[Poll] Pie vs Phone mode vs Phablet vs Tablet modes. - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

What's your choice and why ?

I like Tablet mode with the buttons, signal, battery and notifications being smallish at the bottom of the screen. Have tried the Pie feature but not really gotten the hang of it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I use pie 80% of the time. Phone mode for the rest.
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If I have helped you.... hit that sexy thanks button. ^_^

I have never used the PIE Control, also I have never used tablet or phtablet mode on my Nexus (Never).
But I really like the Tablet UI.

tablet mode because you still get 90% of the screen and still have your status bar and nav bar
pie is a pain to swipe all day especially if you multi task a lot also if your phone is on silent while browsing how would you know of your notifications ?
for me pie is just a feature to show to iphone users

I like tablet but the screen is small for this. so I use pie

I use phablet. Don't like the waste of screen real-estate on phone mode. I have a few apps setup in tablet mode gmail and some others (can't remember which ones). I find pie a little too hard to use all the time although I do set it up for gaming. I am having an issue at the moment where I'm setting to the bottom of the screen but it reverts back whenever I leave and re-enter the game.

Pie. I can't use anything else my screen size seems so small. If my custom ruin doesn't include pie I switch to lmt as quick as I can x)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Phone mode. I have tried all the other modes but just didnt see the point. This is a phone. As far as pie controls, I just found it faster to tap a button than to swipe around for the button you want.

I use PIE mostly to reduce screen burn-in.
The most responsive ROMs to include it have been PA and CarbonROM - even though it doesn't show up, it's still active/usable. On CM if it doesn't show it doesn't work, which is much like LMT.
I used LMT on AOKP before I noticed they were being built into ROMs. The best thing about it is the longpress options, among other things. The worst part is that if it gets kicked out of memory, and without any backup nav options enabled, you're stuck with a battery pull on your hands. I was hoping the built-in ones could prevent this.

I stick with Phone mode. I'm not a fan of how small and squished everything looks on Phablet/Tablet modes and while I think PIE looks awesome it just isn't as simple and quick as just using the stock navigation bar for me. That's just my 2 cents though.

i choose pie, because screen looks more simple and larger

Pie all the way.
I love pie because after I disable and hide my status bar ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=37466852 ) my phone looks super slick and clean. Plus no one but me can really use it. I also like to use Nova Launcher with gestures and nothing at all on the single homescreen. I even have enough apps hidden to only have two full app pages, at a lower density than normal, but larger icons. I just love a good clean looking phone and pie is one of the easiest steps to take to get there.

Phone mode with pie coming into play only during certain games while using expanded desktop mode.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

Moop99 said:
I stick with Phone mode. I'm not a fan of how small and squished everything looks on Phablet/Tablet modes and while I think PIE looks awesome it just isn't as simple and quick as just using the stock navigation bar for me. That's just my 2 cents though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here. i love the idea of Pie, but until i can get it to come up 100% of the time, its a no go for me. right now it works about 80-90% of the time.

+1 for Phone mode since my phone isn't big enough to be a Tablet and I don't use Pie.

PHONE MODE, yes because with tablet mode everthing will be very tight, yes we can lower the dpi but it will become very small. Phabet is ugly too. PiE was fun but made my navigation slower.
My setup with PA, 280dpi screen space, 240 dpi lockscreen, 240/720p launcher.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Tablet mode: clean look, more screen space, and not as annoying to use as PIE.

Related

can we talk touchwiz for a minute?

