Searched, didn't find answer. Is there any way to toggle between two apps I'm using without going through multiple steps? I'm currently having to hit the home button, go to advanced task killer, selecting the app that is open that I want to go back to and selecting switch to.
I would rather have something like using alt-tab on a windows desktop of laptop. Even better would be like wktask for windows mobile where it shows the open apps at the top left of the screen and I just tap on the icon for the app I want to go back to and it goes right back to the screen I was on previously in that app.
just hold the home button until the 6 recent app list pops up?
Oh, recent apps, can't believe I didn't think of that. Thanks.
Another option is Multitask Manager. It lists all running apps, as well as recently closed apps. You can set it up to where long-pressing the find button will activate the app.
MultiTask Manager
I think recent apps is perfect. Don't want to make it more complicated. Quick, easy, and simple without adding another app. Although is there an advantage over advanced task killer? I guess I was overthinking the problem and looking for a better software solution when I already had discovered the hard button option, just never used it when I needed it and forgot about it.
I find there are a number times when navigation is problematic on WP7, caused by a few design issues:
- there being a back button but no forward button
- apps always start from home page when loaded from the home screen
- IE relies on the hardware back button and you can lose your navigation history if you leave IE, go back in and try to navigate back.
I think most WP7 users will know what I'm talking about.
My question is - do people think the Mango update with multitasking will solve this? I can't see enough detail in the online demos to be sure, but I would hope that it does get around these issues.
I'm sure that with Mango's fast app switcher (the new tap-and-hold back button) you will have much more flexibility than today.
But, I'm not sure what you mean by "you lose your navigation history" in IE. Even if I back out of IE, when I go back in, tap the favorites icon, and flick to the History pivot, I still see all of the pages I visited in the list. Maybe I am doing something different, or else I am misunderstanding your problem.
i think he meant...
1: go browse using ie, and visit several pages by following links
2: press windows key to go back to homescreen
3: launch ie again (through its tile, not the back button)
4: history gone. you'll be back to the last page you were visiting, but that's it. if you press the back button, it'll take you out of ie and into the homescreen.
this annoys me as well.
Website A,
click link to B,
check emails,
return to IE (via back button),
on website B,
want to go back to A: not possible via back button
It is unintuitive to open favorites(!) then change to history only to go one site backwards.
Yep that's the scenario exactly.
I checked what Android does because it has a very similar setup of a hardware back button. However, they get it right and the solution is very simple.
On Android when you go back into the browser, the hardware back button takes you back through browser history until there is no more history. Then the next press takes you back in the application screen history. I only tried it quickly but it seems to solve the problem that WP7 exhibits.
I think the only foolproof option is like iOS where the back button is onscreen and part of the application. The downside is that it clutters up the display a lot. When I use an iPhone now the actual screen space for the application seems very small.
BlitterTwisted said:
- apps always start from home page when loaded from the home screen
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That's changing in Mango. Developers will be able to allow users to pin pages in their app to the home screen not just the app itself.
The example shown at MIX11 was that if we create a News app which has a world news page, a country specific news page and a financial page (for example); the user could then pin the financial page to the start screen.
There is no limit on the amount of tiles per app, so the user could chose to pin all three pages to their start screen. Clicking on any of these tiles would take them straight to the page of interest not the main page.
Of course, this requires app developers to implement the new tiles in their app (but it's not difficult).
Casey
That is interesting, although you're talking more about linking within an app, where sometimes the issue is more about remembering state i.e. reloading an app and it being back on the page you were on.
To be fair, support for this on iOS is patchy, some apps do it and some don't. And the MS guidelines specifically say that the app must restart from home when loaded from a tile. I wonder if this was in preparation for the multitasking features, although I will still like to be able to use a tile to launch an already-running (tombstoned) app and have it take me back to where I was when I left it. From what I've seen of Android, it does this.
Not sure what everyone is complaining about the back button and IE since it's actually pretty consistent with desktop browser experience. When you close your browser and open it up again, you don't get to press back.
digger1985 said:
Not sure what everyone is complaining about the back button and IE since it's actually pretty consistent with desktop browser experience. When you close your browser and open it up again, you don't get to press back.
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that's the point. in your phone you don't close your brower (by pressing back back until you're at the homescreen, you just press the middle button to pull up the home screen). in my desktop I can have 10 browers open, and still open my e-mail without disturbing my browers.
Mestiphal said:
that's the point. in your phone you don't close your brower (by pressing back back until you're at the homescreen, you just press the middle button to pull up the home screen). in my desktop I can have 10 browers open, and still open my e-mail without disturbing my browers.
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Do I remember correctly that tabbed browsing is coming with IE9/Mango, and said tabs will be in the multitasking screen? I guess it could very well start working more like you described?
We will see in 2 days hopefully.
dtboos said:
Do I remember correctly that tabbed browsing is coming with IE9/Mango, and said tabs will be in the multitasking screen? I guess it could very well start working more like you described?
We will see in 2 days hopefully.
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That's interesting actually if they do that I can see it helping. Proving that when returning to a browser page, you can still use the back button to work the browser rather than just jumping back to where you were before.
If they're gonna carry on with the back button doing special stuff in the browser, they need to implement the Android trick of the back button going back through browser history until the start, then going back through application screen history.
I have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus and after updating to Jelly Bean, my stock browser keeps going to the homepage. For example, if I'm browsing a webpage, and I get a text. I'll read the text and go back to the browser, it opens to the homepage, instead of staying on the page where I left. Similar happens even when I'm in the browser, I'll look through my bookmarks, and if I go back to the page was, it was load the homepage.
Is there a way to stop it from loading the homepage.
Another problem I have is, whenever I open an app (i.e. Bank of America app) and finish using it and close it. I'll be on the left most home screen and when I swipe to go the middle home screen, the screen will go to the right of the middle screen (4th screen). This doesn't happen with all the apps, only a few.
Please help.
Does anyone else find it impossible to access the main menu of friendcaster, on my phone when I press back from the newsfeed the app opens another menu with events, friends etc. On my N7 (latest software) when i press back while in the newsfeed the app closes, thus I cannot access the menu. Am I being stupid and missing some setting somewhere or is this a bug?
Is it the same set of options you get when you press the friendcaster icon in the top left corner? Not got it on my phone to check, sorry.
Anyone else get this little annoyance, while on a website I click a link then the "Complete Action Using" dialog box shows. It has Chrome, internet, maybe Nook or a couple other apps, asking whi h one to use. I make my choice then the second box pops up telling you to go to settings>general>default apps and clear defaults. I have my defaults set up, but if I clear them and vo fhru it again the same dialogs constantly appear. If anyone has a solution that would be awesome. Thanks
I get that too. It doesn't seem to matter if there's a default set or not. EVERY time i click a link in the browser (stock) i have to choose what app to view it in! Drives me nuts.