Develop Bugs

[Concept][08/01] Android 4.0 Concept User Interface Improvements

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I'll be designing various UI concept improvements for Android and I'll keep them uploaded here.
If you have any ideas then please, let me know
8th January - Notification Concept Improvements Part 1
My first concept interface is done and ready for viewing - as well as feedback and comments.
This concept goes over some of my notification concepts which I feel would make Android a little more functional and fluid. Let me know what you think.
This user interface concept improvement video covers 3 simply tweaks, which I feel improve the functionality of Android.
1) Bigger Notifications
These bigger notifications show the contact picture,and are large enough so the message can be read. They appear over the top of the default notification bar to save space.
Clicking on the notification takes you to the application for which the notification is for. In this case, its the Messaging App
2) Quick Reply
Something I feel that has been missing from Android for some time. When the message arrive, clicking on the message itself will open quick reply.
Quick Reply extends the notification area so you can reply to the message right from the notification area, without leaving the application you are currently in.
3) Swipe to Close/Mark
Notifications have already easy to close in Android by either pressing the 'X' or in Android 4.0, by swiping the notification away.
However, there is no way to mark a message or email as read if you close it from the notification area. This concept means that you can do this. Simply wipe the notification to the left to close it, or swipe it to the right to mark it as read and close it.
There were 2 other videos that didn't make it into the final video - the only reason for this is that they are longer and the size of the video came to about 600mb for a HD one. Hence why they were left out of this video.
You can find more information about these at this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21179299&postcount=62
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All feedback and comments are welcome. Feel free to message me on any of the sites above.
These are just concepts, unfortunately I dont have the coding skills required to make this a reality. However if I can get ideas and make concepts up, a dev from the forums, the cyanogen mode team or perhaps Google themselves if we're lucky will see this and help make them become a reality.
If you would like to incorporate these ideas into a ROM, application etc, then please contact me first
Find me on the following websites:
Twitter
Google+
Facebook

Honestly there isn't much I'd change right now. I haven't noticed much that I would change.
In terms of performance, they NEED to fix the autorotate function. Yes, it's nice now that it shows an animation, but it takes waaaay too long to rotate. This was the same gripe I had with Honeycomb tablets. I'm positive that it's intentional by Google, because other phone running ICS with skins rotate faster (I have a Sensation to compare).
This second one is gonna get a bit long.
Second, they need to change the response time of the recent apps button. After extended use and several apps running, there will be a slight delay between pressing the button and the list opening up. I'm actually fine with the fact that there's a delay, it's just where the delay is. The way it runs is you touch the button, there's a delay(lag, whatever you want to call it), then the phone vibrates, the button lights up, and the list comes up. What google needs to do is change the way it functions. Make sure the haptic feedback functions and the button lights up the instant your finger touches it. Then it can delay and the list can come up. In other words G needs to make the illumination and haptic feedback first priority. Then it could work on the multitasking process.
I think if it was done in this manner, the lag would be much less noticeable. It's the same as showing some sort of screen or animation when starting an app. If you touch an app and nothing happens (the screen doesn't change at all, not even a press animation) until the apps fully loaded and running it'll be seen as lag. If you touch an app and immediately see a loading screen or an animation (just examples) then you know the app started up already, and it's perceived as loading instead of lag.
Phew. That was a mouthful. It needed to be said. Come on now Google. All of both of these are just a little tweak in software. Entirely doable. Or maybe it's already done. I don't know for sure since I'm still running 4.0.1
Other than that ICS is great.
EDIT: oh and Google should change the notification to mirror that of tablets. I don't see why they removed the quick settings; it seems unlike them. Just the basics like in Honeycomb: wifi toggle, brightness, bluetooth and autorotate. I've seen mods include it, so I'm sure they could come up with an elegant solution

They need to add the ability to get rid of the Google Search bar on all homescreens or make it less intrusive on the homescreen.

Evostance said:
All,
Just doing a bit of research.
Even though we all love Android, its still got its gripes. One of those for me is that the interface isn't as fluid or as function as it could be.
As many of you have seen ICS now, what type of enhancements to the interface would you like to see?
To give you an idea of what i'm after: I personally still dont like the notifications. I feel that they are a bit limited as to whats on offer, so I would like to see more function added to them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fixing notifications is easy. Just drag and drop custom sounds into notifications, alarm and ringtones folder. Using same nokia notification for text ever since my first smartphone. I have the usual buzzer alarm since ics didnt include it. I would also like option of no search bar or at least pinning it to desired homescreen. It would be nice if google included more in house options for themes, colors and backgrounds. Sms, gmail, calendar and email are ridiculously white. I'd like more black background white text options. We also need a toggle for the gpu clocks or coolbho3000 to hook us up in setcpu. Options for amount of home screens. 32GB and/or micro sd. Better clock options. Damn pogo pins car dock already.
My grandma beat me down and took my nexus. Sent from a jitterbug with beats by dre.

