Android RANT - Bring Back the Notification Ticker! - Android General

Don't know where else to put this rant, but here it goes:
I completely understand why Android and iOS copy certain features from each other. They often help improve the user experience for both operating systems. However, the one feature Android got wrong by copying iOS is the stupid, and highly intrusive notification banner.
Up until Android KitKat (4.X), Android notifications came in the form of an non-intrusive and ultra-informative ticker that scrolled across the status bar. Since Android Lollipop (5.X), the tickers have been replaced with banners that cover 20% (I didn't actually measure, but you get the point) of the screen, restricting your view when using another app.
I can't stand it when I'm watching a video and a banner drops down covering part of the screen, causing me to rewind a few seconds to see what I missed. Yes, it can be swiped away immediately, but I prefer to read the notification's content before deciding to swipe it away in case it's important. A notification ticker would be less intrusive and still allow me to see who the notification is from and even the content of the message without restricting my view of the media I'm consuming; thereby, allowing me to choose whether or not to act on it.
And to make matters worse, the only options we have are to disable the banners completely, leaving me without a good way to see critical notification info without leaving the app. I know I can have an icon show in the status bar instead, but that doesn't tell nearly enough information. Please ANDROID - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back the option to have notifications shown as a ticker in the status bar!
/rant

PuffDaddy_d said:
Don't know where else to put this rant, but here it goes:
I completely understand why Android and iOS copy certain features from each other. They often help improve the user experience for both operating systems. However, the one feature Android got wrong by copying iOS is the stupid, and highly intrusive notification banner.
Up until Android KitKat (4.X), Android notifications came in the form of an non-intrusive and ultra-informative ticker that scrolled across the status bar. Since Android Lollipop (5.X), the tickers have been replaced with banners that cover 20% (I didn't actually measure, but you get the point) of the screen, restricting your view when using another app.
I can't stand it when I'm watching a video and a banner drops down covering part of the screen, causing me to rewind a few seconds to see what I missed. Yes, it can be swiped away immediately, but I prefer to read the notification's content before deciding to swipe it away in case it's important. A notification ticker would be less intrusive and still allow me to see who the notification is from and even the content of the message without restricting my view of the media I'm consuming; thereby, allowing me to choose whether or not to act on it.
And to make matters worse, the only options we have are to disable the banners completely, leaving me without a good way to see critical notification info without leaving the app. I know I can have an icon show in the status bar instead, but that doesn't tell nearly enough information. Please ANDROID - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back the option to have notifications shown as a ticker in the status bar!
/rant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree with you. i found an app called Edge Mask that might be what you want. I used it for quite some time but uninstalled it when it started being buggy. Have a go at it and see if helps. I think they had a update recently, might give it a try myself.

Related

[APP]Holo Steam Modification

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"lightbox_download": "Download",
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The Steam mobile app is definitely due an update, the last update was released in March 2012, but I don't see that changing for a long time.
The current interface for the Steam app is terrible, low quality images all over the show, it's a direct port from the iOS app, and that most certainly
does not follow the Android design guidelines. If Valve won't fix and update the app, who will?
I will.​
This App is a modification to the official app from Valve on the Play Store. This mod completely changes the user interface from the ugly interface
that is currently in use, to a more pleasing interface known as "Holo". The visuals of this app follow the Android design guidelines as closely as it
possibly can without having to recode the entire app.
As well as this app being a visual update, the app also comes with speed increases, stability and general smoothness all the way throughout the app.
The standard app uses images for the text input box, send button and many more features of the app; using images for assets such as this contribute
to slowing down the speed of the app due to there being more files to read from. I have removed the need for many images in this app by moving the assets
from using images to using official Android code (Assets such as chat text input and the send button).
Every single visual asset of this app has been changed and rebuilt using the Android guidelines. The action bar is no longer an ugly bar with diagonal pin stripes
with a gradient overlay, it's now a single colour Android action bar. The chat bubbles are no longer obnoxious low quality bubbles, they're now high quality boxes
similar to that of the boxes used for Hangouts. All these visual changes and more in the app.
On the official app, scrolling through web pages (such as people's profiles) was painful, scrolling would take forever with a huge noticeable lag on every scroll,
making tasks such as viewing your games list unbearable.
To install this app, you must first of all uninstall the official app from the Play Store if you currently have that on your device.
Once the app is uninstalled, you can then install this version.
