Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02 Is Out with Many Changes to the Plasma Mobile Shell and Apps

Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02

The KDE Project released today the Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02 software suite for the Plasma Mobile desktop environment targeting mobile devices like Linux phones and tablets.

Coming hot on the heels of the KDE Plasma 5.24 desktop environment, which is also available for mobile devices as Plasma Mobile, the Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02 software suite is here to update some of your favorite mobile apps, as well as the Plasma Mobile shell.

In fact, Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02 is packed with great improvements for the Plasma Mobile shell, including a revamped Quick Settings panel with support for media and notifications widgets, as well as a new landscape format for tablets, a smoother gesture experience, a revamped task switcher to use a single row of thumbnails with gesture support, and a revamped app drawer open/close gesture.

Furthermore, to make it easier to search for content on your mobile device, KRunner has been improved to pop up on the Homescreen when performing a swipe-down gesture, there’s also better placement and improved handling of Plasmoids and apps on the Homescreen, and the startup indicator now reuses the Homescreen window instead of creating a new one when launching the task switcher or an app.

On top of that, the System Settings app received a new search feature, a widescreen mode for tablets, and a back button replaces breadcrumbs on the header in this release for easier navigation.

The Clock app now offers better support for custom ringtones for alarms, along with in-app dialogs to control ringing alarms and timers. Moreover, the Calindori calendar app gets UX improvements, the Recorder app gets fixes for visual issues when adding new recordings, and the PlasmaTube YouTube player app now features a bottom toolbar and a back button.

Also improved in the Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02 release is the Angelfish web browser, which received a desktop UI to show the settings on a page and improvements to the AdBlock filter list updater, as well as the NeoChat chat client, which now features support for minimizing to the system tray on startup, support to directly share files with other apps and online services, and improved Internet connectivity check.

Last but not least, the Plasma Dialer phone app received various UI changes like an updated sidebar button style to follow Plasma’s default style, improved page navigation, Settings and About pages, a prompt dialog to help you more easily clear the history of calls, support for selecting a phone number via the Contacts menu, the ability to pause running media players during incoming calls, and automatic audio profiles switching during calls.

Moreover, the Kasts podcasts app now features optimized player controls for landscape orientation mode, and the Tokodon Mastodon client app now features improved file uploading.

You’ll get all these goodies on your Linux-powered mobile device the next time you update your mobile operating system, be it postmarketOS, openSUSE, or Manjaro ARM. For more details on the new changes, check out the release announcement page.

Last updated 2 years ago

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