tsunami1609 said:
Honestly there isn't much I'd change right now. I haven't noticed much that I would change.
In terms of performance, they NEED to fix the autorotate function. Yes, it's nice now that it shows an animation, but it takes waaaay too long to rotate. This was the same gripe I had with Honeycomb tablets. I'm positive that it's intentional by Google, because other phone running ICS with skins rotate faster (I have a Sensation to compare).
This second one is gonna get a bit long.
Second, they need to change the response time of the recent apps button. After extended use and several apps running, there will be a slight delay between pressing the button and the list opening up. I'm actually fine with the fact that there's a delay, it's just where the delay is. The way it runs is you touch the button, there's a delay(lag, whatever you want to call it), then the phone vibrates, the button lights up, and the list comes up. What google needs to do is change the way it functions. Make sure the haptic feedback functions and the button lights up the instant your finger touches it. Then it can delay and the list can come up. In other words G needs to make the illumination and haptic feedback first priority. Then it could work on the multitasking process.
I think if it was done in this manner, the lag would be much less noticeable. It's the same as showing some sort of screen or animation when starting an app. If you touch an app and nothing happens (the screen doesn't change at all, not even a press animation) until the apps fully loaded and running it'll be seen as lag. If you touch an app and immediately see a loading screen or an animation (just examples) then you know the app started up already, and it's perceived as loading instead of lag.
Phew. That was a mouthful. It needed to be said. Come on now Google. All of both of these are just a little tweak in software. Entirely doable. Or maybe it's already done. I don't know for sure since I'm still running 4.0.1
Other than that ICS is great.
EDIT: oh and Google should change the notification to mirror that of tablets. I don't see why they removed the quick settings; it seems unlike them. Just the basics like in Honeycomb: wifi toggle, brightness, bluetooth and autorotate. I've seen mods include it, so I'm sure they could come up with an elegant solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stole the words out of my mouth. It sounds like nit-pickey stuff but it really would bring it all together nicely.

tsunami1609 said:
Honestly there isn't much I'd change right now. I haven't noticed much that I would change.
In terms of performance, they NEED to fix the autorotate function. Yes, it's nice now that it shows an animation, but it takes waaaay too long to rotate. This was the same gripe I had with Honeycomb tablets. I'm positive that it's intentional by Google, because other phone running ICS with skins rotate faster (I have a Sensation to compare).
This second one is gonna get a bit long.
Second, they need to change the response time of the recent apps button. After extended use and several apps running, there will be a slight delay between pressing the button and the list opening up. I'm actually fine with the fact that there's a delay, it's just where the delay is. The way it runs is you touch the button, there's a delay(lag, whatever you want to call it), then the phone vibrates, the button lights up, and the list comes up. What google needs to do is change the way it functions. Make sure the haptic feedback functions and the button lights up the instant your finger touches it. Then it can delay and the list can come up. In other words G needs to make the illumination and haptic feedback first priority. Then it could work on the multitasking process.
I think if it was done in this manner, the lag would be much less noticeable. It's the same as showing some sort of screen or animation when starting an app. If you touch an app and nothing happens (the screen doesn't change at all, not even a press animation) until the apps fully loaded and running it'll be seen as lag. If you touch an app and immediately see a loading screen or an animation (just examples) then you know the app started up already, and it's perceived as loading instead of lag.
Phew. That was a mouthful. It needed to be said. Come on now Google. All of both of these are just a little tweak in software. Entirely doable. Or maybe it's already done. I don't know for sure since I'm still running 4.0.1
Other than that ICS is great.
EDIT: oh and Google should change the notification to mirror that of tablets. I don't see why they removed the quick settings; it seems unlike them. Just the basics like in Honeycomb: wifi toggle, brightness, bluetooth and autorotate. I've seen mods include it, so I'm sure they could come up with an elegant solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your second point is fixed in 4.0.3
I agree with the OP I hope google does something new with the notifications.
Even just adding them to the lockscreen like iOS would be awesome
I also dislike how the notifications have a character limit, it would be cool if you had the dropdown open long enough the text would scroll

- I'd love to have swiping away a text or email mark it as read. And while we're on notifications I don't get why contact pics don't display in the drop-down bar for texts, only for emails.
- Swiping away a recent app actually kills it
- Option to easily switch between the phone & people apps
- Option to mute shutter sound right in camera menu
- Notification bar toggles like in CyanogenMod or AOKP

daandman said:
- I'd love to have swiping away a text or email mark it as read. And while we're on notifications I don't get why contact pics don't display in the drop-down bar for texts, only for emails.
- Swiping away a recent app actually kills it
- Option to easily switch between the phone & people apps
- Option to mute shutter sound right in camera menu
- Notification bar toggles like in CyanogenMod or AOKP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swiping away apps actually does kill them, you can see the process dying in the logs when removing from recent app list

I would like a new SMS app theme. The current one is pretty ugly. Something like Windows Phone 7's messaging theme would be much nicer.

BlackDino said:
Your second point is fixed in 4.0.3
I agree with the OP I hope google does something new with the notifications.
Even just adding them to the lockscreen like iOS would be awesome
I also dislike how the notifications have a character limit, it would be cool if you had the dropdown open long enough the text would scroll
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason I ask is im just doing a concept design for ICS. Not a custom launcher but actual improvements to stock.
For notifications i actually meant the looks and functionality of it. The first concept ive done is to change how the text notifications work.
I don't like the character limit or how restrictive it is, so I've changed it.
Hopefully when I've got my concepts together, someone will be able to help make them a reality, be it a dev, the cyanogen team or google themselves lol.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I would really like a change to the lockscreen while listening to music. I want the bottom half of the screen to be transparent, or to show the wallpaper instead of beeing black. I have been searching through SystemUI, framework-res and android.policy.jar to try and find it, but haven't as of yet.