Mentions:
http://www.vgu.tv/2014/01/16/modder-creates-holo-steam-app-android/
http://www.steamfirst.com/steam-android-holo-style-app-looks-beautiful-download-it-now/
This app is completely free, you are free to use it for as long as you like without payment towards me, however if you wish to donate to me to help me
further my work in learning how to develop applications from scratch, this is how.
Donations are through PayPal, send how much you want to, every bit helps, the email to send the donation to is [email protected]
You do not have to donate, it is simply an option if you want to support me, please do not feel pressured into giving your hard earned cash to me for a small app like this.
Current Donor list:
This is a shout out to those who have donated. It helps me a lot, it brings a smile to my face, to know that people appreciate the work which I do, that they enjoy or like using
the app. It makes me feel good. Thanks to those who have donated or will donate, thank you.
Donors:
Cole (Member iCole from Facepunch)
dsidewd (In the form of a £2.50 album on bandcamp)(Member dsidewd from Facepunch)
In the attachment is the download for this app.
31-12-13
First release, pretty much everything changed from the default application
01-01-14
Gradient added in navigation area (Similar to that in settings app)
Official Android design used for button used for "Send" and "Clear Chat History" (Includes disabled, enabled and pressed animation)
Official Android design used for text input used for "Tap to chat" (Includes disabled and enabled animations)
Holo icons added to navigation area (Bug: icons are huge)
02-01-14
Holo icons in navigation area have been redone, their size is also correct this time
03-01-14
Menu button on navigation bar removed
Back end changed to the latest Android API
Increased speed and stability (Refresh times have been decreased by a huge amount, navigation is faster, boot time is faster and the app doesn't have to reconnect as much)
Send button changed to official android button code
Text input in chat changed to official android text input code
All pop up windows changed to KitKat design
Application can have added backwards compatibility to OS versions before 2.2(Froyo) if requested
Unread messages text on friends list is now white
Navigation gradient is no longer a gradient. Now is #191919 to mimic the future slide out navigation which will be implemented
"Tap to chat" changed to "Send a message" (Like Hangouts)
04-01-14
Padding beneath text input on chat removed
Text next to friend names are now the same as the colour of the profile picture containers
Text in chat boxes is now centred
30-01-14
Speed increases and stability
Here's a video demo.
Amazing work! Scrolling is now also waaay smoother than on vanilla.
Really impressive
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Looks great! Really needed this, I couldn't take much more of the default app's appearance.
If only Valve would do something about it sooner
Would it be possible to drag the side panel menu in from the side, and hide it away with another swipe? Similar to the new Play Store style?
Other than that amazing job!
jaimbo said:
Would it be possible to drag the side panel menu in from the side, and hide it away with another swipe? Similar to the new Play Store style?
Other than that amazing job!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the current state the app is in, I cannot. However, I am working on a separate app which will replace this, that app will be full holo and be on the Play Store.
How exactly do you modify an app like this? Is there a general overview/tutorial somewhere?
God I would love this done to the Rdio app.
mitchsamuels said:
How exactly do you modify an app like this? Is there a general overview/tutorial somewhere?
God I would love this done to the Rdio app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are various programmes which will decompile an app, once you've decompiled the app, you will be left with the apps source code.
Once you've got the source code, you can start modifying images, XML files and Java files. Once you've done, you can recompile it, usually using the same programme as the one you used to decompile, although the signature will be different
conRAWR said:
In the current state the app is in, I cannot. However, I am working on a separate app which will replace this, that app will be full holo and be on the Play Store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please, please, pleeeease make it look like this!
And nice work!
great looking mod! conRAWR, can you share the wallpaper used in the last screenshot please? it looks awesome.
cannot install, it says package with same name, but signature in conflict is already installed.. :/
kentobi said:
cannot install, it says package with same name, but signature in conflict is already installed.. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uninstall the old one first
1/4 Life said:
Uninstall the old one first
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks that did it, thought it was supposed to be an update
Kaemo said:
Please, please, pleeeease make it look like this!
And nice work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That looks so awesome. Honestly if it looked like that I would pay for it.
Oh my god oh my god oh my god THANK YOU! I have been waiting for such an update for aaaages. I've posted the link for a few of my Steam friends and they're testing it out - here's what we discovered.
I found a first bug and a thing or two which can be reverted:
- If you have pending messages, touching the number near the name doesn't open the chat. I need to touch the name, then touch chat.
- The message boxes used to be gray and blue, now everything is white. If you can add alternating colors, it'd be great!
Suggestions for expanding features (which may be impossible since decompiling doesn't give the original source, but asking can't hurt!)
- Do you think you can fix the notification system? Steam somehow doesn't push them like WhatsApp does.
