Noctalia, the open-source desktop shell built with Quickshell for Wayland compositors such as Hyprland, Niri, Sway, and labwc, has released version 5.5 with a new Peek mode for bar widgets.
Instead of permanently displaying information like volume levels, battery percentage, network status, or weather conditions, widgets now show only their icons and reveal details on hover. The feature supports configurable delays and icon positioning.
Widget customization has expanded with custom labels, optional icons, and expanding spacers that distribute space across the bar. Users can specify bar end margins as percentages of screen width, while auto-hidden bars release their reserved space until they reappear.
The window switcher gains two layouts: grid and icons. The icons layout displays open windows as stationary tiles without generating previews. Reverse switching is supported through IPC commands, allowing configuration of Shift+Tab navigation.
Screenshot functionality has several improvements. The annotation editor supports zooming and panning, and users can capture another window or select a new region without leaving the editor. There is also a shortcut to select the entire desktop during region capture.
The lock screen supports media playback controls, letting users pause, resume, or skip tracks without unlocking. A new option automatically enables Do Not Disturb while locked and restores the previous notification state after unlocking. Custom background tint colors and CRT-style transitions are also available.
For multi-monitor setups, wallpaper transitions are synchronized across displays by default. Noctalia 5.5 also introduces scheduled brightness adjustments based on day and night settings, including separate brightness targets for individual monitors.
Notification history is grouped by application by default. Users can change how new notifications are positioned relative to the screen edge and disable notification timeout progress bars.
On the connectivity side, NetworkManager VPN connections now support authentication prompts for passwords and one-time codes, with credentials stored in the system keyring. Google Calendar integration also allows users to select which calendars to synchronize.
Plugin developers gain new APIs for controlling night-light settings, accessing active media player information, and responding to system suspend and resume events. The release also changes GPU monitoring behavior so plugins reading CPU, memory, or network statistics no longer unnecessarily activate discrete GPUs.
As for bug fixes, Noctalia 5.5 addresses a PipeWire issue that could cause the kernel to terminate the shell under certain realtime configurations. Clipboard handling has also been corrected so passwords copied from password managers can be pasted without being saved in clipboard history.
Several compositor-specific issues have been resolved, including dock crashes and icon stretching under niri, incorrectly positioned context menus on secondary Hyprland monitors, and duplicate window entries in the switcher under Sway and Scroll. Hyprland plugin widgets also no longer query monitor information every 250 milliseconds, reducing unnecessary activity.
Finally, users maintaining custom configurations should be aware that application icon colorization settings have moved from a global option to individual components. Existing configurations are migrated automatically, although manually maintained Nix and dotfile configurations may display warnings until the old keys are replaced.
For more information, see the changelog.
Image credits: Noctalia Shell