tristan202 said:
I would really like a change to the lockscreen while listening to music. I want the bottom half of the screen to be transparent, or to show the wallpaper instead of beeing black. I have been searching through SystemUI, framework-res and android.policy.jar to try and find it, but haven't as of yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean where the soft buttons would sit?
You'd like to see music controls in there?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Soft button area supporting gestures
I came to Android from webOS after HP shot themselves in the foot several times and one of the things I miss most is the gesture bar you had at the bottom of the screen. With the advent of the soft button area in ICS I see a real option to enable the area to work in a similar fashion.
For those that are unfamiliar with it it's basically an area at the bottom of the screen blocked off from apps that registers simple finger gestures. This made the basics of actually using a device a breeze and pleasure i.e. no looking for a particular button / tapping the wrong button when you weren't looking and the gestures were consistent no matter what app was running.
The gestures were:
A single swipe up would show you your running apps.
Swiping 2 fingers up would show you the launcher (app drawer).
A leftward swipe would go back.
A full swipe across the entire area going either right or left would take you to the next or previous running app.
Besides the wireless charging the gesture area was one of the webOS killer features you very quickly learned to take for-granted. So yeah, I'd like the soft button area to handle gestures in case you haven't guessed already

Northernmost said:
I came to Android from webOS after HP shot themselves in the foot several times and one of the things I miss most is the gesture bar you had at the bottom of the screen. With the advent of the soft button area in ICS I see a real option to enable the area to work in a similar fashion.
For those that are unfamiliar with it it's basically an area at the bottom of the screen blocked off from apps that registers simple finger gestures. This made the basics of actually using a device a breeze and pleasure i.e. no looking for a particular button / tapping the wrong button when you weren't looking and the gestures were consistent no matter what app was running.
The gestures were:
A single swipe up would show you your running apps.
Swiping 2 fingers up would show you the launcher (app drawer).
A leftward swipe would go back.
A full swipe across the entire area going either right or left would take you to the next or previous running app.
Besides the wireless charging the gesture area was one of the webOS killer features you very quickly learned to take for-granted. So yeah, I'd like the soft button area to handle gestures in case you haven't guessed already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok ill see what I can mock up. I've done a basic notification text, just need to add another feature before i finalise it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Go you! I was hoping this was something Matias Duarte would bring to Android himself.

Evostance said:
Do you mean where the soft buttons would sit?
You'd like to see music controls in there?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's the black part of this screenshot I'd like changed.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

tristan202 said:
No, it's the black part of this screenshot I'd like changed.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow. Thats actually what it looks like when playing music
I think that black part may be for album art?

Evostance said:
Oh wow. Thats actually what it looks like when playing music
I think that black part may be for album art?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it just shows the album art at the very top. Up where the media buttons are.

tristan202 said:
No, it just shows the album art at the very top. Up where the media buttons are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How stupid. Definitely a tweak that should be there

Honestly, the only two things I want to be changed in terms of the UI are
1.) The ability to hide the soft keys at will for example, if I'm playing a game I want to be able to utilize the entire screen. I think a gesture to hide + bring back the soft keys is the solution. Highly unlikely to be implemented anytime soon
2.) Such as many launchers which have the functionality to have scrollable docks, I would like the soft keys to be scrollable. It would be pretty awesome to be able to have different toggles such as wifi, Bluetooth and even apps always available since unlike the notification bar, the soft keys never disappear regardless of the current app.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Quick controls instead of navigation bar? Just an idea...

Edit: Forget it, s2d2 just made me realize that the newer versions of LMT have integrated exactly the stuff I'm talking about here
First of all, I’m no developer and I don’t even know if this stuff is possible, I just wanted to share my thoughts about an alternative way to navigate through the OS without wasting too much space with the navigation bar.
I use roman’s awesome AOKP ROM at the moment, which has an option included to hide navigation bar. To access home/back/menu/recent, you have to use an app like LMT for example.
Although LMT works quite ok, I think it is not the ideal solution to replace navigation bar. Drawing symbols is not as intuitive as I imagined it to be and it looks kind of weird how the homescreen and many apps react while drawing the symbols.
So I thought about alternatives and I had the following idea:
Would it be possible to create something like the quick controls from the browser for system-wide use? Let's say you swipe up from the bottom of the screen and a set of buttons appears in a half circle like it does in the browser. Of course it should work system-wide and across all apps, just like LMT.
To make it available across all apps, it would be necessary to still reserve a "swipe space" on the bottom to differ between app input and navigation bar access. It could be smaller though since you don't need to show any information on it. Theoretically, a line with a width of one pixel should be enough since the swipe gesture would start outside the screen (which makes me think, maybe this line can be a battery bar at the same time )
I see some advantages in this kind of navigation:
- maximum screen real estate
- a swipe from the bottom would be quicker and more intuitive than drawing symbols (where you have to remember the shape and the starting point for every action)
- smaller chance to trigger navigation buttons accidentally (for example while writing with onscreen keyboard) since the navigation bar is hidden.
- doesn’t get in the way of other swipe actions like scrolling/turning pages/homescreen transition. I can’t think of any situation where you swipe from the bottom of the screen that would interfere with the Quick Navigation.
So developers, do you think something like this is possible? It would be an awesome solution to get the most out of the screen size and still have quick access to the navigation buttons and maybe even custom apps/actions.
If it's not possible or just plain stupid, what are the problems realizing something like this?