- Steam group chats is something the app has lacked for forever!
- Ability to clear history of certain chats while leaving others untouched?
RainbowSwag said:
Oh my god oh my god oh my god THANK YOU! I have been waiting for such an update for aaaages. I've posted the link for a few of my Steam friends and they're testing it out - here's what we discovered.
I found a first bug and a thing or two which can be reverted:
- If you have pending messages, touching the number near the name doesn't open the chat. I need to touch the name, then touch chat.
- The message boxes used to be gray and blue, now everything is white. If you can add alternating colors, it'd be great!
Suggestions for expanding features (which may be impossible since decompiling doesn't give the original source, but asking can't hurt!)
- Do you think you can fix the notification system? Steam somehow doesn't push them like WhatsApp does.
- Steam group chats is something the app has lacked for forever!
- Ability to clear history of certain chats while leaving others untouched?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bug with tapping the chat button not working is a long standing bug in the normal Steam app and is completely random whether it happens or not, I will continue to look into a fix for this.
Alternating colours were a thought while developing, however in the end it was decided to use completely white. The white is much more appealing than alternating colours, it also attempts to mimic the Hangouts chat boxes.
I assume you mean to have the notifications to include what the message is?
It would be incredibly hard to add this, but I may attempt this in the future.
This you already can, just enter a chat with a certain button, press on the overflow menu and press the button that drops down.
Is it possible for you to release the source code or is Steam's license prohibiting that? Just asking since my Steam account is too valuable to be put at risk. Now, I am not saying that OP is out here to steal peoples login info, but there's always a risk involved when you are logging in through a 3rd party app.
If only Valve would man up and update the damn app. It's been what, over 1½ years since they updated it, yes, it looks horrible, it's slow and barely usable.
conRAWR said:
The bug with tapping the chat button not working is a long standing bug in the normal Steam app and is completely random whether it happens or not, I will continue to look into a fix for this.
Alternating colours were a thought while developing, however in the end it was decided to use completely white. The white is much more appealing than alternating colours, it also attempts to mimic the Hangouts chat boxes.
I assume you mean to have the notifications to include what the message is?
It would be incredibly hard to add this, but I may attempt this in the future.
This you already can, just enter a chat with a certain button, press on the overflow menu and press the button that drops down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The chat button not working problem just appeared for me for two people I usually speak with, didn't happen before, but I think that's a coincidence then.
If you could include the option for alternating colors, it'd be great. Google design choices aren't always perfect either and I like to see who's who at a glance.
With the notification, I mean that the notifications often don't get pushed but feel like they get fetched, since they often don't notify while the screen is off and when the screen is on it suddenly notifies again, having like a 20 minute delay. Though I think it's just Steam not using the Google Push Notifications, and this might be impossible for you to fix.
Attempting sounds great! Sadly I think you'd need cooperation from Steam somehow, I don't suppose there's a clear API and messing around in decompiled code isn't exactly very structured .
The clear history option was requested by a friend, they wanted to batch-remove some histories, though I can't really see the point of it. Might be that they have a lot of messages from lots of people.

Any way to get "swype down" to close apps in android? - + one more Q

Coming from Nokia's N9 myself I realy miss some of the feature of the Meego OS, and was wondering if these are available on android:
Is it possible to get a function to "swype" downwards to close an app ?.
Also is it possible to get a quick "mini menu" where the top status bar is - where one could togle things like blutooth, wifi, etc.
Also how does one "clear" the status messages without having to click everyone of them ?.
Is there also a way to close all apps (I know the Galaxy Tab have this feature - but I guess that is something built into some samsung stuff) ?
mmass23 said:
Coming from Nokia's N9 myself I realy miss some of the feature of the Meego OS, and was wondering if these are available on android:
Is it possible to get a function to "swype" downwards to close an app ?.
Also is it possible to get a quick "mini menu" where the top status bar is - where one could togle things like blutooth, wifi, etc.
Also how does one "clear" the status messages without having to click everyone of them ?.
Is there also a way to close all apps (I know the Galaxy Tab have this feature - but I guess that is something built into some samsung stuff) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend looking at your post, it seems like you are not familiar with the term called "rooting" and "custom roms".
Three of the features out of four you've asked are there in custom roms.
The swype down feature.. Looks interesting BUT i am afraid so far we haven't seen it in android yet.
eefo said:
My friend looking at your post, it seems like you are not familiar with the term called "rooting" and "custom roms".
Three of the features out of four you've asked are there in custom roms.
