PUBLIC ROADMAP · NO DATES, ON PURPOSE
What ships next.
What is done, what is being worked on, and what is deliberately never going to happen. Nothing here carries a date, because a date from a one-person project is a guess wearing a suit.
Quick answer
Hangly is at 2.0.0 on macOS and 0.9.4 on Windows, where it is still a pre-release. The next work is getting Windows out of 0.9.x, code-signing the Windows installer so SmartScreen stops warning, finishing the connected artwork for six of the 11 collections, and giving each collection its own page. There is no paid tier planned, now or later.
Key takeaways
- macOS is at 2.0.0; Windows is at 0.9.4 and still a pre-release
- Next up: Windows out of beta, and a code-signing certificate to silence SmartScreen
- Six of the 11 collections still need their connected artwork drawn
- No dates are published — items ship when ready and the changelog records when
- No paid tier, no accounts and no roaming characters, ever
Shipped in 2.0
Version 2.0 was the largest release so far and the first that could update itself. These are done and live.
Automatic updates
Hangly checks weekly through Sparkle and installs in the background. Before 2.0, a new version meant downloading it by hand.
Release notes on first launch
Shown once after an update, with a Check for Updates button on the About page for anyone who would rather ask.
A lighter download
The app ships the vector artwork it actually draws from rather than a compiled catalogue carrying a bitmap of every unused charm. The download went from 89 MB to 34 MB with no change to the artwork.
Five cords and up to three charms on one rope
Plus eleven seasonal charms that arrive on their own, weather, and one Customize window in place of the three it used to take.
Native Windows ARM64 build
A separate native build for Snapdragon machines rather than running the x64 build under emulation. Almost nothing else in this category publishes one.
Charm artwork optimised
Several SVGs carried over 500 KB of embedded raster each. Re-encoding took the artwork directory from 38.4 MB to 8.3 MB with verified visual parity.
Being worked on
Roughly in order. The Windows items come first because the gap between the two platforms is the thing people notice most.
Windows out of pre-release
The Windows build is at 0.9.4 while macOS is at 2.0.0. Leaving 0.9.x means dropping the Beta badge and letting the download links use GitHub's latest alias instead of a pinned tag, which is currently needed because latest skips pre-releases.
Windows code signing
The Windows installer is unsigned, so SmartScreen shows a warning once on first run. A certificate removes it. This is the single biggest friction point in the Windows install today.
The six unfinished collections
Football, Stranger Things, Singers, Breaking Bad, Friends, Dream Catcher. Their plain artwork renders already; what is missing is the connected rendering with the hanging thread drawn in, which is per-charm artwork rather than something that can be derived.
Per-collection pages
So each collection can rank on its own terms rather than as a section of one product page.
The six unfinished collections, specifically
Of the 11 published collections holding 55 charms, six are not finished: Football, Stranger Things, Singers, Breaking Bad, Friends, Dream Catcher. It is worth being precise about what “unfinished” means here, because the charms do appear in the app.
Every charm ships with plain artwork, which is what renders today. What is missing is the connected rendering — the same charm drawn with the hanging thread attached at the right point for that particular shape. That cannot be derived from the plain drawing, because where a thread meets a charm depends on the charm. It is per-charm illustration work, and it is the reason these six are listed as in progress rather than quietly shipped.
The site handles the gap rather than hiding it: a build-time manifest resolves each charm to the best artwork available, so a charm without a connected drawing falls back to its plain one instead of rendering as a broken image.
Deliberately not planned
A roadmap that only lists additions is a wish list. These are the things Hangly is not going to do, so you can rely on that when deciding whether to install it.
A paid tier
There is no upgrade to sell and none is planned. Hangly is free because it was not built to be a business.
Accounts or sign-in
Nothing about a charm on a cord requires knowing who you are.
Roaming characters
The charm hangs from a fixed anchor and is click-through, on purpose. Making it wander would break the one property the whole design exists to guarantee: that it cannot interrupt you.
Advertising or analytics in the app
The privacy page lists everything that leaves your desktop. Adding to that list is not on the roadmap.
What can never change
Some things are fixed because software already installed on other people's machines depends on them. The Sparkle update feeds for both apps, and the stable download URLs, are compiled into copies of the app already running. Moving either would break updates for everyone who installed before the move — so they stay, whatever else changes around them.
This is also why the changelog on this site is generated from those feeds rather than written by hand. There is exactly one source of truth for what a release contains, and the website reads it rather than restating it.
Frequently asked questions
When will the Windows version leave pre-release?
No date is published, deliberately. The Windows build is at 0.9.4 against 2.0.0 on macOS, and it leaves 0.9.x when it is ready rather than on a schedule. Code signing and feature parity with the Mac build are the two things standing between here and there.
Which Hangly collections are unfinished?
Six of the 11: Football, Stranger Things, Singers, Breaking Bad, Friends, Dream Catcher. Their charms have plain artwork and appear in the app; what is still being drawn is the connected rendering that includes the hanging thread, which has to be made per charm.
Can I request a charm or a collection?
Yes, and requests genuinely influence the order. Email is the route. A specific request — a named character, a cultural symbol, a team — is far more actionable than a category.
Will Hangly ever cost money?
No. There is no paid tier, no planned upgrade and no trial that expires. It is free on both platforms because it was not built to be a business.
Does the roadmap have dates?
No, and that is a choice rather than an oversight. This is one person's side project shipping alongside film work, and a date published here would be a guess presented as a commitment. Items ship when they are ready and the changelog records when that was.
Will the charm ever move around the screen like a desktop pet?
No. It hangs from a fixed anchor and is click-through so that it is structurally incapable of covering a window or intercepting a click. Making it roam would break the guarantee the product exists to make. If you want a character that moves, the guides on this site recommend other people's apps for exactly that.
In short
2.0 brought self-updating, a much smaller download, five cords and a native Windows ARM64 build. Next is closing the gap between the platforms — Windows out of pre-release and signed — and finishing the connected artwork for six collections. No dates, no paid tier, and no plans to make the charm wander.