I think touchwiz has come a long way. It really adds alot to stock android in my opinion, and im not just talking about the s pen additions.
The dialer, the whole phone app in general, all the motion settings...
What I want to talk about are issues that people have with touchwiz in general, meaning, reasons that you would jump ship to a custom rom, and I'd like to see if anyone would have solutions to these issues.
Ill give you a few examples of my own experiences.
1) I need to have a battery percentage in the status bar. So when youre running any rom worth its salt, there's an option for that. I was going through the settings on the note 2 and there it was, built into the touchwiz settings... im curious to know when this was added because im pretty sure it wasnt there in gingerbread.
2) I like the additions to the stock player but to me, its still not functional enough, I at least need a screen lock. When I mentioned this in a post, someone pointed out that screen lock is built in now, all you need to do is press the power key when playing a video and it locks the screen.
3) I remember someone posting about how on this phone, the calls and messages show up in the call log and how annoying that is. I just looked for a second and realized that theres a way to change that. When youre in the call log, you hit menu then view by.
I think we could all benefit from learning about the other "hidden features and functionality" in touchwiz. For example, I still have an issue with the stock video player that you cant easily fast forward by dragging like other players and there doesnt seem to be any options or preferences built it...
What I want from Touchwiz is wallpaper scrolling and the option to change the screen grid. Other than that, it has really improved a lot and I'm pretty much comfortable using it now.
most touchwiz doesn't work for me because I work in a 240dpi environment and touchwiz doesn't scale well in it. not even the Samsung keyboard loads, it just FCs. I use different launcher, different dialer. stock kernel is not too battery friendly...I got almost 2 days usage with jedi master 2 rom with normal usage (yes, it's touchwiz based but wherever I can change it I do).
why would I jump ship?
- better environment scaling in 240dpi
- better/longer battery life
- faster operations
lennie said:
most touchwiz doesn't work for me because I work in a 240dpi environment and touchwiz doesn't scale well in it. not even the Samsung keyboard loads, it just FCs. I use different launcher, different dialer. stock kernel is not too battery friendly...I got almost 2 days usage with jedi master 2 rom with normal usage (yes, it's touchwiz based but wherever I can change it I do).
why would I jump ship?
- better environment scaling in 240dpi
- better/longer battery life
- faster operations
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Jedi... I consider myself an "advanced" user and stock touchwiz is not quite there yet but if you add Jedi's rom and Nova launcher then it makes the experience much better imo... I don't mess around with dpi settings as I will just wait for a rom that will customize that to my liking. We are lacking in the development department right now but as soon as it picks up there should be lots of great options for us...:fingers-crossed: And as far as scrollable wallpapers... I just download Zedge & an app called wallpaper changer and I have on demand scrollable wallpapers in Nova!
mottyengel said:
I think touchwiz has come a long way. It really adds alot to stock android in my opinion, and im not just talking about the s pen additions.
The dialer, the whole phone app in general, all the motion settings...
What I want to talk about are issues that people have with touchwiz in general, meaning, reasons that you would jump ship to a custom rom, and I'd like to see if anyone would have solutions to these issues.
Ill give you a few examples of my own experiences.
1) I need to have a battery percentage in the status bar. So when youre running any rom worth its salt, there's an option for that. I was going through the settings on the note 2 and there it was, built into the touchwiz settings... im curious to know when this was added because im pretty sure it wasnt there in gingerbread.
2) I like the additions to the stock player but to me, its still not functional enough, I at least need a screen lock. When I mentioned this in a post, someone pointed out that screen lock is built in now, all you need to do is press the power key when playing a video and it locks the screen.
3) I remember someone posting about how on this phone, the calls and messages show up in the call log and how annoying that is. I just looked for a second and realized that theres a way to change that. When youre in the call log, you hit menu then view by.
I think we could all benefit from learning about the other "hidden features and functionality" in touchwiz. For example, I still have an issue with the stock video player that you cant easily fast forward by dragging like other players and there doesnt seem to be any options or preferences built it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi OP,
If u go to Settings -> Display and if you select Display Battery Percentage, it'll show you the battery percentage in the notification bar.
I'd like a better home screen layout. 5x4 is a GINORMOUS waste of space.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
achusaysblessyou said:
Hi OP,
If u go to Settings -> Display and if you select Display Battery Percentage, it'll show you the battery percentage in the notification bar.
I'd like a better home screen layout. 5x4 is a GINORMOUS waste of space.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess i wasnt clear, i found it, but i never knew it was there... and the homescreen layout... use a different launcher..
The only thing I missed from a custom launcher are:
1) can't change the icon grid, would like a 5x5 at least.
2) can't lock the home screen. Hate it when I accidentally moved stuff after having it setup perfectly the way I want it.
Also it would be great if we can select which app the page buddy brings up.
The only thing that really pushed me away from TouchWiz is that you can’t move the “Apps” button in the dock. I can’t reach the button when holding the phone in my left hand, one handed.
I really hate the lock screen. I was running a ROM with AOSP JB lock screen on my previous phone. I use the lock screen music controls all the time.
On Touchwiz lock screen if you use the basic swipe lock, you get the quick apps at the bottom, but the music controls don't show up at the top (at least not for Spotify or DoggCatcher). I can turn on pattern unlock, then it will show the lock screen music controls, but I lose the quick apps (I find it useful to access Google Search or Camera from lock screen).
The only solution to get both is to use pattern unlock with swipe gesture. This gives me the swipe lock screen with quick apps at the bottom, then when I swipe it gives me the pattern unlock with music controls at the top. WAY too many steps to access these two features that apparently can't be on the lock screen at the same time.
