so i'm currently using a t-mobile g2, but i'm definitely considering the galaxy nexus being my next phone. might even switch to verizon for it (but most likely will just wait for it on t-mobile).
my question is, and this really probably applies to all ICS phones, but for now, mainly to the galaxy nexus, is what happens with the menu button with all my current apps? i'm sure that many devs will be updating their apps to take advantage of and deal with any and all changes, but as it is, like 99% of my apps using the menu button, and since there is none now, i was curious how that works... i know from what i've read that alot of the main system apps (browser, camera, email/gmail, calendar, etc) have a menu button built into the layout... but what about 3rd party apps?
this is just something i was wondering about. i'm sure once i have one in my hand it will all make sense, but figured i'd ask
Dave
My best guess is it will show up in the bottom bar, similar to how it works in Honeycomb.
jayzeroeee said:
My best guess is it will show up in the bottom bar, similar to how it works in Honeycomb.
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Click to collapse
ok now i haven't messed with honeycomb at all, so does that mean the bar with the back/home/multitasking buttons is context sensitive and it could potentially change to include a menu button when needed with older apps?
thats what i was guessing...
polarbearmc said:
ok now i haven't messed with honeycomb at all, so does that mean the bar with the back/home/multitasking buttons is context sensitive and it could potentially change to include a menu button when needed with older apps?
thats what i was guessing...
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Click to collapse
Menu button will be there most of the time like in honeycomb
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
rdy2go said:
Menu button will be there most of the time like in honeycomb
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Click to collapse
i saw three or four hands-on and the bottom bar buttons have always been those three.
as far as i could understand, the menu is now raised by the "three dots" that appears contextually, often in the upper-right...
if i am right, it is at least a questionable choise i guess.
lorenx said:
i saw three or four hands-on and the bottom bar buttons have always been those three.
as far as i could understand, the menu is now raised by the "three dots" that appears contextually, often in the upper-right...
if i am right, it is at least a questionable choise i guess.
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Click to collapse
I think you are right.. menu is going to be included in the app itself.
androidbuff123 said:
I think you are right.. menu is going to be included in the app itself.
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Click to collapse
That only works for apps that are built for ICS. For apps that still rely on the hard menu button there will have to be some way to bring up the menu.
In honeycomb if there is a menu button present in the app there wont be a menu button on the bottom of the screen. If there is no menu button present in the app there will be one on the bottom of the app.
I'm sure it'll be just like that.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
In ICS applications the menù button is "3 dots" in somewhere in the app.
In Gingerbread applications that runs in ICS, in the bar with back, home and multitasking buttons, will appear the "3 dots" button, that is like the "menù" button in GB.
esxuse me for my english.
source: hdblog.it
if the app doesn't support the menu button within the app, then you'll see a "three dots button" near the three soft button.
yea looks like a few of you have confirmed what i thought. the main "button" bar at the bottom is context sensitive and as needed a 4th, menu button will appear. but i'm sure most devs will start rebuilding their apps for ics in the future to not need it.
thanks!
actually starting to get really excited for this change.
I got a certain idea that since the buttons are from the screen, and therefore, rendered, modders will find a way to include more or less buttons, and even change their icon. I wouldn't be too surprised.
Quick screenshot from the second video of the mentioned HDblog showing the "three dots" menu button in apps that are not optimized for ics.
You can find it in the second video at around 7min 30 sec.
Here's also some good info regarding the soft-buttons and ICS from the SDK.
Controls for system UI visibility
Since the early days of Android, the system has managed a UI component known as the status bar, which resides at the top of handset devices to deliver information such as the carrier signal, time, notifications, and so on. Android 3.0 added the system bar for tablet devices, which resides at the bottom of the screen to provide system navigation controls (Home, Back, and so forth) and also an interface for elements traditionally provided by the status bar. In Android 4.0, the system provides a new type of system UI called the navigation bar. You might consider the navigation bar a re-tuned version of the system bar designed for handsets—it provides navigation controls for devices that don’t have hardware counterparts for navigating the system, but it leaves out the system bar's notification UI and setting controls. As such, a device that provides the navigation bar also has the status bar at the top.
To this day, you can hide the status bar on handsets using the FLAG_FULLSCREEN flag. In Android 4.0, the APIs that control the system bar’s visibility have been updated to better reflect the behavior of both the system bar and navigation bar:
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LOW_PROFILE flag replaces the STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN flag. When set, this flag enables “low profile" mode for the system bar or navigation bar. Navigation buttons dim and other elements in the system bar also hide. Enabling this is useful for creating more immersive games without distraction for the system navigation buttons.
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_VISIBLE flag replaces the STATUS_BAR_VISIBLE flag to request the system bar or navigation bar be visible.
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION is a new flag that requests the navigation bar hide completely. Be aware that this works only for the navigation bar used by some handsets (it does not hide the system bar on tablets). The navigation bar returns to view as soon as the system receives user input. As such, this mode is useful primarily for video playback or other cases in which the whole screen is needed but user input is not required.
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Related
My initial love of the menu button was that it allowed the screen to show more unlike the relatively small iPhone screens which have a small screen and menu options on the screen.
