Hey guys,
I've had my Nexus for just over a month now and apart from a few minor issues I'm really enjoying my experience with my Nexus.
BUT: One thing that really p*sses me off is the total waste of screen real estate being the "on screen buttons". I can sort of understand the device having as few as possible buttons is pretty cool but when it starts invading your screen size that is NOT COOL.
I have a few questions for google: Why oh why did you make the background for the navigation buttons black?? Why not transparent? Or transparent with a blur effect? Personally I would prefer just transparent with faint white back, home and app switcher buttons. It would make more of the screen available to see.
If I were to root my device, are these things that i could schange in the System or Framework RES folders? Or would it be much more complicated than that (i.e. changing color hex's in .xml files?)?
Search for how to enable the tablet UI. I had to enlarge the font to make things a bit more comfortable for me, but I really do like the true tablet UI.
sikodemon said:
Hey guys,
I've had my Nexus for just over a month now and apart from a few minor issues I'm really enjoying my experience with my Nexus.
BUT: One thing that really p*sses me off is the total waste of screen real estate being the "on screen buttons". I can sort of understand the device having as few as possible buttons is pretty cool but when it starts invading your screen size that is NOT COOL.
I have a few questions for google: Why oh why did you make the background for the navigation buttons black?? Why not transparent? Or transparent with a blur effect? Personally I would prefer just transparent with faint white back, home and app switcher buttons. It would make more of the screen available to see.
If I were to root my device, are these things that i could schange in the System or Framework RES folders? Or would it be much more complicated than that (i.e. changing color hex's in .xml files?)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can make it smaller.
Here's a guide.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1844878
Beamed from my Grouper
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
sikodemon said:
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it was carried over from the gnex.
It's black on the gnex to take advantage of the AMOLED screen.
Beamed from Maguro
Hi
sikodemon said:
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Presumably it is because it is dead space. Applications don't/can't expand into that area as it is protected. For example if you had an application open to the maximum behind translucent soft buttons, and that application required you to press something towards its bottom edge, you can't as it is now behind the menu buttons.
Ideally the buttons would be below the display and printed onto the touch screen as they are with my HTC One X, presumably they are not for either cost reasons or flexibility of the design.
Regards
Phil
sikodemon said:
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd guess that it doesn't make sense for it to be transparent because there is nothing under the navbar. Its a part of the screen that is separate from the application, if you allowed the navbar to be imposed over the application and transparent then the bottom part of the screen would be unusable in the application because touching it would activate the navbar buttons rather than the applications.
That said on the launcher it would be easy to just extend the wallpaper over the navbar and make it transparent and in apps you could colour the navbar with the average colour of the application background etc, though of course Apple has a patent waiting for that http://www.phonearena.com/news/Appl...xed-video_id34472?ratelimit=-10&sort=threaded
Not true because you can hide the nav bar on certain roms and that space it was using up is definitely usable. Hey OP I forgot what it's called but there's a launcher somewhere based on nothing but gestures so you don't even need a nav bar and you can use that extra screen space you seem to desperately need.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
sikodemon said:
Hey guys,
I've had my Nexus for just over a month now and apart from a few minor issues I'm really enjoying my experience with my Nexus.
BUT: One thing that really p*sses me off is the total waste of screen real estate being the "on screen buttons". I can sort of understand the device having as few as possible buttons is pretty cool but when it starts invading your screen size that is NOT COOL.
I have a few questions for google: Why oh why did you make the background for the navigation buttons black?? Why not transparent? Or transparent with a blur effect? Personally I would prefer just transparent with faint white back, home and app switcher buttons. It would make more of the screen available to see.
If I were to root my device, are these things that i could schange in the System or Framework RES folders? Or would it be much more complicated than that (i.e. changing color hex's in .xml files?)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agreed with you. Is there anyone that can port Motorola's Transparent Software Buttons, so it will be better?
slick_rick said:
Not true because you can hide the nav bar on certain roms and that space it was using up is definitely usable. Hey OP I forgot what it's called but there's a launcher somewhere based on nothing but gestures so you don't even need a nav bar and you can use that extra screen space you seem to desperately need.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're both right and wrong. The launcher you're thinking of is probably the PIE launcher available on many custom ROMs, as well as its app equivalent (which I believe is called LMT). But your reasoning as far as hiding the navbar is incorrect. If you hide the navbar on a ROM (or even the way it's done in many games and the YouTube app), the navbar disappears, i.e. it's no longer protecting the screen space that it's not using. Making it transparent would do no such thing, and even if you forced an app to use the space beneath the navbar, you'd wind up with three floating navigation items that would probably conflict with an app's bottom navigation.