Can't say I often log in just to reply to a thread here, I'm more of a lurker. But I definitely feel the need to contribute to this.
I actually just returned my Note 2 (with the intention of getting an unlocked Nexus 4 in a couple days) and one of the major reasons was TouchWiz.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it. I hate the notification bar customizations. I hate that they've taken something as wonderful as power toggles in the notification bar and so badly butchered them. The entire notification pulldown is a crowded clusterfk compared to vanilla Android (full disclosure: I'm a long time vanilla Android user through Nexus devices/AOSP ROMs). The low DPI for a phone with such a big screen is damn absurd. I feel like I'm using my 37" computer monitor at 1280*1024. The TouchWiz customizations to the settings UI is just as bad or worse than Sense. If anything the Note 2 should be using the default Android tablet settings UI. The TouchWiz lock screen is a step up in customization from vanilla Android, but I still think it's ugly as all hell. Most of it is fluff that doesn't add any function or aesthetics. Not specifically TouchWiz related, but I loathe that they moved the back button from the left side of the screen as in vanilla JB to the left side via a capacitive hardware button.
I don't hate ALL of Samsung's tinkering. S-Voice was actually a phenomenal surprise and I'm going to dearly miss it. I could actually reliably send text messages with it without ever so much as glancing at the phone. Voice recognition was fantastic and it covered basic phone features better than vanilla Android's default abilities.
What I would really LOVE to have is a Note 2 without the hardware buttons, running AOSP with S-Voice and the S-Pen apps. Perhaps one day if there's a stable CM release where I can install extracted APKs for the Samsung apps I may get another one. Until then I'm going to stick with the Nexus line. TouchWiz really is that bad IMO.
... at least TouchWiz is a lot better than one of the first versions of it with the Behold II *shudders* I used one of those for a week.
hittingsmoke said:
Can't say I often log in just to reply to a thread here, I'm more of a lurker. But I definitely feel the need to contribute to this.
I actually just returned my Note 2 (with the intention of getting an unlocked Nexus 4 in a couple days) and one of the major reasons was TouchWiz.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it. I hate the notification bar customizations. I hate that they've taken something as wonderful as power toggles in the notification bar and so badly butchered them. The entire notification pulldown is a crowded clusterfk compared to vanilla Android (full disclosure: I'm a long time vanilla Android user through Nexus devices/AOSP ROMs). The low DPI for a phone with such a big screen is damn absurd. I feel like I'm using my 37" computer monitor at 1280*1024. The TouchWiz customizations to the settings UI is just as bad or worse than Sense. If anything the Note 2 should be using the default Android tablet settings UI. The TouchWiz lock screen is a step up in customization from vanilla Android, but I still think it's ugly as all hell. Most of it is fluff that doesn't add any function or aesthetics. Not specifically TouchWiz related, but I loathe that they moved the back button from the left side of the screen as in vanilla JB to the left side via a capacitive hardware button.
I don't hate ALL of Samsung's tinkering. S-Voice was actually a phenomenal surprise and I'm going to dearly miss it. I could actually reliably send text messages with it without ever so much as glancing at the phone. Voice recognition was fantastic and it covered basic phone features better than vanilla Android's default abilities.
What I would really LOVE to have is a Note 2 without the hardware buttons, running AOSP with S-Voice and the S-Pen apps. Perhaps one day if there's a stable CM release where I can install extracted APKs for the Samsung apps I may get another one. Until then I'm going to stick with the Nexus line. TouchWiz really is that bad IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle* Enjoy the on screen buttons taking up real estate, 16gb of total memory, and yearning for the s-pen. Btw, something as simple as go launcher could allow you to set up plenty of things you want, to include a 5x5 icon set.
I could go on and on, but to be honest, I don't think it will be long for you to realize you are making a mistake. *cough* battery
mdt73 said:
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle* Enjoy the on screen buttons taking up real estate, 16gb of total memory, and yearning for the s-pen. Btw, something as simple as go launcher could allow you to set up plenty of things you want, to include a 5x5 icon set.
I could go on and on, but to be honest, I don't think it will be long for you to realize you are making a mistake. *cough* battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He does have a point with a lot of that stuff, particularly the lock screen music control. I just don't understand why it's so hard to add it just under the weather, or as a small bar just above the other lockscreen targets at the bottom of the screen. That's the most frustrating thing for me, as most the the other stuff he mentioned can be changed, and if it can't I'm willing to overlook it for a while because of all the added features this phone brings.
I have been using power amp for music since my DroidX2 back when we yearned for an eq... so its always been there for me (the lock screen music control).
Everything mentioned can be addressed. That's the beauty of android; customizing your android experience. What people have become is lazy because roms do it for you.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium
mdt73 said:
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How so? AOSP ROMS are pretty well vanilla with very minor tweaks. Nothing like horribly reskinned menus at every turn. *yahtzee*
I use ADW EX to do a hell of a lot more than add icons to my home screen. Changing the launcher can only do so much to fix a horrible complete OS reskin.
hittingsmoke said:
How so? AOSP ROMS are pretty well vanilla with very minor tweaks. Nothing like horribly reskinned menus at every turn. *yahtzee*
I use ADW EX to do a hell of a lot more than add icons to my home screen. Changing the launcher can only do so much to fix a horrible complete OS reskin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only thing that looks skined on my phobe now isctge lockscreen, and im sure I can fix that with a lock screen app. Otherwise my launcher is now ADW, my notification bar is themed blue with circle battery and stock JB settings/clear all buttons. No brightness bar in notification window either. In all honesty there is not much mire I was able to change on my Galaxy Nexus that I cant on here, visually. In the options department Samsung has done a wonderful job and I currently dont miss anything from AOKP other then the widget popups on nav bar (would love to hold say menu button to get that on here)
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Paranoid pie options poll