Now, I know legacy apps will have the little button for menu by the multitask icon on the control bar (is that the proper name???). But I've seen some videos with an additional menu/options bar above the control bar. To me, this seems like a waste of screen space.
I doubt anyone will really know, but in the hope that someone may know, does anyone know if there will be a push to have an additional menu bar like iOS? Or maybe there is an option to make the app behave like it's on legacy hardware and thus put it's menu button on the control bar.
I'm really hoping app developers are smart and maximise screen real estate which is especially important in landscape mode.
does anyone know if there will be a push to have an additional menu bar like iOS?
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Yes, it's called the "Action Bar". This new UI item has been introduced with Honeycomb.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html
Refined, evolved UI
Focused on bringing the power of Android to the surface, Android 4.0 makes common actions more visible...
[...]
Users can access each application's contextual options in the Action Bar, displayed at the top (and sometimes also at the bottom) of the screen.
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If this helps, i read somewhere that app developers can add a menu button to appear on the bottom 3 to make 4 buttons within the app
That would be much preferred! Thanks for the info.
Does anyone think that there could be great potential in the Galaxy Nexus' soft key area at the bottom of the screen? As soon as they announced that the GN would have on-screen buttons, customization came to mind right away.
We've already seen Paul O'Brien's begin with his UI patches here, but I feel like we are only scratching the surface of what can be done.
For example, with my limited pondering, I was hoping that a dev or maybe CM could soon allow us to put shortcuts on that bottom bar for quick access to the certain apps that you always use. For me, I would love for Google Talk to have a permanent shortcut on that bar that I can access from anywhere as I use it almost religiously. Also, a shortcut that emulates the power button would be highly convenient as well so that I don't have to reach up to the side button as often. I can also foresee some themeing or button rearrangement and so forth.
Do you guys have any other ideas? As I'm not a dev of any sort, maybe I'm out of line in thinking that the bottom bar is flexible enough to customize. However, if it could be done (and Paul O'Brien already has demonstrated that maybe it could), the possibilities could be endless.
As a webOS user, I'd love some swipe gestures implemented for 'back' and a swipe up to open the app drawer
a swipe up for the drawer would really nice
Damn, I didn't even think of swipe gestures at all. Now my mind is really running wild.
bump for more ideas!
swype gestures are already available on go launcher
subxero123 said:
swype gestures are already available on go launcher
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But we're not talking about the launcher. Didn't read the post huh?
I wish we could swipe down to make the thing disappear, which allows us to take advantage of the full 4.65 inch screen.
Swipe down - disappear
Swipe up - appear again
I think would be awesome if we could swipe the regular buttons to the side, showing new options (like we do with dock bar in almost every popular launcher). There, we could use app shortcuts, power widgets and other stuff, like the search and the option buttons.
I agree, I hope this is just a tip of the iceberg, it seems pointless to have all this potential and not utilize it.
how about instead of the soft keys have it scroll:
"wwwwwaaaaaasssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuuuppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!" w/ flashing text.
seriously though, being able to make them appear/disappear anytime would be a big plus in my book.
or say if you're playing a game/watching a movie, and someone calls you... rather then having the call notification pop up & take over, have the notification just appear in the soft key area.(i guess same for texts)
I think instead of putting toggles with the notification bar, a scrolling dock with these would be even better.
Like you guys said, swipe on the dock to the left or right to reveal Wifi/BT/GPS/etc. This seems easier than swiping down on the notification bar to bring it down.
On honeycomb we could hide them and theme them. Change animations and icons.
They didn't figure out how to add more or change up the order or add functionality because honeycomb wasn't open source like gingerbread and ICS.
So yea. Expect lots of cool stuff.
-Galaxy Nexus
-Asus Transformer
Since Android came out, I was hoping we would switch to soft-keys. Now we can fully customize the buttons, select preferred positions, preferred icon style, and which icons you actually have...
I'd be pretty content to just Swap the Menu and task manager buttons... I dont need a permanent task manager button that takes as much time to operate as it does to just navigate to the apps icon itself.. the menu button on the other hand I use in just about every app I launch.
sodequis said:
I'd be pretty content to just Swap the Menu and task manager buttons... I dont need a permanent task manager button that takes as much time to operate as it does to just navigate to the apps icon itself.. the menu button on the other hand I use in just about every app I launch.
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I thought this too until I actually got down to using it on the GN.
I never used the task switcher on my other Android devices as it seemed too difficult and took too long for it to be worth it. However, having been using the GN for a couple of days now, I find its implementation (just a single tap) to be much more friendly and useful. I find myself using it all the time now to switch between what I am doing and can't imagine not having it.
player911 said:
On honeycomb we could hide them and theme them. Change animations and icons.
They didn't figure out how to add more or change up the order or add functionality because honeycomb wasn't open source like gingerbread and ICS.
So yea. Expect lots of cool stuff.
-Galaxy Nexus
-Asus Transformer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd just like to know what devs to talk to in order to make it happen
I was hoping for some app specific keys. For instance in the browser have a Forward, Back, Stop/Reload, Home, etc.
id love to see the buttons replaced with like gif animations. so cool
Enhanced said:
I thought this too until I actually got down to using it on the GN.