Lmt has pie wheel=half circle stuff in your terminology, already implemented...
Nearly two weeks late

s2d4 said:
Lmt has pie wheel=half circle stuff, no need to draw stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, didn't know that So probably my idea is unnecessary after all

qwer23 said:
Cool, didn't know that So probably my idea is unnecessary after all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
be happy
He's adding even more features to it too

s2d4 said:
be happy
He's adding even more features to it too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am! Just installed new version and it's awesome! It's pretty much what i wished for ^^

"Expanded Desktop" hidden shortcut?

There is an option in paranoiddroid rom in the power menu called Expanded desktop, for those who don't know its a really cool feature that hides the status bar and nav bar giving a very beatiful full screen. Is there any way I could make it into a shortcut or a hidden toggle(ie, like how the LMT pie can be accessed by touching the very right of the screen) where i could hide/unhide without having to open the power menu every time?

mmk92 said:
There is an option in paranoiddroid rom in the power menu called Expanded desktop, for those who don't know its a really cool feature that hides the status bar and nav bar giving a very beatiful full screen. Is there any way I could make it into a shortcut or a hidden toggle(ie, like how the LMT pie can be accessed by touching the very right of the screen) where i could hide/unhide without having to open the power menu every time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my knowledge, there is no shortcut to it. If u already know about lmt, why not just use that as your primary nav keys?
Sent from a Galaxy far far away

rice923 said:
To my knowledge, there is no shortcut to it. If u already know about lmt, why not just use that as your primary nav keys?
Sent from a Galaxy far far away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMT slows touch response down, using it is VERY annoying, and an expanded desktop toggle would be much faster and provides overall much better work flow then LMT

mmk92 said:
LMT slows touch response down, using it is VERY annoying, and an expanded desktop toggle would be much faster and provides overall much better work flow then LMT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What??? Works fine for me. I've been using since march.
And u can probably attach a shortcut to LMT.
--------------------------------------------------
If I have helped you.... hit that sexy thanks button. ^_^

Dragn4rce said:
What??? Works fine for me. I've been using since march.
And u can probably attach a shortcut to LMT.
--------------------------------------------------
If I have helped you.... hit that sexy thanks button. ^_^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, works like a charm. I even created the shortcut to Google Now by long pressing the home key like the normal nav keys

I'm late to this party, what is lmt?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

Slacker101 said:
I'm late to this party, what is lmt?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a type of onscreen navigation buttons.
Attached you can see what it looks like. Basically the left or right side of my screen contains hot zones that activate the 'pie' but you can also use gestures.
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"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
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Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

LMT is cool and all but for someone who started using it on jellybean after a week on running bone stock gnex, it affects the touch response noticebelly and overall performance abit, its kind of like when you install too much mods off cydia on the iphone
Now if theres a way to implement an invisible trigger, lets say on the bottom right corner of the screen, you can use the nav bar as google intended it with full convinience, but when your playing a game browsing or whatever, you just toggle it off, and then back on when your done, although the LMT pie is an awesome concept, but lets be honest its not as convinient as the conventional navbar

mmk92 said:
LMT is cool and all but for someone who started using it on jellybean after a week on running bone stock gnex, it affects the touch response noticebelly and overall performance abit, its kind of like when you install too much mods off cydia on the iphone
Now if theres a way to implement an invisible trigger, lets say on the bottom right corner of the screen, you can use the nav bar as google intended it with full convinience, but when your playing a game browsing or whatever, you just toggle it off, and then back on when your done, although the LMT pie is an awesome concept, but lets be honest its not as convinient as the conventional navbar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, lmt should not influence the performance of the device and I never saw it happening on my jb. Perhaps you did not configure it correctly? Did you use only the pie or also the gestures? Did you deactivate the gestures when not using it? Did you use the correct input device? Thanks!
Edit: And do you have a use case I could reproduce? I'd love to iron out the problem if it's really happening?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

noname81 said:
Hm, lmt should not influence the performance of the device and I never saw it happening on my jb. Perhaps you did not configure it correctly? Did you use only the pie or also the gestures? Did you deactivate the gestures when not using it? Did you use the correct input device? Thanks!
Edit: And do you have a use case I could reproduce? I'd love to iron out the problem if it's really happening?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No ironing is possible, really.
The performance increased noticeably in either a recent version of LMT or just on JellyBean...
Back on ICS I couldn't stand the millisecond of lag it induced.
However; I use in on JellyBean without issues. It is slightly laggier than the stock keys but it's hardly noticeable since it's gesture based.
I.E.
Pie: you remove your finger to register a gesture.
NavBar: you tap your finger to register a gesture.
When you think about this as you're doing it...you can better visualize ho long the actions take to register and PIE is a tad bit slower...but not by much.
Again, I still use it and don't mind it in the slightest.