Hi, today I saw a post regarding the new pie that Pie dev team is trying to achieve which basically abolishes the "Bare Pie" functionality, aka the always on statusbar with 0% navbar.
Now I have such grown to this option that disappeared statusbar ( with normal pie ) looks aweful to me in terms of aesthetics and functionality too. So I am starting this poll to know how this decision will affect your usage of future PA roms .
You just need to vote in between three options from
Bare pie ( Statusbar on) -- Phone ui
Normal pie ( Hidden statusbar )
Other ( tablet ui ) and pie combo -- Havent used tablet ui after ICS days so really dnt know how pie behaves with it.
Keep voting guys , there are lotts of PA users in our community,
I've gotta have a status bar. With with nav set to 0%. With pure pie (extended desktop) I keep missing texts because I don't see them.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Normal pie. I need my screen to be full screen or i feel like I'm wasting space.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Will vote from a PC later but yeah. I like having choices. Options. To be able to set up my phone my way. And with the new PA and pie. It's pretty much this way or that way and that's how you have to use it.... Meh.
Plenty of other ROMs with pie let me choose my pie style with or without status bar and don't make me remove my nav bar or enable expanded desktop either. So I run them. Plus most have DPI/Layout or "hybrid" options as well at this point. This is android and I personally feel like limiting users to either A or B isn't cool. That's just me. No disrespect to PA dev team at all, but I specifically bought a nexus because of the development for it and specifically flash for mods, hacks, features, etc. that can't be found on stock or any other phones... Minimal AOSP base ROM + hybrid & pie isn't enough to keep me using it anymore. Like I said that stuff is in plenty of other projects which have a lot more features without affecting stability.
Not bashing PA at all. I'm a huuuge fan. It used to be my goto ROM. It was the first thing ever flashed on my nexus and I loved it. ICS-JB(4.1.x) nothing IMO could beat it at the time, nothing.
... but she changed and she'll never be the same I think. As much as it hurts, I think I need to move on...
Normal Pie for me, Bare Pie looks imbalanced. You have top inactive screen without the bottom. It's weird
I love the pie, but also need my stausbar to be visible. If it only replaced navbar it'd be fine. One more thing, the trigger area is either too big (prevents effective use of keyboard buttons), or too small (too difficult to access pie controls). No matter what side of the screen you put it on, the trigger area blocks the use of something.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I don't use pie in PA since it hides the status bar and the reasons stated above - either doesn't active 75 percent of the time because the detection is set low, but when setting it higher it blocks certain keyboard keys/menu buttons from being detected.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Tablet UI