The swype down feature.. Looks interesting BUT i am afraid so far we haven't seen it in android yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea - know there is way to root it - but haven't realy looked into it as this is a company phone, so would like to keep it "clean" - was hoping maybe some launcher/apps would add this functionality.
However I found the nexus actually have a quick mini menu at least Not sure it provide everything I wanted but it's a start
thnx for the reply
Root + Xposed + Gravity will do all except swipe down.
mmass23 said:
Coming from Nokia's N9 myself I realy miss some of the feature of the Meego OS, and was wondering if these are available on android:
Is it possible to get a function to "swype" downwards to close an app ?.
Also is it possible to get a quick "mini menu" where the top status bar is - where one could togle things like blutooth, wifi, etc.
Also how does one "clear" the status messages without having to click everyone of them ?.
Is there also a way to close all apps (I know the Galaxy Tab have this feature - but I guess that is something built into some samsung stuff) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/app-swipeback-v2-0-0-swipe-apps-t2592116
That's the closest thing I know of for swipe down to close apps. It can close apps by swiping from any edge you want, but requires the Xposed framework
Any gesture navigation app will give you the "swype downwards to close an app" ***current app
Just set the gesture
There are a couple of problems with the things you wish to do as far as I can see it:
1) swiping downwards to close an app will cause you some issues in the long run, specifically given that this is how you open the notification panel. From the videos of the N9 that I have seen, the close-app gesture is started from the edge of the screen, not somewhere in the middle? This is exactly how you open the notification panel...
2) It's not as quick as it could be (yet) but there is a mini-menu for toggles in the notification pull-down if you pull down with two fingers, or pull down with one then tap the icon in the top right
3) There should be a little icon looking like three staggered rectangles in the notification pull-down when you have multiple status messages. Tapping this should clear all status messages.
4) Closing all apps on Android is (generally) a bad thing to do. With Meego (and Maemo before it), all open applications are true multi-tasking so will be holding active RAM in use in the background so closing all running apps has a practical use (I used to use an N900). With Android, however, we actually only have a partial hybrid multi-tasking, where only apps with an API call to explicitly stay active will remain fully active in the background (eg. music playback). Everything else is put into a partial suspend state. If you keep fully closing everything, then Android will have to re-open it from ROM rather than RAM which will have a detrimental effect on your battery life. This is heavily paraphrased from an Android development engineer. As for Samsung, this is basically pandering to customer ignorance who still think that anything in the "recents" menu is draining their battery because that's how it works with Windows. To put it very bluntly, Android is better at memory management than you are
Unlike with Meego/Maemo, the entries in the Recents menu are not actually all open and active. As the name suggests, this is only a "history" list of apps you have had open since boot. The lower down this list, the more likely it may still be active, but not guaranteed.
Sorry if any of the above is borderline patronising, but I feel that this sort of Android RAM misinformation needs to be explained whenever I see it! :silly:
chaosdefinesorder said:
There are a couple of problems with the things you wish to do as far as I can see it:
1) swiping downwards to close an app will cause you some issues in the long run, specifically given that this is how you open the notification panel. From the videos of the N9 that I have seen, the close-app gesture is started from the edge of the screen, not somewhere in the middle? This is exactly how you open the notification panel...
2) It's not as quick as it could be (yet) but there is a mini-menu for toggles in the notification pull-down if you pull down with two fingers, or pull down with one then tap the icon in the top right
3) There should be a little icon looking like three staggered rectangles in the notification pull-down when you have multiple status messages. Tapping this should clear all status messages.
4) Closing all apps on Android is (generally) a bad thing to do. With Meego (and Maemo before it), all open applications are true multi-tasking so will be holding active RAM in use in the background so closing all running apps has a practical use (I used to use an N900). With Android, however, we actually only have a partial hybrid multi-tasking, where only apps with an API call to explicitly stay active will remain fully active in the background (eg. music playback). Everything else is put into a partial suspend state. If you keep fully closing everything, then Android will have to re-open it from ROM rather than RAM which will have a detrimental effect on your battery life. This is heavily paraphrased from an Android development engineer. As for Samsung, this is basically pandering to customer ignorance who still think that anything in the "recents" menu is draining their battery because that's how it works with Windows. To put it very bluntly, Android is better at memory management than you are
Unlike with Meego/Maemo, the entries in the Recents menu are not actually all open and active. As the name suggests, this is only a "history" list of apps you have had open since boot. The lower down this list, the more likely it may still be active, but not guaranteed.
