The Apps Platform Revolution: HexOS Gets a Major Upgrade

December 26, 2025

By Jon Panozzo

We're thrilled to announce a complete overhaul of the HexOS Apps platform that fundamentally transforms how you discover, install, and manage applications on your system. This update represents months of work listening to community feedback and reimagining what an app center should be.

A Complete Interface Redesign

The new Apps interface isn't just a fresh coat of paint—it's a ground-up rebuild designed to make finding and managing apps effortless.

Smart Categories organize the app ecosystem into intuitive sections like Media & Entertainment, Productivity, Development Tools, and Smart Home. No more endless scrolling to find what you need.

Instant Search delivers lightning-fast results as you type, searching across app names, descriptions, and functionality. Whether you remember the exact name or just know what you want to do, search finds it.

Curated Apps Section highlights freshly curated applications as they become available, ensuring you're always aware of new additions to the ecosystem.

Popular Apps Section shows what's trending in the community, helping you discover apps that other users are finding valuable.

Visual Indicators now clearly distinguish between fully supported apps, experimental releases, and non-curated applications, so you always know what level of support to expect.

Six New Curated Applications

We're expanding the curated app library with nine excellent additions:

• Nextcloud - A file sharing server that puts the control and security of your own data back into your hands.
• Emby - Feature-rich media server and streaming platform
• Bazarr - Automated subtitle management for your media library
• Scrutiny - Hard drive health monitoring and S.M.A.R.T. data analysis
• Handbrake - Professional video transcoding and conversion
• Lidarr - Lidarr is a music collection manager
• PeaNUT - A Tiny Dashboard for Network UPS Tools
• Syncthing - A continuous file synchronization program
• Draw.io - A whiteboarding / diagramming software application.

Each of these apps has been carefully curated with optimized configurations to work seamlessly with HexOS.

Intelligent GPU Configuration

One of the most exciting features in this release is automatic GPU detection and configuration. HexOS now intelligently identifies available GPU resources and automatically attaches them to applications that can benefit from hardware acceleration and transcoding.

This means apps like Plex and Jellyfin can immediately take advantage of your GPU for smooth, efficient media transcoding without manual configuration. We're eager to hear your experiences with this feature, so please share your feedback in the forums.

Smarter Curation Management

Apps themselves have always been able to update, but now their curations can update too—and we properly version those updates. This means we can improve and refine app configurations even for applications you've already installed.

Even better, you can now edit app configurations after installation without reinstalling. Purchased a Plex Pass and want to enter your claim code? Just click "Options" and add it. Need to adjust settings? No more reinstall required.

Performance That Matters

Under the hood, we've made substantial performance improvements:

• Cloud-based app catalog eliminates round trips to individual servers, providing instant app browsing and search shared across all HexOS users
• Reduced API calls through intelligent batching operations
• Smart caching for GPU detection and system queries eliminates redundant checks

The result is an interface that feels snappy and responsive, even on lower-powered systems.

Goldeye Support

This release enables users to update to TrueNAS SCALE 25.10.1, bringing all the latest improvements from the TrueNAS team to your HexOS system. Notably, this release uses the NVIDIA open GPU kernel module, which brings wider hardware support to NVIDIA GPU users.

Two-Factor Authentication

Security is paramount, and we've added the option to configure two-factor authentication to protect your HexOS account. Enable 2FA in your account settings for an additional layer of security.

Expert Mode for Power Users

As HexOS continues to grow, we recognize that our user base ranges from home users to seasoned IT professionals. The new Expert Mode toggle in Preferences reveals advanced settings and shortcuts for those who want more granular control over their system.

Try It Today

The new Apps platform is available now. Here's what we'd love you to do:

Explore the new interface and discover apps you might have missed before. The improved categorization and search make finding the perfect tool easier than ever.

Install a GPU-accelerated app like Plex or Jellyfin and experience automatic hardware acceleration. Let us know how it performs.

Share your feedback with us in the forums at hub.hexos.com. Your input directly shapes the future of HexOS.

Take advantage of our Holiday Sale before it ends on December 31st. It's the perfect time to expand your HexOS capabilities. HexOS lifetime license

And finally, mark your calendars: HexOS 1.0 is coming in Q1 2026. This Apps overhaul is just the beginning of what we have planned.

Thank you for being part of the HexOS community. We can't wait to see what you build with these new tools.

Release notes are available here December 26, 2025 - Apps Overhaul, 2FA, GPU Detection, Goldeye Compatibility