Yes, I know it's been brought up quite a bit...
This is really bugging me. I had the original Kindle Fire and put ICS on it and loved it. The Honeycomb-style user interface rocks. I bought a Nexus 7 thinking that I'd be able to put it into that mode with KitKat (the point of owning the Nexus # is to have the latest and greatest, right?), but have found myself unable to do so.
Is there any way possible to enable this on 4.4? I'm running into a gap on this discussion; most stopped talking about it about a month ago it seems. AOKP? Do I have to copy and paste the tablet UI code from 4.2 into 4.4?
This is Android. ANYTHING is possible. I know it has the potential to be done.
watsonism said:
Yes, I know it's been brought up quite a bit...
This is really bugging me. I had the original Kindle Fire and put ICS on it and loved it. The Honeycomb-style user interface rocks. I bought a Nexus 7 thinking that I'd be able to put it into that mode with KitKat (the point of owning the Nexus # is to have the latest and greatest, right?), but have found myself unable to do so.
Is there any way possible to enable this on 4.4? I'm running into a gap on this discussion; most stopped talking about it about a month ago it seems. AOKP? Do I have to copy and paste the tablet UI code from 4.2 into 4.4?
This is Android. ANYTHING is possible. I know it has the potential to be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that google removed the tablet UI from kitkat altogether.
I thought I wasn't going to like the phablet UI but I got used to it, and now it just makes sense to me on a tablet this size. I say give it a chance, you might grow to like it.
I hate it, i'm forever catching the navbar when typing in landscape or passing the device to a friend because of thin bezel, it'd better located on it's side in the same portrait position next to the shortcuts & apps drawer button.
Q8-V08 said:
I hate it, i'm forever catching the navbar when typing in landscape or passing the device to a friend because of thin bezel, it'd better located on it's side in the same portrait position next to the shortcuts & apps drawer button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do agree with this. When in landscape it is in the most inconvenient place possible. I would love a way to force it to remain on the right side but I haven't been able to find a solution other than setting the whole tablet into phone UI mode which then messes with the notifications shade.
If you're only problem is the nav bar, try GMD auto hide soft keys. It works great.
purple lady said:
If you're only problem is the nav bar, try GMD auto hide soft keys. It works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, not really what I'm looking for. I don't want something that overlays the navbar and hides it when not in use, I want a permanent navbar that just stays on the right side of the screen. With GMD even if I turn auto hide off, it will still hide it when I rotate the screen, and when I swipe to bring it up it always covers part of my dock icons.
Have you tried gravity box xposed module? It gives you the ability to run pie. Or if that's not your thing in navigation bar tweaks it has an always on the bottom feature. It shouldn't be too difficult to make it always on the "short side".Why not ask the Developer in his thread ?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2554049
doop said:
Have you tried gravity box xposed module? It gives you the ability to run pie. Or if that's not your thing in navigation bar tweaks it has an always on the bottom feature. It shouldn't be too difficult to make it always on the "short side".Why not ask the Developer in his thread ?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2554049
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used the pie before on my gnex and it was OK. I might give it a shot. Android is starting to feel quite dumbed down lately...
doop said:
Have you tried gravity box xposed module? It gives you the ability to run pie. Or if that's not your thing in navigation bar tweaks it has an always on the bottom feature. It shouldn't be too difficult to make it always on the "short side".Why not ask the Developer in his thread ?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2554049
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I use GB on all my devices. I use PIE + expanded desktop when I want to game in full screen. The always on bottom tweak isn't what I'm looking for either. I want it to remain on the right in landscape. I appreciate the input though.
_MetalHead_ said:
Yep, I use GB on all my devices. I use PIE + expanded desktop when I want to game in full screen. The always on bottom tweak isn't what I'm looking for either. I want it to remain on the right in landscape. I appreciate the input though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No probs. The part about keeping the navigation on the "short side". I meant on the right (Short Side). It`s worth asking the developer surely
CM10+ and PA had the tablet UI I though and you could pit it on the right hand side. I'm not sure if this applies with the newest KitKat builds though.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