noname81 said:
Hm, lmt should not influence the performance of the device and I never saw it happening on my jb. Perhaps you did not configure it correctly? Did you use only the pie or also the gestures? Did you deactivate the gestures when not using it? Did you use the correct input device? Thanks!
Edit: And do you have a use case I could reproduce? I'd love to iron out the problem if it's really happening?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I configured it to run PIE only at first and i noticed a slight overall lag in touch response throughout the entre system, this lag isnt much but noticable(atleast for me), when i enabled gestures with it it induced an even bigger lag but still very small yet it is still there.
I respect the LMT concept for shortcuts and the PIE feature for extended navigation buttons, but I still think that a work around to disable/enable the native navbar on the fly is much more convenient, efficient, and wouldn't have any effect on the workflow of the entire device(maybe even improve it a bit)
But for people who need more functionality then the nav bar and don't mind the minor annoyances it provides, i strongly recommend LMT.
Jubakuba said:
No ironing is possible, really.
The performance increased noticeably in either a recent version of LMT or just on JellyBean...
Back on ICS I couldn't stand the millisecond of lag it induced.
However; I use in on JellyBean without issues. It is slightly laggier than the stock keys but it's hardly noticeable since it's gesture based.
I.E.
Pie: you remove your finger to register a gesture.
NavBar: you tap your finger to register a gesture.
When you think about this as you're doing it...you can better visualize ho long the actions take to register and PIE is a tad bit slower...but not by much.
Again, I still use it and don't mind it in the slightest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya exactly that's what I'm talking about, that slight lag u notice i notice it even more I'm very anal about how fast my phone responds to touch thats why i got a gnex in the first place
and ya also executing a command through a gesture or the PIE feature takes around 3times longer to execute then taping an icon on the nav bar
EDIT: Also displaying the PIE by taping and holding the hidden toggle on the mid-right of the screen adds a second to the work flow, which is a lot compared to a navbar tap

I'm sorry for the double post, but this is more of a discussion thread then a Q/A thread, can it be moved back to general? as it does not belong here

You're talking about two types of lag atm. First you say when lmt is activated there is an overall system lag for touch events. This I want to analyze and fix if it is happening! I designed lmt so that there should be no influence and as I said I never saw this and no one ever mentioned it in the lmt thread.
Then you're talking about triggering actions like "back" takes longer time than the softkeys. You're right about that. For some action like "back" external apps like lmt have to trigger a hardware keyevent on a low level because android doesn't expose an api for that. This is for example one reason why lmt needs root permissions...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

noname81 said:
You're talking about two types of lag atm. First you say when lmt is activated there is an overall system lag for touch events. This I want to analyze and fix if it is happening! I designed lmt so that there should be no influence and as I said I never saw this and no one ever mentioned it in the lmt thread.
Then you're talking about triggering actions like "back" takes longer time than the softkeys. You're right about that. For some action like "back" external apps like lmt have to trigger a hardware keyevent on a low level because android doesn't expose an api for that. This is for example one reason why lmt needs root permissions...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't really discribe the lag pricesely, but its there. It is very comparable to the lags iOS users get from theming/applying UI mods. And ya that lag when you do an action like "back" is noticable and its very obvoius for everyone. As far as LMT though i think its as good as it could get, the android OS the bottleneck at this point i guess....
Now i hope there's a way to use a trigger like the one that triggers the PIE function to turn the navbar on/off, jus tlike on the power menu. Maybe the functionality could be added to LMT? or maybe we could use the already available LMT features like hand gestures to map it to that function?

mmk92 said:
I can't really discribe the lag pricesely, but its there. It is very comparable to the lags iOS users get from theming/applying UI mods. And ya that lag when you do an action like "back" is noticable and its very obvoius for everyone. As far as LMT though i think its as good as it could get, the android OS the bottleneck at this point i guess....
Now i hope there's a way to use a trigger like the one that triggers the PIE function to turn the navbar on/off, jus tlike on the power menu. Maybe the functionality could be added to LMT? or maybe we could use the already available LMT features like hand gestures to map it to that function?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This could be done. Hiding the navbar on the fly was introduced/implemented in custom roms only. I don't know who initially implemented the code and who just kanged it . You need to ask the guys if that hiding is somehow exposed so that external apps can trigger it (ask for an api). If not, you could kindly ask if they would implement it. Once this is done it would be easy for me to implement an invisible activation area, etc. to trigger it. Hth...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

noname81 said:
This could be done. Hiding the navbar on the fly was introduced/implemented in custom roms only. I don't know who initially implemented the code and who just kanged it . You need to ask the guys if that hiding is somehow exposed so that external apps can trigger it (ask for an api). If not, you could kindly ask if they would implement it. Once this is done it would be easy for me to implement an invisible activation area, etc. to trigger it. Hth...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a way, the latest Xenon ROM includes within the system UI a command(or activity) that hides/shows the navbar, I used LMT double finger gestures to swipe up to hide it, then swide up again to show it

Could you share the name please?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

how can the status bar show on expanded desktop?

shaider_516 said:
how can the status bar show on expanded desktop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use the smart statusbar app, its on play store

[APP][TRIAL] DeskBar Launcher will replace your soft buttons and more!

Hello!
I'm an Android developer and I almost finished a new app called Deskbar Launcher.
I created it for many reasons. First I was fed up by the look of the system bar with Home/Back/Recent Apps and the huge waste of space it makes. Like many others I tried alternative solutions like HideBar and the likes but then I looked at my laptop and at its ribbon bar which I use all the time and I thought it would be a good idea to have something similar on Android.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Download links are now in the new thread here. If you have any comments, suggestions or problems, please report there. Thanks
Features :
-can replace your soft buttons (sadly Back button needs root, after lots of search I don't think it is possible otherwise)
-add shortcuts to your favorite apps on the bar
-music controllers to go to pause/go to next/previous song in any apps
-volume controllers
-lock button to minimize accidental input of your bar and soft buttons
-access all your apps in StartMenu as well as categories such as Pictures, Music, Settings, etc.
-(experimental)(ROOT)fullscreen mode.
Future features:
-Folders
-Themes
-Reboot button for root users
-etc
I developed it mainly on Nexus7, that's why I post here before releasing it on the Play Store. It is a Trial version of 10days and when you launch it you need internet access for verification, after it's not necessary except if you reload it. A licence key will soon be available.
There might be some bugs!
Questions
Q:I don't have Root and not having a back button is not possible for me, it seems I can't use your app.
Q:I already got rid of my system bar, it will cover screen content so it's not usable for me too.
A: You can! Deskbar Launcher has an autohide feature so you can still access your back button. Bring it up only when it's needed!
Q: I have one bar for soft buttons and notifications (no status bar on top) . Your app will cover the notification part and I won't be able to access my notifications
A. There is a setting especially for that so the Deskbar takes only half your device's width, in the future the width of Deskbar might be more customizable.
Q : Can I use it on my other tablet/phone ?
A. Yes! It is theoretically compatible with all 2.2 or + Android devices! There might be some problems on specific rom or with some manufacturers. Please report to me in this case.

i'll try and report,i haven't mean exactly what does (using it is more intuitive!)
thanks for now mate!

