the project has died due to new projects surfacing and I can’t compete with it.

GCA Launcher 3 Internal Testing

If you have any interest in testing Gca Launcher 3 before it hits the playstore in 2027, please join the GocalSD Facebook group and we will discuss what will happen next at a later date

Follow on Facebook

GCA Launcher 3.0 Preview Tour

I published a video today for you to observe some of the many changes coming to GCA Launcher 3.0 coming in 2027

In the video, I demonstrate the homescreen ui, app drawer functionality, dock functionality, widget support, some user settings and the new sheets interface.

View the video here

As a reminder, I am posting frequent updates on development on the new X account and on our Facebook community page if you wanna keeps tabs on it.

Pantry Pilot Open Beta

Pantry Pilot (Final Name still pending) is now available to all users on Google Play to test. This app is simply for people who need help with the following… grocery budgeting, a smart check off list, price awareness, recipe keeper, purchase history and personal awareness of items in your pantry.

Download on Google Play

Click the link above to give it a whirl and see if it helps you with your shopping needs.

Social Media Update

I’m going to be conducting an experiment and make an account on X for the remaining quarter of the year. If the account is successful at gaining followers, we will keep it, if it hangs in the air, it will be dismissed again. This experiment is going based on a few request I had. You can follow our new X account here

The Return

Word has gotten out that GCA Launcher is returning and I’m hear to say, yes, yes it is.

I’m finishing the 2026 year by getting back to my launcher development roots and rebuilding GCA Launcher. This is not an update, this is a relaunch and I wanted to share some concrete details about the project and where to follow Development

So for starters, if you havn’t started following GocalSD on Facebook, I suggest you should or download the goclasd mobile app from my github so you can follow the project.

The launcher will still hold heart to its original objective which was to be a single screen launcher. What held me back years ago was technology and knowledge. Everything I wanted this Launcher to do than, will become a reality on release.

This may be the first launcher to release based on compose. This means that performance is an absolute objective for a wide range of devices, including 45 dollar straight talk phones. Compose will allow me to dive into new technology driven software methods. Something I’m excited to create with.

GCA Launcher will stick to its roots with customization, a left and right panel, a workspace driven by custom gestures and widget access to a dock for user shortcuts and an app drawer. A simple yet powerful idea.

Users will be introcuded to new customization settings, icon styles, and pixel phone like benifits. Consider it like a single screen pixel experience.

GCA will feature a new dynamic gradient icon style and a powerful minimal style inspired by pixel launcher.

Announcement of this project has seemed to spike alot of interest so keep tabs and il have more to share soon!