The most ambitious third-party Android TV launcher yet
Exploring the Most Innovative Third-Party Android TV Launcher to Date
In the ever-evolving cosmos of Android TV, a fresh face has emerged - Dispatch.
This isn't your average, everyday launcher. It's a sleek, contemporary, feed-based interface that meshes like a dream with your existing Plex library. But let's clear the air, Dispatch isn't a streaming service.
It's more akin to a chic portal to your existing media library, making your binge-watching marathons as smooth as a hot knife through butter.
But hold your horses, there's more! Dispatch comes with an optional Accessibility feature. If you choose to enable it, it can detect hardware remote control button presses, allowing you to customize button actions. It can also detect the foreground app name, helping to redirect you to the selected home experience. And before you start sweating about privacy, let me put your mind at ease, Dispatch isn't interested in your personal data.
It's only used locally to serve the above purposes. So, you can continue using the app without enabling it, if you prefer.
The app is still in beta but it has a lot of promise. It's the first ambitious 3rd party Android TV launcher. Most other launchers are as basic as a white tee, this is the first contender to Google's own launcher.
The downsides are that the app takes an eternity to setup, I mean the setup process is a breeze but it takes at least 30-40 minutes to download 'metadata'.
In my experience, after the metadata was done downloading, the app was smooth around 60% of the time, navigating the homescreen, I was met with hiccups and frame skipping or button presses ignored.
The launcher has a lot of promise but it needs to mature a lot more before I will consider it to be my daily driver.