[Q] One Handed Usage Tips?

I know that the Note 4 has a "Button Savior"-esque menu with softkeys for app/menu, home, and back. What other tips are there?
Is there anything I can do to access the pull-down notification screen other than by swiping down from the top of the phone?
EDIT: Gosh darnit! Wrong forum
IBNobody said:
I know that the Note 4 has a "Button Savior"-esque menu with softkeys for app/menu, home, and back. What other tips are there?
Is there anything I can do to access the pull-down notification screen other than by swiping down from the top of the phone?
EDIT: Gosh darnit! Wrong forum
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My number one suggestion is to get a FlyGrip which attaches to the back of your phone or case. I can't live without mine, especially on such a large phone. That does more for being able to use the phone one handed than anything else. They're $30 and worth every penny. My second suggestion is to ditch TouchWiz and get another launcher which allows customizable gestures. I use Nova Prime. Worth the money and allows you to pull the notification pulldown with whatever gesture you want, though that only works on your home screen. Another option, if you're rooted, is to use Pie and set that to have a button that triggers the notification pulldown. You could use that instead of the similar idea that Samsung has implemented. One other thing I do is use my S-pen as it gives a longer reach.
Hope some of this was helpful. Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
died4u525 said:
My number one suggestion is to get a FlyGrip which attaches to the back of your phone or case. I can't live without mine, especially on such a large phone. That does more for being able to use the phone one handed than anything else. They're $30 and worth every penny. My second suggestion is to ditch TouchWiz and get another launcher which allows customizable gestures. I use Nova Prime. Worth the money and allows you to pull the notification pulldown with whatever gesture you want, though that only works on your home screen. Another option, if you're rooted, is to use Pie and set that to have a button that triggers the notification pulldown. You could use that instead of the similar idea that Samsung has implemented. One other thing I do is use my S-pen as it gives a longer reach.
Hope some of this was helpful. Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot about FlyGrip. Thanks.
I've been using ADB as a launcher for a while and I knew that had the gestures I could set up, but I didn't know if Sammy implemented that yet in Touchwiz. It looks like Pie is a button-savior style of app. I probably need to look into what's available now.
One-Handed Keyboard
My biggest gripe about the Note 4 compared to my Note 3 is that you can no longer be able to select which apps you would like the one-handed keyboard used in.
On my Note 3, I used the one-handed keyboard only on the phone-dialer and calculator, but still liked the full size keyboard for swiping on everything else (like chrome, text, etc.)
However, on the Note 4, you only have the option to turn the one-handed keyboard on or off for use in all apps.
Wish there was a way around this, but haven't found one yet.

Force apps to 18:9 (full screen)?