Pegasus195 said:
I agreed with you. Is there anyone that can port Motorola's Transparent Software Buttons, so it will be better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to look into custom ROMs, some will allow you to mess around with your navbar icons/actions (the main one I like is the replace Recent Apps with a Last App switcher). Paranoid Android also allows you to change the color (and I believe that includes alpha transparency), including a "chameleon"-style bar that changes color based on the active app's predominant scheme.
Also, to respond to something from earlier: black is better because as a static color, it uses less resources to draw and has the benefit of being power-efficient on AMOLED screens. In addition, while it might look neat, it's pretty well accepted in UI/UX lore that you should keep navigational elements as clearly and visually distinct as possible to make them easier to hit. Shoving white/grey buttons on top of an active-blurred background can create quite a headache.
There's a great example of this in the screenshots of Apple's control center for iOS 7. For some backgrounds, the control center is clearly visible despite the background bleeding through, but on others, you basically can't read the buttons because the blur is too distracting.
I just updated my N7 to the new KitKat, the status bar and soft keys only become transparent in Google experience launcher home screen (need to install GEL mannually), but within the app it is still two black bars. As nexus 7's screen real state constantly blocked by these two bars (terrible in landscape mode especially), I was wondering if there is a mod (e.g. mod the systemUI) to make both bars transparent.
This is certainly achievable as I have seen Samsung tabs all have transparent status bar out of box, and in 4.3 there was CyanogenMod that made it transparent, but there is nothing like these for KitKat
I prefer this solution other than hidding the softkey bars (such as GMD) because i don't want to change GEL, and I know in the future , new apps will be able to leverage the new immerse fullscreen so this problem is completely solved, i don't want to affect that function, but in the same time, i want old apps still able to use more screen real states.
please let me know if there is a solution to make this possible.
Thanks everyone!
Any one has figured this out?
Try this to see if it helps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2529594
Thanks, but Google experience launcher only provide transparent status bar and softkeys on homescreen, not inside app
to make it work inside an app, need to deeply mod the system UI file, in 4.2 CM10.2 has done it before successfully!
benam said:
Try this to see if it helps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2529594
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking to get a Nexus 6P, but I'll be using it for around two years (give or take, depending on what devices I can choose from in two years), and I've heard that AMOLED burn-in may become prevalent within a year or so. For some probably won't notice, even I probably wouldn't if I didn't find out that burn in exists, but I'm paranoid, so I'm thinking to use GMD's Hide Nav Bar (Root) app that I've been using on my Nexus 4 (for the sake of extra screen real-estate).
I'm wondering if this will minimize and effectively prevent burn-in of the Nav/Status bars? My main concern is the Nav bar, as Samsung's devices don't have them, making burn-in far less of an issue.
well it does minimize the effect but honestly I did not notice the burn in on my N6. I didn't even know that such thing exists. after reading an article about it, I downloaded an app and saw how nav bar area was worn out more than the rest of the screen. I was able to notice that only because the app creates a high contrast ratio between the nav bar and the rest of the screen.
valapsp said:
well it does minimize the effect but honestly I did not notice the burn in on my N6. I didn't even know that such thing exists. after reading an article about it, I downloaded an app and saw how nav bar area was worn out more than the rest of the screen. I was able to notice that only because the app creates a high contrast ratio between the nav bar and the rest of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I don't think I would notice it either if I didn't know about it, but since I'm paranoid I'll probably get root and at least hide the nav bar
A launcher like Nova can hide the bar without having to root.
grubbster said:
A launcher like Nova can hide the bar without having to root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not in apps though, which isn't as nice as being able to make use of the extra space.
custom roms like pure nexus have options for expanded desktop which hide the status and nav bars until you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. which after you swipe up they only appear for as long as you need them.
ncsuwolfs said:
custom roms like pure nexus have options for expanded desktop which hide the status and nav bars until you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. which after you swipe up they only appear for as long as you need them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the app I'm using is pretty much the same. The status bar/nav bar are the only places that are still affected by this issue nowadays, no? Unless I leave a static image on for hours, of course.
I have literally no idea what Xiaomi was thinking when they had this setting off by default.
Open settings
Navigate to additional settings
Open the buttons tab
Turn ON the first option in the list, "Screen buttons can hide"
This also allows for the homescreen wallpaper to actually take up the entire screen. With regards to app compatibility, I'm surprised that nearly everything supports 17:9 perfectly.
**To clarify: this tweak allows the Mi Mix to render applications/games in its' full 2040x1080 (17:9) resolution. Before this tweak is applied, all apps are rendered in 16:9; the area in which the on screen buttons are present will always be wasted screen real estate. Obviously, this setting doesn't magically adapt content that was natively created for 16:9 (IE Youtube videos) and adapt them to fit the entire screen.