Will be testing this for sure!
Edit
Light usage so far
Pros:
- Quick easy access to your music, photos, and documents
- Completely changes look and feel of the bottom nav bar without need for root or new ROM
- can view and switch to apps of your choice quickly with out exiting current app
- in-depth settings with good amount of customization
- work around for non-rooted users
Cons:
- visual appeal isn't appealing( to me at least)
- nav buttons feel a little too close together
- cannot change the color of the bar
- auto hide feature needs work as it seems finicky
What I would like to see:
- short cuts to user defined app in menu
- options to change colors
- quick toggles in menu (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc...)
Other then that I really like it and its a good change. Will love to see the advancement of this project later down the road! Great work indeed!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Thanks for your feedback!
About suggestions and bad points:
-Yeah visual appeal is kind of generic, I'm not the best at design/art . Themes should give a workaround for those who don't like it in one of the next updates. (By the way there was a bug with the start button not showing the glowing icon when start menu was displaying . It's fixed in the new version, it's the same download link, uninstall is needed if you have the previous version.
-I plan on adding a setting to have custom distance between buttons because on some device space is precious and on others there's plenty of it.
-Themes should also address this issue
-Not sure what you mean by this, I admit it's not ideal because there's no animation, it just goes down after a 3seconds delay. I will add a smooth movement option in the future.
-user-defined shortcuts in menu is planned, as well as folders containing app shortcuts
-I'll try to add Theming fast
-Quick Toggles is indeed interesting, I'll think of ways to add it in the Menu.

Awesome! I see this as being a good hit
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

This damn thing is INTUITIVE. Seriously, I love the feel of it and it really looks quite nice on my N7. Cheers for letting us try this, I think its a really good fit and shows promise of something in the future. Killjoy question: what will the licensing price new?

Im really loving this! I do have have more thing that I would like to see added and that would be having resizeable options for the menu its self. More so users can choose exactly how many pixels the pull up menu actually takes up. I'm also picky like that though.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Very minor complaint: after about an hour of use, it starts to feel a bit sluggish. That is, I'll tap on home, back it recent and it'll take about a second to respond. I rebooted my tablet and suddenly I got my groove back. Maybe it's a memory issue? Just thought I'd chime in, I'm really enjoying this mod!

Love it so far!
Two little things:
-ability to change icons/icon sets of shortcuts
-expanded version of the menu to see more apps at once
Thanks

Sharpen3d said:
Killjoy question: what will the licensing price new?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. 2.49 probably.
Sharpen3d said:
Very minor complaint: after about an hour of use, it starts to feel a bit sluggish. That is, I'll tap on home, back it recent and it'll take about a second to respond. I rebooted my tablet and suddenly I got my groove back. Maybe it's a memory issue? Just thought I'd chime in, I'm really enjoying this mod!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll need more info on this one, I did not encounter this problem. Was it only the soft buttons ? Did the other buttons (shortcuts, music, startbutton) worked correctly ? Did you add a lot of shortcuts ?
soloman56 said:
Love it so far!
Two little things:
-ability to change icons/icon sets of shortcuts
-expanded version of the menu to see more apps at once
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First is already in the works. For the second one maybe the default size is not big enough ?

Lots of force close on my device, Samsung Showcase. Like the idea though.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

PenguinxEnjoi said:
Lots of force close on my device, Samsung Showcase. Like the idea though.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
Can you tell me when it's happening and if it's after a precise action ? Could you use the CatLog app (or any similar one) to get me a crash report ? Thanks!
You might be low on memory and the system decide to stop the app to free some.

srelyt said:
I'll need more info on this one, I did not encounter this problem. Was it only the soft buttons ? Did the other buttons (shortcuts, music, startbutton) worked correctly ? Did you add a lot of shortcuts ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music buttons worked great, as did the launcher button. No shortcuts added. I'm wondering if the error came from my rom or what, I'm running slim bean beta 2 with faux beta 14b01. Haven't had any issues since restarting, maybe it was a fluke?

New version uploaded which uses less memory and has a new welcome screen ( not so well done but I wanted one to have a link to the video tutorial I finished ).
Link updated in OP

Sharpen3d said:
Music buttons worked great, as did the launcher button. No shortcuts added. I'm wondering if the error came from my rom or what, I'm running slim bean beta 2 with faux beta 14b01. Haven't had any issues since restarting, maybe it was a fluke?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, or it's the way to simulate virtual buttons that can sometimes go wrong, it's kind of a hack but there isn't really any alternative. It should work most of the time and as well as similar apps offering virtual buttons alternative.
I have to go, I'll be back tomorrow.
EDIT:I forgot to add if you already installed it, erase app data before uninstalling and installing the new one because the way data was saved as changed.