I enabled full immersive mode to help prevent screen burn-in and now I'm finding that a couple of apps, namely Spotify, won't utilize the full screen area and keeps a huge black bar on the top and bottom of the app. On my LG V30, there was an option to force apps to utilize the full screen and this worked perfectly with Spotify. However, I'm not seeing this option on my 2 XL.
Does anyone know how to force certain apps into full screen on the 2 XL?
Same problem here, would love a fix for this so I can use the whole screen
Accessibility has a magnification option when triple tapping the screen. It zooms in a bit too far but it does go full screen. I wonder if there is a way to lower the zoom amount somewhere.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
The LG V30 handles this really well. Little button on nav bar to switch between full screen and regular and the setting sticks per app.
This seems like and option but I haven't tried it out yet myself.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmd.immersive
SWBgHz said:
The LG V30 handles this really well. Little button on nav bar to switch between full screen and regular and the setting sticks per app.
This seems like and option but I haven't tried it out yet myself.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmd.immersive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I pulled my V30 back off the shelf for a bit yesterday and it made me envious of how well it handles immersive mode, compared to the 2 XL. Sadly, yesterday, I started to experience the issue that others have mentioned with immersive mode enabled on the 2 XL, which is that occasionally the screen won't wake and the only way to fix it is with a hard reboot (hold power for 10 seconds). It happened to me 3 times yesterday. So now I'm realizing that in order to keep my phone fully functional and reliable, I have to disable immersive mode.
On the plus side, my squeeze for assistant feature will work again but now I'll be putting myself at risk for screen burn-in. So anything I can do to hide the nav bar whenever possible will be very welcomed. I'll give that GMD Full Screen app a try. No matter what I'm going to use Nav Bar Apps to change the color of the nav bar based on the app being used. This will allow me to prevent the black nav bar from showing up, minimizing the risk of screen burn-in.
Maybe set nav to 1 ?cuz apk need to see if there is a keyboard
Icyou said:
Maybe set nav to 1 ?cuz apk need to see if there is a keyboard
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How do I do that? I'm familiar with ABD/fastboot commands but not sure what the command is to change nav to 1.
Removing the navbar doesn't force apps into fullscreen
I like that my Note 8 gives you the option to force it in apps that don't support it and it remembers that decision
imtjnotu said:
I like that my Note 8 gives you the option to force it in apps that don't support it and it remembers that decision
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That is what V30 does, nice thing with V30 is you have a 4th button on nav bar that is a toggle between immersive on and off and however you set it 'sticks' for that app for next time. So it makes it very easy to setup/use. Frankly, this should be default behavior in Android and the fact that it isn't just wreaks of Google stubbornness we see where they just won't make and obvious and necessary changes because their original thinking is different than what people want.
Guys you will have to wait for custom roms to come out. They (at least some) will more then likely have features like this. The pixel is stock android pretty bare bones when it comes to things like that. Google isnt going to put a feature like that in (for some reason) that wouldnt be utilized by other phones. Now i know what your thinking. "But the pixel does have some "pixel specific software features" And this is true. But hey its Google it only took them 13 OS iterations to give us a proper ****ing battery % indicator.
sn0warmy said:
Yeah, I pulled my V30 back off the shelf for a bit yesterday and it made me envious of how well it handles immersive mode, compared to the 2 XL. Sadly, yesterday, I started to experience the issue that others have mentioned with immersive mode enabled on the 2 XL, which is that occasionally the screen won't wake and the only way to fix it is with a hard reboot (hold power for 10 seconds). It happened to me 3 times yesterday. So now I'm realizing that in order to keep my phone fully functional and reliable, I have to disable immersive mode.
On the plus side, my squeeze for assistant feature will work again but now I'll be putting myself at risk for screen burn-in. So anything I can do to hide the nav bar whenever possible will be very welcomed. I'll give that GMD Full Screen app a try. No matter what I'm going to use Nav Bar Apps to change the color of the nav bar based on the app being used. This will allow me to prevent the black nav bar from showing up, minimizing the risk of screen burn-in.
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Click to collapse
I haven't experienced this issue. I am using this command to enable immersive mode however in order avoid issues previously reported - battery drain, performance problems and delay waking up the screen: settings put global policy_control immersive.navigation=apps,-com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
sn0warmy said:
Yeah, I pulled my V30 back off the shelf for a bit yesterday and it made me envious of how well it handles immersive mode, compared to the 2 XL. Sadly, yesterday, I started to experience the issue that others have mentioned with immersive mode enabled on the 2 XL, which is that occasionally the screen won't wake and the only way to fix it is with a hard reboot (hold power for 10 seconds). It happened to me 3 times yesterday. So now I'm realizing that in order to keep my phone fully functional and reliable, I have to disable immersive mode.
On the plus side, my squeeze for assistant feature will work again but now I'll be putting myself at risk for screen burn-in. So anything I can do to hide the nav bar whenever possible will be very welcomed. I'll give that GMD Full Screen app a try. No matter what I'm going to use Nav Bar Apps to change the color of the nav bar based on the app being used. This will allow me to prevent the black nav bar from showing up, minimizing the risk of screen burn-in.
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Click to collapse
Try out the app "Navbar Apps" in the play store. What it does is creates a matching color for the navbar of whatever app you're in simply lar to how the status bar works by default in apps. Some aren't accurate but you can manually set colors for apps too. Most are pretty spot on.
This works perfect to help with burn-in. The reason being is that people have it backwards, the navbar is the only thing not burning in due to black on Oled meaning the pixels are off. So by having a black navbar on all the time you're actually seeing burn-in from the entire rest of the screen with the navbar being darker since it's not active. Using the app I recommended above will basically even out the screen so it's all being used the same amount, thus reducing any noticable burn-in. It also looks really cool and has a bunch of great features.
Icyou said:
Maybe set nav to 1 ?cuz apk need to see if there is a keyboard
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I too would like to know how to do this. Had it on my S8+ and loved it. Someone over there made an rro theme that removed it
Nephilim said:
