Katapult Launcher v1.3 ( with Lockscreen Notifications)

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This is the biggest update for Katapult yet. Had to create a new topic, the old topics don’t allow me access to edit the original post and users either read only the original outdated 1st post or the last post and nothing in between.

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To download and read about the features:
https://katapult.gez.im/ or directly to Releases · gezimos/Katapult · GitHub

I’ve made a setup video that you can watch here, it explains how to setup Katapult and explains most of the features. Including how to set up Lockscreen Notifications and the Screensaver mode.

In short points, Katapult:

  • is an e-ink optimized launcher (no animations, paginated)
  • allows you to have 2 to 6 apps in home (plus data and clock can be asigned as well)
  • allows you to rename the apps
  • allows you to replace icons
  • has an internal icon styler to make third-party app icons look uniform with the rest
  • has notification indicators for third-party apps
  • has notification widget on lockscreen
  • has screensaver feature to mimic always on display.

Lockscreen Widget notifications:

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Katapult requires accessibility permission to draw a Widget in your lockscreen. This permission has to be re-enabled anytime you update the app (the app will prompt you for it).

Please watch the video above on how to set it up.

The video above also will show you some new features:

  • Swipe in home to open all apps instead of just all apps button.
  • Choose swipe direction horizontal by default, vertical is optional (this affect both the swipe in home to open all apps, and the all apps pages themselves).

Screensaver option:

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This also requires the accessibility permission to enable the screensaver when pressing the power button (optional), you can enable the screensaver by long pressing for the quick settings menu → Screensaver or by doing the Pinch (zoom out) gesture in home.

Watch the video to see how to set it up.

Another feature that I copied from the community is adding text islands option for when users use wallpapers but want to keep the clock/date/app names legible.

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IMPORTANT: as explained on the video, this is not a proper always on display, the device might not idle properly and spend more battery than just locking the phone.

Consider liking the video I linked above, and subscribe for more similar videos.

If you want to support the project:

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Katapult by gezimos
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Awesome Man!
you never fail to surprise us!

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Outstanding work, as usual. The text islands were yet another genius idea.

Great video too, this should answer all user questions at once.

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Amazing, love it!

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Small question, is there a way to disable lock screen notifications for Duraspeed? It doesn’t seem to appear the in the notification app list, and there’s no way to disable notifications at the system level.

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Settings / Lockscreen / Lockscreen notifications apps (this is kinda of an allowlist). And only keep checked those apps that you want to show you notifications. Let me know if this works.

On my device Duraspeed hasn’t appeared in a while, so it didn’t pop up during testing.

P.s Thanks a lot for the coffee!

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I tried that, Duraspeed doesn’t seem to appear in the app notification allowlist. It’s frustrating, the only way I’ve found to consistently access Duraspeed and its settings is using InkOS settings search since it’s otherwise completely hidden from system settings.

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I’ve “asked” the notification listener to ignore all “sticky” and system notifications, that would include Duraspeed as well, but it seems Duraspeed is ignoring the rule.

I completely forgot about it, because it seems I have disabled Duraspeed fully. (you can also find it in Developer Options: Search: Duraspeed).

Are the Duraspeed notifications gone for you now?

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Time and Notifications on the lockscreen finally allow me to never touch my phone unless I need to. Now this is mindful!

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Now this is mindful!

It could be even more mindful if they simply opened the blinking led light for non-system apps and I’d get LED notifications working as well.

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I’ll try disabling Duraspeed and see if that does it!

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With all the workarounds you have accomplished, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can make the side camera work as well :wink:

And the flamethrower, the Swiss army knife, the laser pointer and the satellite destroyer. All optional in black and white or colour of course :wink:

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Fantastic stuff! There will surely be global coffee shortages if you keep this up.

I have a problem getting the lockscreen notifications up and running, but I can’t figure out what’s causing the issue. After having ticked the box and given permission in the accessibility settings, the widget never appears on the lockscreen for me to edit it for the first time. Do you have any idea why this might be happening?

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The Lockscreen notifications are great. Really impressed that you figured out yet another tweak to make something like this possible!

However they’re not yet really useful for me, because I can’t get beeper (the only app I would really need notifications from) to keep running in the background and notify me about new messages without opening the app. Is that possible on the Kompakt and/or will it massively drain my battery life?

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Thank you :slight_smile:

Only things that to mind are these:

  • Have you enabled the notification permission? Like are you getting number notifications over app icons? If not then go to Settings / Notifications / Notification indicators tap on it and see if you have allowed Katapult notification reading permission.
  • If you have them enabled, could it be that you have no notifications at the moment? That way the widget will not appear if there are no notifications.
  • And just to confirm are you talking about the actual lockscreen not the screen that just has a lock icon. (that’s not a lockscreen). But to make notifications appear over that you’ll need the screensaver feature. I’ve explained on the video linked above.
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Thank you!

Actually the issue of Beeper is not that it’s going to sleep at all. It’s because Beeper requires Google Play Services to send the notifications. And since this device doesn’t have them, notifications themselves fall asleep when you close the app.

Which is what stopped me from using beeper otherwise it was a great App. (reminds me of Pidgin that I use to use for msn/yahoo)

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It was number two! I had no notifications, so nothing was showing. To resolve it, I sent myself a notification, and it showed up perfectly. Thanks for helping out! :slight_smile:

By the way, although I have no experience with UI design, which means that I have no idea if the following idea would work or not, I thought of a very simple (bordering on stupid) way to hide the clock in the status bar on the home page: couldn’t one just place a white, rectangular block in front of it, so that that the clock is not removed per se, but still hidden from view? Again, I’m no expert, so take this input with an industrial amount of salt. Still, this idea sort of reminds me of that joke about the americans meticulously inventing the ballpoint pen so that their astronauts could write in zero gravity, while the soviets would simply use a pencil. I hope this feedback falls into the latter category.

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No problem!

You’d think that would be stupid, but no it actually works. :smiley: Thanks for the idea!

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I had tried to disable the clock with ADB before, but it does disable it for all apps and it adds sim card icons. But now with the accessibility permission (used for the lockscreen widget and the screensaver) covering the the clock in statusbar with a white rectangle is easy.

Will be released on the next update :slight_smile:

This joke always remind me of the movie 3 idiots.

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Haha, I love that this worked! Pencils aren’t so dumb after all. Thank you so much! I’ll check out the movie too.

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Such a great launcher - thank you for your continued support for it!

One small issue I’ve noticed with Whatsapp notifications (and this may be niche so absolutely no expectation of it being solved) is that as I have Whatsapp on my work laptop to minimise phone checking, getting a Whatsapp message triggers a notification on the MK and PC app (as it should) but when I check the message on the PC it doesn’t remove the notification from the MK.

However if I was to get the notification on my old smartphone, checking the message on my PC would remove the notification from the phone.

Again, not a big issue and I imagine it’s not something that’d affect all Katapult launchers, but just putting it out there.

Thanks again!

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