Sorry if any of the above is borderline patronising, but I feel that this sort of Android RAM misinformation needs to be explained whenever I see it! :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Overdose1986 said:
Any gesture navigation app will give you the "swype downwards to close an app" ***current app
Just set the gesture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lopezk38 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/app-swipeback-v2-0-0-swipe-apps-t2592116
That's the closest thing I know of for swipe down to close apps. It can close apps by swiping from any edge you want, but requires the Xposed framework
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
martinsskutans said:
Root + Xposed + Gravity will do all except swipe down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mmass23 said:
Yea - know there is way to root it - but haven't realy looked into it as this is a company phone, so would like to keep it "clean" - was hoping maybe some launcher/apps would add this functionality.
However I found the nexus actually have a quick mini menu at least Not sure it provide everything I wanted but it's a start
thnx for the reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
eefo said:
My friend looking at your post, it seems like you are not familiar with the term called "rooting" and "custom roms".
Three of the features out of four you've asked are there in custom roms.
The swype down feature.. Looks interesting BUT i am afraid so far we haven't seen it in android yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mmass23 said:
Coming from Nokia's N9 myself I realy miss some of the feature of the Meego OS, and was wondering if these are available on android:
Is it possible to get a function to "swype" downwards to close an app ?.
Also is it possible to get a quick "mini menu" where the top status bar is - where one could togle things like blutooth, wifi, etc.
Also how does one "clear" the status messages without having to click everyone of them ?.
Is there also a way to close all apps (I know the Galaxy Tab have this feature - but I guess that is something built into some samsung stuff) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swipe down to close app is there in Xposed using swipe back module.
You can read that Swipe back has a feature to change thje swipe edge , top to bottom or vice versa
chaosdefinesorder said:
There are a couple of problems with the things you wish to do as far as I can see it:
1) swiping downwards to close an app will cause you some issues in the long run, specifically given that this is how you open the notification panel. From the videos of the N9 that I have seen, the close-app gesture is started from the edge of the screen, not somewhere in the middle? This is exactly how you open the notification panel...
2) It's not as quick as it could be (yet) but there is a mini-menu for toggles in the notification pull-down if you pull down with two fingers, or pull down with one then tap the icon in the top right
3) There should be a little icon looking like three staggered rectangles in the notification pull-down when you have multiple status messages. Tapping this should clear all status messages.
4) Closing all apps on Android is (generally) a bad thing to do. With Meego (and Maemo before it), all open applications are true multi-tasking so will be holding active RAM in use in the background so closing all running apps has a practical use (I used to use an N900). With Android, however, we actually only have a partial hybrid multi-tasking, where only apps with an API call to explicitly stay active will remain fully active in the background (eg. music playback). Everything else is put into a partial suspend state. If you keep fully closing everything, then Android will have to re-open it from ROM rather than RAM which will have a detrimental effect on your battery life. This is heavily paraphrased from an Android development engineer. As for Samsung, this is basically pandering to customer ignorance who still think that anything in the "recents" menu is draining their battery because that's how it works with Windows. To put it very bluntly, Android is better at memory management than you are
Unlike with Meego/Maemo, the entries in the Recents menu are not actually all open and active. As the name suggests, this is only a "history" list of apps you have had open since boot. The lower down this list, the more likely it may still be active, but not guaranteed.
Sorry if any of the above is borderline patronising, but I feel that this sort of Android RAM misinformation needs to be explained whenever I see it! :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the clarification appreciated
Yea the N9's screen is part of the swype system (the screen sides are curved), as it differs from swyping from the edge of the screen or within - it's the same from the sides, one can either swype from edge of the screen - flipping thru the apps that is open - or one can swype from just inside the edge to scroll thru f.ex images in an image viewer - the N9 also have a "notification" bar - or atleast a "top" bar, but that's activated only by a touch of the top line (where it shows status) - instead of dragging it down.
mmass23 said:
Thanks for the clarification appreciated
Yea the N9's screen is part of the swype system (the screen sides are curved), as it differs from swyping from the edge of the screen or within - it's the same from the sides, one can either swype from edge of the screen - flipping thru the apps that is open - or one can swype from just inside the edge to scroll thru f.ex images in an image viewer - the N9 also have a "notification" bar - or atleast a "top" bar, but that's activated only by a touch of the top line (where it shows status) - instead of dragging it down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clearly based on other responses there is an Xposed module that allows you to close and app with a downwards swipe, so my response may not therefore be the whole truth
With some sort of selectable "active area" of the Xposed swipe you might be able to get the best of both worlds; i.e. swipe from top left downwards to close current program, or top middle and top right to open notifications? (or any combination thereof of course!)
mmass23 said:
Coming from Nokia's N9 myself I realy miss some of the feature of the Meego OS, and was wondering if these are available on android:
Is it possible to get a function to "swype" downwards to close an app ?.