I never used the task switcher on my other Android devices as it seemed too difficult and took too long for it to be worth it. However, having been using the GN for a couple of days now, I find its implementation (just a single tap) to be much more friendly and useful. I find myself using it all the time now to switch between what I am doing and can't imagine not having it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, why not just allow the "Home" button to be the task-switching button via long-press like before? Is that extra pause for the long-press what you're referring to when you say it took too long?
Anyway, I, too, would like the Menu button back, but more importantly I want the Search button back. I can't wait for the ability to get rid of the G Search widget, put a dedicated Search button back in the soft touch area, and have the Home button as the task-switcher.
Brandon
Android was the pioneer of the notification bar. The idea, very similar to the taskbar in windows, offers far more flexibility and utility. One factor common with Windows, though, is that it disappears during games and certain other apps. Now, in terms of notifications, this feature is not that useful because you still have to navigate out of the game to see your notification. There are several utilities to bypass this though: for me, BirdBar coupled with Notifier Pro works perfectly and brings the seamlessness of a multitasking beast. BUT, the notification bar is NOT available by default.
This problem is further highlighted by the fact that now you can place all sorts of shortcuts on the notification bar, the prime purpose of that being that you are able to switch apps and tweak your phone on the fly. Again, all that disappears when the notification bar disappears.
With Android 4.0, an interface element was introduced that stays on screen ALL the time, even during full screen games. That's right, the nav bar.
So here's my idea: take the notification bar, bring it downward and attach it to the nav bar. During a game, the notification bar can disappear but a shortcut to it can live in the nav bar (on the far right perhaps). ALternatively, the notification bar can slide upward with a swipe action starting from the bottom of the screen.
The 'hybird bar' thus created can expand dynamically whenever a notification is received.
Any takers?
Like have menu on one side and notifications on the other... I like it.
sent from my googletron
what about having the muiltitask bar also in the notifications pulldown that way we can have a menu button again.
God I miss the menu button lol
Great idea my friend tell one of the devs if they can help you out with that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
There are several apps (widgetsoid one of them) that can place shortcuts in the notification bar. Also, the placing of menu button is possible even now through mods.
Getting in touch with devs was the prime idea behind starting this thread. If possible, I would like to pitch this to renowned devs and Google Android team itself. Question is: How.
Dear friends,
for an unknown reason I cannot access my " Settings" whatever you call it from the below right hand corner of the screen as it used to be, it's no longer there. The only other option of getting the phone settings is from on top of the screen which I do not like. Thanks for your help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
In ICS Android no longer has the menu button. Instead, apps now use the action bar. Any overflow from said bar now displays as 3 dots, which include actions such as settings.
Apps that haven't been updated to the new API's will display the 3 dots next to the multi-task button.
However, some custom roms allow you to persistently add the menu button to the navigation bar.
So, the short answer to your question would be to flash a custom rom.
Better get used to hitting the 3 dots, as Google is intent on phasing out the menu button
If you install a custom rom you can add the menu as a soft key
El Daddy said:
In ICS Android no longer has the menu button. Instead, apps now use the action bar. Any overflow from said bar now displays as 3 dots, which include actions such as settings.
Apps that haven't been updated to the new API's will display the 3 dots next to the multi-task button.
However, some custom roms allow you to persistently add the menu button to the navigation bar.
So, the short answer to your question would be to flash a custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but I have always had the Menu Bar since when I bought it and there is no software upgrade up till now.
Is there a way to get the system to not add the menu button to various google programs? I'm running AOKP and I've got the menu button added to the navbar. Consequently, I want to get rid of it in the apps. Also, I would like the menu to pop up at the bottom and not the top. I would think this would be highly desired. What am I missing?
the menu inside the applications is built into the app itself. you wont be able to remove it unless you decompile the APK's and remove the menu yourself
I thought that the program used a signal from the system to determine if it has a menu button and uses that to determine the need for it. Does the Galaxy S III still get this button in apps like the play store and gmail? I don't know, but I would think not.
So from my research, it seems that the "overflow menu", as it is now called, only appears in the "action bar" when there is no menu button present on the device. For legacy devices that run ICS, it seems that android will detect that a menu button is present and not show the "overflow menu".
So basically, I'm wondering how I can trick the Galaxy Nexus into thinking there is a menu button present. This really should be an option for current roms as lots of people add the menu button to the navbar.
You have to hide the navbar to get what you want. When I use LMT and disable the navbar, the action button in all apps no longer appears. There is some api that tells the action bar menu to appear or not just like you want.
RogerPodacter said:
You have to hide the navbar to get what you want. When I use LMT and disable the navbar, the action button in all apps no longer appears. There is some api that tells the action bar menu to appear or not just like you want.
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What is LMT?
From my searchings, that seems to be what I've found. there is a methods called "hasPermanentMenuKey()" to return true this requires that there not be a navbar. Unfortunately, this kinda kills things as the whole point of hiding it was because I had a menu key in my navbar.
Thanks so much for the helpful reply!!!