Pop-Up-Date

Making Niagara Launcher feature-complete

[📝To access all of the following features right away, download the latest Niagara Launcher Beta build. Because it’s brand-new, it can be unstable. We’ll distribute it through Google Play after around two weeks. Update: The Pop-up-date is now stable and being rolled out via Google Play!]

[🎤 For reviewers & press: We bundled all media assets for this asset here, feel free to use them.]

This is a big one and it’s all about pop-ups. Fear not, I’m not talking about ads or annoying consent prompts. Instead, pop-ups are a more versatile version of folders and help you organizing and tidying up your home screen. They can contain apps, shortcuts, notifications, and even widgets:

App pop-ups

Last year, we introduced swipe actions; this year we’re upgrading them to pop-ups. Swipe right on an app to open its pop-up and access their notifications, closely related apps (or any really), and shortcuts. What’s new is that with Niagara Pro, you can add pop-up widgets and get timely information at a glance while keeping your home screen clean. Moreover, a pop-up now shows notifications for all of its contents. Pop-ups are fully customizable, too; you can add any action you want. To do that, long-press the pop-up and tap on “Edit pop-up”.

Pop-up Folders

Instead of introducing an entirely new system for the highly anticipated folders feature, we’re integrating them with Niagara’s pop-ups and keep everything clean and simple. While pop-ups are primarily a Niagara Pro feature, we also offer basic folders for free.

To add one, long-press one of your favorites > tap Edit Favorites > Scroll all the way down > tap Create pop-up folder.

With Niagara Pro, you can even move folders to your app list to categorize all your apps. To do that, long-press the folder and tap on “Show in app list”.

With folders, Niagara Launcher has every typical launcher feature but always with a little twist. I’d now consider Niagara Launcher feature-complete — it only took four years haha. However, that doesn’t mean we’re stopping improving the home screen app, we’re just starting 😉

Pop-ups: Free vs Pro

Free version

• basic pop-up folders (supports apps and shortcuts like regular launchers)
• basic app pop-ups (check notifications of an app and launch its shortcuts)

Pro version

• fully customizable app pop-ups
• pop-up widgets
• pop-up folders in the app list
• expandable notifications for every app listed in the pop-up

🎈 Bonus: Customizable Niagara Button

We’re also testing the Niagara Button, a full replacement of the Google Button to let you perform quick actions on your home screen. With v1.2, we’re offering an early preview for Niagara Pro members. When the feature is fully ready, it will also be fully integrated with Niagara’s pop-up system and a subset of its features will also be available to users of the free version.

To read more about the button and about how to use it, please follow this guide.

We also added and tweaked tons of other stuff, like the new credits screen, and the redesigned Edit favorites and Add widget screens but that’s for you to discover 😉

Thank you very much for reading,

Peter