Also is it possible to get a quick "mini menu" where the top status bar is - where one could togle things like blutooth, wifi, etc.
Also how does one "clear" the status messages without having to click everyone of them ?.
Is there also a way to close all apps (I know the Galaxy Tab have this feature - but I guess that is something built into some samsung stuff) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try Jolla launcher
http://d-h.st/hTF

Android 7.0 Nougat Hidden Feature!

I have good news and bad. There’s a new, candy-themed version of Android. Huzzah! But unless you have one of the latest Nexus devices or the new LG V20, you’ll probably have to wait some indeterminable amount of time to sink your teeth into Android 7.0 Nougat.
Here’s a very specific kind of dumbness that my fellow Androidians may be able to relate to: On the desk in front of me sits a brand spanking new Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and a three-year-old Asus Nexus 7 tablet. Nougat arrived on Aug. 22, but neither the S7 Edge nor the tablet from the Nexus family of devices that’s supposed to get these updates pronto have received Android 7.0.
WTF, Alphabet?
The Nougat rollout is already shaping up to be yet another frustratingly prolonged Android update. I love me some Android, but boy do these rollouts stand in stark contrast to the lightning-quick updates delivered en masse to our iOS brethren. (What’s up, iOS 10!)
The Android conundrum is a classic clusterfudge of too many interested parties: Google releases a new version of Android each year and gives it to the world for free, just like Apple. BUT then the two processes begin to diverge. Each device manufacturer (your Samsungs, LGs, and HTCs of the world) feels compelled to create their own spin on Android, which requires further tinkering and testing before it’s let loose into the wild. THEN the carriers have to confirm all these various flavors of Android work nicely with their networks. Oy.
There is, however, one upside to working with all these chefs—many new ideas get into the mix. It’s a weird form of bottom-up democracy where each OEM adds their own little flavor (including all new features), which Google often makes standard in future generations of Android (e.g. the ability to reply to an SMS directly in the notification shade, which you can now do in stock Nougat, but has been available in Samsung phones for several generations). While Apple users are usually the first to receive the latest stable release of a new OS, Android users are often the first to get a splashy new software feature. (Enjoy your latest up-to-date OS, Appleface, I’ll just be over here enjoying my live-updating widgets #boom.)
New things that now come standard inside the stock version of Nougat. Note that I tested these on a new Nexus 6P. Some of these features may not be available on your device whenever you eventually get Nougat, and I cannot guarantee that they will work in exact same way. Good luck, people.
Nougat
Split-Screen Mode
Split-screen functionality might not seem all that new since it’s already available in numerous OEM versions (the Galaxy Note, for example, has included it for several generations now). But now it’s available as a stock feature and may be coming to your device soon eventually maybe.
Split-screen works in portrait and landscape modes. When you have one app open, you can simultaneously access another app by long-pressing the recent apps button (the little square one) to prompt a carousel of apps on the side. (You’ll notice that once you enter split-screen mode, the recent apps button transforms into a new hamburger icon.) You have some limited ability to resize windows (but only in portrait mode?). You can exit spit-screen by dragging the barrier all the way to one side or long-pressing on the recent apps button.
Note: Not all apps yet work with split-screen. For example (and quite surprisingly), the Google Search app doesn’t play nicely with split-screen (but you work around that by long-pressing on the home button for Google on Tap).
Android 7.0
Quick Switch
Nougat now allows you to switch back and forth between the two most recent apps by double tapping the recent app button—it works in split-screen or full-app mode. Seems like this helpful little trick should have been a standard feature a long time ago.
Android 7.0
The Secret ‘UI Tuner’
To enable the hidden “UI Tuner” menu, swipe down the notification shade and long-press the gear icon you would use to get to Settings. You’ll find a new menu in your Settings menu under the “System” section. Enacting this feature prompts a warning that you’re about to encounter “experimental features” that “may change, break, or disappear in future releases. Proceed with caution.”
Here you’ll find some cool options like the ability to tweak the status bar, the “Do not disturb” feature, or even add swipe-up, split-screen functionality.
Have fun exploring, but keep in mind that there’s a good chance you won’t be able to use this one. The UI Tuner was available in stock Marshmallow, but didn’t quite make it to my current Samsung phone’s version of 'Mallow. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that this feature will not be available in most OEM versions of Android. But give it a shot, who knows, you might get lucky?