Greats Job, Please add volume button up/down on navigation bar, thanks

PenguinxEnjoi said:
Lots of force close on my device, Samsung Showcase. Like the idea though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found what it was, it concerned all devices with Android version under 3.0. It's fixed (new version in OP) except maybe for the "Switch App" button.
Could you test for me or someone else with a device on 2.2/2.3 ? Thanks
brium13 said:
Greats Job, Please add volume button up/down on navigation bar, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Added to the todo-list, I'll do it soon I think.

Re: [APP][BETA][TRIAL] DeskBar Launcher will replace your soft buttons and more!
As soon as I noticed the trail 10 days crap I uninstalled it. Sigh. Why can't people do things without money motivating them?
I can see if it was finished but its not even close.

Re: [APP][BETA][TRIAL] DeskBar Launcher will replace your soft buttons and more!
What a great idea. Please keep the 10 day trial available once its more refined, I will definitely try and probably buy.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Re: [APP][BETA][TRIAL] DeskBar Launcher will replace your soft buttons and more!
So far so good. I really like the idea and the way it works. I'll report back if I have any problems.
Sent from under your bed...

No navbar gestures only N4 LMT config - copy it or help improve it if you want to

So, the nav-bar eating a portion of my screen was bothering me for a while and I wanted my device to rely on gestures only, so I decided to search for the most suitable way for me to solve this problem... LMT of course, but first I got rid of the nav-bar using FullScreen Toggle.
Big thanks to the creators of both those apps
LMT can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1330150
FullScreen Toggle can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1497558
Now, as the title says, I'd like to share with you my LMT configuration. There are many things that I'm currently unable to understand about how LMT should actually be configurated, I just used a trial&error approach, but the result I got is more then decent and worthy of being shared IMO. If I'll get some suggestion on how to improve what I did I hope to turn this post in a clean LMT ISAS guide for the Nexus 4.
PLEASE NOTICE that I didn't want to use the pie and I (almost*) didn't use LMT's gestures. The following configuration is for ISAS only.
That's because I wanted to get rid of softkeys and still have an easy to use and reliable N4. Complicated gestures tend to be hard to use and to reproduce consistently, they will give you an hard learning curve and will slow down every operation. Here I'm trying to get the benefits of gestures without making everything overcomplicated.
Now... let's get into it, I'm gonna use pictures to make everything easier to understand
This is what I ideally wanted to get:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Each colored part corresponds to a ISA on LMT
YELLOW is ISA 1 (bottom left), assigned to BACK
RED is ISA 2 (bottom center), assigned to HOME
BLUE is ISA 3 (bottom right), assigned to RECENT APPS
GREEN is ISA 9 (left bottom), assigned to OPTIONS
ORANGE is ISA 6 (top right)
this is an optional one that I wanted to add. It's assigned to search longpress, wich triggers an activity of the app "Screen Off and Lock". Basically it locks the screen with a swipe.
Sadly, if you assign the ISAS as shown without changing any value within LMT your ISAS will look nothing like the picture, you'd get something like this:
Why? I promise I don't know. I read the posts about how to use LMT, but I couldn't really understand how the 4 settings for ISAS work. So as I said, I went for trial&error. At first I thought that "Activation area thickness" was the setting I had to modify to get what I wanted, but it didn't help in any way, and the same happened with "Min bbox size", so I left those two as they were by default.
Then I found out that increasing the value for "Touchscreen to screen factor Y" reduces the colored rectangles areas. I found the value 209 to be ideal. The rectangles were now more like lines closed to the frame, but many things were still off. Here's how it looked like:
The home button is far too small, everithing is too much to the left and I don't really know what the heck orange is doing down there.
Finally, I changed the "Touchscreen to screen factor X" value to 250, and it got me to my final result
It's not perfect, but it's pretty close. I would like yellow red and blue to be better centered, but this configuration is really reliable and easy to use. It actually took me some time to realize that it's not exactly as I wanted it, the only thing that you have to remember if you you're gonna use this, is to stay well to the right when you want to swipe into recent apps.
If you apply this settings you will be able to use easy gestures that can't be activated by mistake while you are using other apps or games and you'll gain precious space on your screen.
My final LMT values are:
Min bbox size: 1 (default)
Activation area thickness: 80 (default)
Touchscreen to screen factor X: 250
Touchscreen to screen factor Y: 209
*I also enabled the X shaped gesture on LMT and associated it with FullScreen Toggle. If anything goes wrong while you are using your phone and you can't open the app drawer to get to FullScreen Toggle and enable the navbar, just perform the gesture, toggle the navbar back and reboot your phone.
Known issues with this configuration.
There are two of them.
First, since you have an ISA for options, you will be able to use the options in any app that has an option menu. The problem is that for some reason when FullScreen Toggle is activated you will not be able to see the 3-dots on-screen icon that opens the menu on any apps. That icon disappears from the top right corner or wherever it's supposed to be. That means that you will have to remember which apps have an option menu or just try to swipe and open it in case there is one.
Second, with LMT ISAS change positon properly when you go from portrait to panorama mode only if you rotate your device 90° to the left. If you rotate your device to the right ISAS from the bottom go to the top and ISAS on the right side go to the left side and viceversa.
However this is not a big problem to me and maybe it will be fixed by LMT's developer anyway.
Sorry for the long post and for any grammatical error (probably a lot). Hope someone finds this intresting and helpful

Cool guide thanks.
Did you try GMD gesture control? Seems like it would be easier to setup how you like. Complex or simple. I guess if you got LMT working fine then its all good.

jarayn said:
Cool guide thanks.
Did you try GMD gesture control? Seems like it would be easier to setup how you like. Complex or simple. I guess if you got LMT working fine then its all good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it but I was not satisfied with it. It's really great and extremely customizable, but in my expirience it's a bit buggy, it gave me problems right after the boot, can't remember if the auto-start was too slow or if there was actually something worse then that.
Also, it doesn't allow you to hide the navbar only, if you want to hide the navbar you have to hide the status bar too.