Try out the app "Navbar Apps" in the play store. What it does is creates a matching color for the navbar of whatever app you're in simply lar to how the status bar works by default in apps. Some aren't accurate but you can manually set colors for apps too. Most are pretty spot on.
This works perfect to help with burn-in. The reason being is that people have it backwards, the navbar is the only thing not burning in due to black on Oled meaning the pixels are off. So by having a black navbar on all the time you're actually seeing burn-in from the entire rest of the screen with the navbar being darker since it's not active. Using the app I recommended above will basically even out the screen so it's all being used the same amount, thus reducing any noticable burn-in. It also looks really cool and has a bunch of great features.
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Yeah, this option makes complete sense, actually. I couldn't understand why it would be the pixels that are turned off the most (with the black nav bar) that would cause the burn-in. So your explanation helps clear that up for me. Right before leaving for a 5 day trip in Costa Rica, I disabled full immersive mode and installed Nav Bar Apps. I spent my downtime on the plane to get all my app nav bar custom colors setup to my liking. Now all my apps have color variations ranging anywhere from red, to blue, to green, orange, yellow, white and everything in between. Everything EXCEPT black. I used the phone the entire trip for travel guidance, music, watching Netflix/Hulu, taking pictures etc.. All with absolutely no black nav bar. I just got home last night, checked the phone this morning for burn-in and there's nothing.
It's sad that this screen burns in so quickly with the black nav bar, but to me its become such a non-issue since it's so easy to avoid. The ideal setup would be to fully disable the nav bar and use pie controls instead but a ROM isn't yet available to do this. I've read that Custom Navigation bar is another solid option as it allows you to hide the nav bar by app. However, I'm not sure it allows you to change the nav bar colors and I'm fairly certain it still disables the squeeze for assistant feature because it's still technically using immersive mode in some form.
Pecata said:
I haven't experienced this issue. I am using this command to enable immersive mode however in order avoid issues previously reported - battery drain, performance problems and delay waking up the screen: settings put global policy_control immersive.navigation=apps,-com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
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Can you elaborate on this a bit?
I tried that command but it didn't do anything. So I tried the same command with a different app, example...
settings put global policy_control immersive.navigation=apps,-com.google.android.youtube
And what I noticed is that it put the full nav bar immersive mode system wide on everything EXCEPT Youtube. This was the opposite of what I anticipated would happen. Now I'm thinking the "-" means I'm telling the system to make everything immersive except the app I specified in the above command. Is this correct? If so, the only benefit I see to using this method is to pick and choose certain apps to prevent the immersive nav bar.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding?
sn0warmy said:
Yeah, this option makes complete sense, actually. I couldn't understand why it would be the pixels that are turned off the most (with the black nav bar) that would cause the burn-in. So your explanation helps clear that up for me. Right before leaving for a 5 day trip in Costa Rica, I disabled full immersive mode and installed Nav Bar Apps. I spent my downtime on the plane to get all my app nav bar custom colors setup to my liking. Now all my apps have color variations ranging anywhere from red, to blue, to green, orange, yellow, white and everything in between. Everything EXCEPT black. I used the phone the entire trip for travel guidance, music, watching Netflix/Hulu, taking pictures etc.. All with absolutely no black nav bar. I just got home last night, checked the phone this morning for burn-in and there's nothing.
It's sad that this screen burns in so quickly with the black nav bar, but to me its become such a non-issue since it's so easy to avoid. The ideal setup would be to fully disable the nav bar and use pie controls instead but a ROM isn't yet available to do this. I've read that Custom Navigation bar is another solid option as it allows you to hide the nav bar by app. However, I'm not sure it allows you to change the nav bar colors and I'm fairly certain it still disables the squeeze for assistant feature because it's still technically using immersive mode in some form.
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Glad you like it. I'm enjoying it a lot. It makes you feel like you're actually using the whole screen instead of having the ugly cut off black bottom with nav buttons.
Nephilim said:
Glad you like it. I'm enjoying it a lot. It makes you feel like you're actually using the whole screen instead of having the ugly cut off black bottom with nav buttons.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads up on this. Back in the day an Xposed module was needed for this and there was a spreadsheet going on matching apps colors that were detected wrong. The last good PA ROM had it baked in as well. Though I wonder how much longer this will be on the Play Store with Google set on removing anything that touches Accessibility Services that aren't related to a disability.
sn0warmy said:
Can you elaborate on this a bit?
I tried that command but it didn't do anything. So I tried the same command with a different app, example...
settings put global policy_control immersive.navigation=apps,-com.google.android.youtube
And what I noticed is that it put the full nav bar immersive mode system wide on everything EXCEPT Youtube. This was the opposite of what I anticipated would happen. Now I'm thinking the "-" means I'm telling the system to make everything immersive except the app I specified in the above command. Is this correct? If so, the only benefit I see to using this method is to pick and choose certain apps to prevent the immersive nav bar.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I spent some more time fiddling with this and tried testing the same command but without the "-". So the new command is:
settings put global policy_control immersive.navigation=apps,com.google.android.youtube
What I noticed is that the nav bar immersive setting still seems to be system wide. However, squeeze for assistant is still working with the screen off. This has not been the case with any other immersive commands I've tried. So this definitely handles it a little differently. I'll test this for a while to see if I have any issues with screen not waking from sleep.
AndrasLOHF said:
Thanks for the heads up on this. Back in the day an Xposed module was needed for this and there was a spreadsheet going on matching apps colors that were detected wrong. The last good PA ROM had it baked in as well. Though I wonder how much longer this will be on the Play Store with Google set on removing anything that touches Accessibility Services that aren't related to a disability.
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Click to collapse
I couldn't care less if things get removed from play store, we can still sideload and I'm sure someone as useful as Navbar Apps would just move to XDA Labs if it got removed.

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