Android 7.0
Easy Pull-Down Shade Editing
Want easy access to tiles of your choice through the top pull-down shade? Nougat’s got your back.
Once you pull down the top shade, expand the little arrow on the right to see a fuller list of easy-access tiles (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, etc.). Nougat gives you some freedom to choose which tiles live there permanently. Just hit the “edit” button on the bottom-right corner to access the complete list of tiles, and you can drag to re-order.
Another welcome change: The pull-down shade allows you to swipe left or right to multiple pages to access more tiles. You could, theoretically put all your tiles up there for quick access.
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Power Notifications
Are you a total control freak? Well, Nougat gives you some more of that control you need, you power-hungry monster.
First, you’ll need to enact the aforementioned hidden UI Tuner and then toggle-on “Power notification controls” (under the “Other” menu). This gives you the opportunity to set app notifications on a scale from Level 0 (Block all notifications) all the way up to Level 5 (Show at the top of the notification list, allow full-screen disruption).
Now, when you go into Settings > Notifications, you’ll be able to set each of your app’s notification level after tapping the large green “A” to the slide’s left (which I assume stands for “auto”?).
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Easy Notification Editing
Nougat gives you the ability to easily access app-notification preferences by long-pressing on a particular notification in the pull-down shade or slightly pushing it to either side to reveal a little gear icon. This little trick even works on the lock screen.
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Set a Separate Wallpaper for Lock and Home Screens
This feature was already available from many OEMs, but finally makes its long-overdue stock debut with Nougat. It’s simple to access: Long-press on the home screen to change the wallpaper image (as you would usually) and once you choose which pic you want, you’ll be met with a screen asking if you’d like to make that wallpaper for your home screen, lock screen, or both.
enter image description here
Display Size
Are your eyes not what they used to be? By which I mean, do you need things to be BIGGER so you can see them properly? Well, ol’ stock Android might be able to help.
You can now change the “display” size on your device to embiggen all the text and icons. Access this option via Display > Display size to choose between five different settings.
enter image description here
Easter Egg
And of course, as always, Google engineers make sure to never miss an opportunity to show the world that they suffer from an overabundance of free time. Yes, Nougat has a hidden Easter egg.
The last two Android OSes have boasted hidden Flappy Bird games with either Marshmallow or Lollipop themes. It was super hard, and I always just got bored and frustrated. But Nougat changes it up with some kind of weird cat game. Okay, this one’s a little complicated, so here’s what you do:
You initially access this Easter egg like the others: Settings > About Phone > repeatedly tap “Android 7.0” (or whatever version you have) to prompt a giant Nougat logo (a big “N”).
Loooooong tap the logo until you see a little cat emoji at the bottom of the screen.
Swipe down from the top to bring up the notification shade.
Hit “Edit” and scroll down and you’ll find a little cat face icon with the label “??? Android Easter egg.” Drag and drop that above the fold wherever you’d like.
Now when you swipe down the shade, you’ll see a tile for “empty plate.” Tap that to prompt a choice of four cat treats and choose one.
Now, wait. Eventually your phone will notify you that you’ve caught a cat. Have fun with that.
thanks for your information

Request - feature addition to this open-source app

https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-reachability-cursor-phone-t3846525
Please see above thread. I've reached out to this developer via email, via Play Store review, via reply to his original thread here, AND via PM here.
He seems to have completely fallen off the radar since this time last year.
I love his app, but I just have one request - to be able to adjust the opacity of both the cursor and the tracker (especially the tracker). All the way down to completely transparent (invisible) if desired. They are currently only solid colors with 100% opacity.
Also an option to allow the keyboard to take precedence, because I keep accidentally activating the cursor while swipe typing.
His app is open source (if you download it and go in to the "about" section, he links it there), are any developers able to accomplish this and make an apk? I have paid for the pro version from the dev. I can't find anything like this in the Play Store that is as simple and fluid. I want to keep THIS app, but I just want to be able to make the tracker pad invisible on my screen.
I just record my screen a lot and the tracker being opaque is pretty unsightly. In my recordings I'd like people to only be able to see the actual cursor portion moving around, not the big blob where my thumb is controlling it. When using normally, it's beneath your thumb anyway, so no real reason to have it be visible. Or at least let me turn down the opacity to barely visible, and see-through (with the option to make it 100% transparent and invisible if desired).
Can anyone assist with this?

UI Regressions on Android 9 PIE

Now in every new android release since kitkat there has been regressions, but in PIE I noticed this one has a fair few so I googled and I observed that almost every article was only praising the release as if they just there to promote and suck up to google developers.
