We are proud to announce a new 2.3.0 release of "Alloy - Launcher and Automator". This release includes:
New iMessage Extension
Alloy now includes handy iMessage Extension, which allows to utilize content provided by Actions and send that content to iMessage recipients. The iMessage Extension shows familiar set of Favorites; Glances and background updates as fully supported. To launch an Action – tap on it as usual. After an Action finished running – its output, converted to a form suitable for iMessage, will be inserted to the entry field as a new message. So it is possible, for example, to easily send current location, last photo with added watermark, tip calculation etc.
Actions may act same for both the App and the iMessage Extension or may act differently, if the iMessage Workflow or iMessage specific Tasks are defined. Many built-in Actions and Tasks were updated to support the iMessage Extension; you can discover them all by the "iMessage" tag.
It is possible to add new Favorites to the iMessage Extension by taping the "Add Favorite" button. The "Choose Action" view will be shown allowing to choose either installed Actions or compatible (having "iMessage" tag) Actions from the Actions Directory.
By default the iMessage Extension uses Dynamic Favorites and Pinned Favorites. Though it is possible to have dedicated Pinned Favorites just for the iMessage Extension. This can be done either by:
- Adding Favorites from iMessage Extension
- Toggling the
button during Action's editing - Via the "Settings | Favorites | Manage iMessage Pinned Favorites" view.
Note: as soon as at least one Action is pinned to iMessage Pinned Favorites they will be explicitly used instead of general Pinned Favorites.
New iMessage Workflow
Alloy now includes a new special kind of Workflow – iMessage Workflow, which will be launched when the user taps an Action in the iMessage Extension. If no iMessage Workflow is defined – the Main Workflow will be launched by default.
New "Get Project Type" Task
In many cases similar Workflows with minimal changes can be utilized as the Main Workflow and, for example, iMessage Workflow. To avoid having two Workflows and copy-pasting tasks between them it is (sometimes) feasible to have just one Main Workflow with some differences based on the type of the project (e.g. the App or the iMessage Extension) the Action is running in. A "Get Project Type" task allows getting the project type and handling it in the following Switch to make desired project specific behavior.
New "Render Glance as Image" Task
The "Render Glance as Image" task allows to render Glance as an image. This task can be useful to send results of the Actions represented as Glances by email, SMS or via the iMessage Extension.
Also do no miss new great features introduced in v2 major release of "Alloy - Launcher and Automator". This release introduces Glances, Background and Menu workflows, new Widget, new Action Extension, bunch of new actions utilizing Glances etc.