Marlon90 said:
I tried it but I was not satisfied with it. It's really great and extremely customizable, but in my expirience it's a bit buggy, it gave me problems right after the boot, can't remember if the auto-start was too slow or if there was actually something worse then that.
Also, it doesn't allow you to hide the navbar only, if you want to hide the navbar you have to hide the status bar too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah ok. I dont use the hiding functions at all just use the Rom for that. The gestures aren't buggy at all and are a lot easier to set up than lmt. Also you get the launch pads.
Anyway it doesn't matter. It's a good guide and lmt is free so that's something.

Awesome post, thanks!
2 Questions...
Is there any way I can swipe back with the keyboard up without typing anything? I end up with a million drafts using LMT.
Also, is there a setting to actually see the areas like you show them for the touch locations?

ace7196 said:
Awesome post, thanks!
2 Questions...
Is there any way I can swipe back with the keyboard up without typing anything? I end up with a million drafts using LMT.
Also, is there a setting to actually see the areas like you show them for the touch locations?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First answer... this kind of things are the ones that bother me too with gestures, and doing what I showed in the OP I specifically tried to eliminate or reduce them. My answer to that problem was having a little line instead of a rectangle, and not so tiny that it's hard to trigger the gesture. It works well for me, and I think it requires very little getting use to.
Try it yourself if you want and maybe accomodate it to yur preference. Maybe you will type something from time to time but I hope the guide makes it so that it happens rarely.
Also, I never tried this on another N4... I don't see why it shouldn't work the same way for others, but a little feedback would be a very good thing.
As for the second question, there's no such setting that I know of, you should ask to the develoer of LMT. If there was such an option it would be so much easier to configure the app perfectly.

Fyi: touchscreen to screen factors for the nexus 4 are 200/200. It's written in the OP.
Hth!
Sent from my Nexus 4

noname81 said:
Fyi: touchscreen to screen factors for the nexus 4 are 200/200. It's written in the OP.
Hth!
Sent from my Nexus 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that, but does it work for you? On my device it does not, if I don't mess around with X and Y I always get rectangles

Marlon90 said:
I know that, but does it work for you? On my device it does not, if I don't mess around with X and Y I always get rectangles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
200 by 200 work best for me. OP: Are you able to simple press those hidden areas, or do you have to do a small swipe? I have to do the latter.

Yes these are the correct values to divide each side of the screen into 3 areas with equal size.
Sent from my Nexus 4

noname81 said:
Yes these are the correct values to divide each side of the screen into 3 areas with equal size.
Sent from my Nexus 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, then I guess I'm left with a big pile of nothing... What happens to me is I have big areas in wich a swipe triggers the action. At 200 they take a big part of the sceen and if I increase Y even slightly they become lines, but some other things are off as I said. I've read around about people not being able to get ISAS to work and I thoght I was into something, but if that's just me then I'm at a loss... I guess I'll do a nanobkp and wipe and see if everything start working with 200/200

Great!, thanks for the guide.

tyraelasd said:
Great!, thanks for the guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, you are welcome... read the rest of the thread, chances are this guide is useless for most people

jarayn said:
Cool guide thanks.
Did you try GMD gesture control? Seems like it would be easier to setup how you like. Complex or simple. I guess if you got LMT working fine then its all good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use both LMT and GMD for different gestures and I'm pretty satisfied, I also use glovebox for frequently used apps.
My setup is a little different, when I'm from the pc (and hopefully I'll remember XD) I'll share also my setup with you
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I personally use the Extend Desktop feature easily accessible from the power button on CM. Probably the way to go if you already have a custom ROM.

my gestures setup
I use, as I said, both LMT and GMD for my gestures setup. I tried a bit to emulate ubuntu for phones. (I also use glovebox as you see)
(In the image, the rectangles are actually the area you have to swipe to activate the gesture)
GMD custom gestures:
with a swipe from the left center you go home
with a wipe from the right center you go to the previous app
LMT ISAS:
swipe form the bottom center to go home
swipe from the bottom left to go back
swipe from the bottom right to recent apps
swipe from the top right to go back (useful when you have the keyboard open and you don't want to accidentally type)
the settings for the apps are the following
LMT
min bbox (how much do you have to swipe to activate the gesture: 5
activation area thickness: 25
touchscreen factor x,y: 200
GMD
gesture size (under "advanced"): 492
home and prevapp gesture may have to be disabled when keyboard is on depending on your keyboard
I'm pretty satisfied with this setup, only little thing that bothers me is that sometimes when I type a bottom gesture is activated, but it happens very few times

Im testing this Now, thanks

I like it. I had to use 100 instead of 80 but works mint.

issues with typing is messing with this. Also its hard to swipe up to go back on some apps. It keeps opening the keyboard.

I just wanna thank the OP and everyone on this thread. I read all the responses and was able to get it working perfectly for me. I like this setup way more than using PIE.