Then I found this very honest post from a guy on reddit.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Android/co...eatures_since_the_pie_update_and_the/ejrdwnp/
I will quote also.
Neutered navigation bar with an increased focus on gestures rather than buttons (wit the bar using up the same amount of space with decidedly half-baked gestures). Some companies at least maintained the options of buttons or gestures, but I think the Google Pixel 3 prevents users from having the option of using the classic navigation buttons.
Horizontal Recents/Overview screen instead of a vertical variant - this "feature" is more subjective, I guess.
Enforced 3-icon limit for notifications in the status bar, all thanks to notches - for certain phones, this change completely removed the option to have as many icons in the status bar as you have space for.
The Digital-Clock/Time's position was enforced on the left instead of the classic right-side position - again, all thanks to notches..
The Volume Slider got changed to a "vertical" variant if I recall correctly, and I think that certain volume sliders can only be changed by actually diving into Settings, whereas the Android 8/Oreo implementation gave a simple quick drop-down to change all 4 at once, and Samsung even added the option to switch the controlled volume default from Ringtone to Media.
Removal of easy access to viewing System Uptime in Android Info (WHY? It's a useful metric that just sits there harmlessly!).
The DevCheck application thankfully still indicates System Uptime, although the read-out isn't as "fluid" (doesn't refresh as much) from what I've seen.
Neutering of the "Quick Toggles" pop-up thing, where you can adjust certain quick-toggles' settings quickly without actually diving into the Settings screen.
certain "Do Not Disturb" mode capabilities/workflows that were possible in Android 8/Oreo are apparently harder, if not impossible, to achieve in Android 9/Pie.
I think that the Android 8/Oreo Easter Egg got removed..? (if one counts that as a feature).
Call Recording got heavily hampered.. I'm not sure of Screen Recording... Custom theming on Samsung devices also seems like it will be harder to achieve in the near future (going by a recent changelog entry for the "Theme Galaxy" application), although "One User Interface (One UI)" seems to be softening the blow.
as others have mentioned, the method to access Android-native "Split-screen/Multi-Window view" has been altered a bit...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me on a personal level the nasty ones are the removal of battery saving location from UI (the underlying code still supports it), removal of expanded controls from quick toggles, and the call recording hampering.
Now personally I dont think I have recorded more than a few calls in my lifetime on a smartphone, but I believe in user's been in control of their own device and user choice. The change to quick toggles is just mind baffling and makes no sense whatsoever, the changes to GPS may possibly make sense but it needs to be explained to users, instead of just silently removing the feature and have the media pretend its not happened.
Their minds would be better focused on fixing the flaws in the UI so e.g.
Black themes that are inconsistent so e.g. I have a black theme enabled but the navigation bar is white, and the notification boxes are white.
More control over UI elements, allow more freedom to do things like resize notification boxes (they way too large on stock android), reposition every icon and so forth. No choice on vertical or horizontal recent apps screen.
Consistency in UI, so e.g. on quick toggles when expanded you see text labels, when not expanded you dont, there is no reason for that, its just bad consistency.
I also hear of future regressions like plans to replace navigation buttons entirely with gestures, that I think is a disaster in the making as many users dont use gestures, and prefer buttons.
I think its clear changes are been made for the sake of change rather than functional improvement. I feel android UI peaked with kitkat.
Ironically that reddit thread has people praising samsung for adding sanity and reversing the changes, google dont like samsung changing the UI, but you cannot blame samsung when google are doing stupid things to the UI.
I am half tempted to go back to samsung on next phone, my oneplus6 is lightning fast tho and my s7 is really laggy and slow by comparison. But there is no doubt samsung phones have a better UI and feature set.
One thing that has always baffled me, is some users on XDA feel they must always be on the latest version of android, I seen users abandoning things like xposed, useful mods etc. just because they only support a rom version that might only be a few months out of date. This is baffling when you consider that new android versions usually have more regressions than new useful features. As an example on oneplus6 people are abandoning renovate ice because it only supports up to 9.0.6.
I will probably add my own quick toggles with tasker for GPS modes, still looking for call recording solution, as well as black notification theming, I expect the theming for navigation bar is not fixable tho. I had black notifications on havocos and to say they look better is an understatement.
Google sort out your UI department as its pretty bad right now.
rant over.
Also to mods if this post is in the wrong place, please move it rather than just removing it or warn me before removal so I can copy and paste the content to repost in right place, thanks.
Should have posted this on Google's forum, not a hacking forum

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