Your title is really misleading. For starters, when you recieve the mix one of the first screens that pops up is exactly this option. Second, even if you hide the Navigation buttons in apps like youtube, you'll still have black bars since youtube doesn't support the 17:9 aspect ratio. I think this thread is good for people that skipped trough this setting or didn't know about it, but i think you should change the title.
Blackphantom said:
Your title is really misleading. For starters, when you recieve the mix one of the first screens that pops up is exactly this option. Second, even if you hide the Navigation buttons in apps like youtube, you'll still have black bars since youtube doesn't support the 17:9 aspect ratio. I think this thread is good for people that skipped trough this setting or didn't know about it, but i think you should change the title.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was a prompt to turn on this setting upon factory reset? I never saw this. As to your second point, my title doesn't say display media content made for 16:9 on 17:9, just run the apps (UI).
This method doesn't give you full 17:9, but it is very easy to do and it's good enough for some, as OP stated, you just need to go to setting and set it. But since Nav bar is basically still there and it's just hidden after you swipe it down, some content could still be in 16:9. To really get your phone to show everything that's possible for 17:9, you should use the Xposed method to remove the Nav bar completely, this way you get the full 17:9 experience. As an example, third party launcher like Nova launcher would not be in 17:9 if you use the OP method, but with Xposed, you can use the Nav Bar space for whatever you want.
wu5262 said:
This method doesn't give you full 17:9, but it is very easy to do and it's good enough for some, as OP stated, you just need to go to setting and set it. But since Nav bar is basically still there and it's just hidden after you swipe it down, some content could still be in 16:9. To really get your phone to show everything that's possible for 17:9, you should use the Xposed method to remove the Nav bar completely, this way you get the full 17:9 experience. As an example, third party launcher like Nova launcher would not be in 17:9 if you use the OP method, but with Xposed, you can use the Nav Bar space for whatever you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which module you have used to hide the navbar?
Tested xMiui, well the navbar is hidden, but the space it leaves is still not usable. A build.prop edit works better fof me. Now the space is usable by TSF launcher and all other apps. I'm using LMT pie instead.
build.prop change
qemu.hw.mainkeys=0
to
qemu.hw.mainkeys=1
You could keep a backup to revert the change with TWRP filemanager if needed.
Gesendet von meinem MIX mit Tapatalk
I just use xMIUI and the space are totally usable after reboot. Meaning icons, widgets docks can be all the way down at the bottom of screen where the usual nav bar was.
wu5262 said:
This method doesn't give you full 17:9, but it is very easy to do and it's good enough for some, as OP stated, you just need to go to setting and set it. But since Nav bar is basically still there and it's just hidden after you swipe it down, some content could still be in 16:9. To really get your phone to show everything that's possible for 17:9, you should use the Xposed method to remove the Nav bar completely, this way you get the full 17:9 experience. As an example, third party launcher like Nova launcher would not be in 17:9 if you use the OP method, but with Xposed, you can use the Nav Bar space for whatever you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wu5262 said:
I just use xMIUI and the space are totally usable after reboot. Meaning icons, widgets docks can be all the way down at the bottom of screen where the usual nav bar was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is swiping down and hiding the nav bar not running apps in 17:9? Games prior to this setting would render in 1080p with black bars, after this setting they render the entire screen (and the nav bar is transparent). What you're saying literally makes no sense. I've been using Nova launcher and I just tested swiping down on the home screen and the nav bar fully disappears and the dock icons move down right where the nav bar was. They DO move down all the way to the bottom of the screen. I guess if you want to fully remove the nav bar or use the space for "whatever you want" via exposed, one can go that route, but I don't see why anyone would want to remove it. How they hell are you gonna get to your home screen, go back, or view multitasking?
Indeed, if you really want to use the full screen, you need to remove the nav bar not hiding it. Since you are using nova launcher so I will use that as an example. If you have a news widget setup to display in 16:9, when you hide the nav bar by sliding down, the widget stays in 16:9 leaving the bottom space empty.
This is just one of the many examples where content won't automatically convert to 17:9 if you hide nav bar on real time. Besides it has been reported that some of the graphic glitch or system slowness are due to the nav bar hiding and appearing.
The solution I went with is to remove nav bar completely, so everything are shown in 17:9 natively, no switching between 16:9 and 17:9 causing the system to do extra work and have chance to misbehave. I haven't personally run the hiding nav bar method for too long as I knew quite early that's not gonna be good enough for me so I can't really comment more on the stability of it.
As of control, there are many method you can choose, simple control allow you to have exactly the same function as normal nav bar but all would run in 17:9 and it can automatically hide nav bar after some interval. Simple pie brings out overlay for nav control, I am running floating menu which is completely invisible. No overlay and is just a quick swipe to perform your usual back, home recent actions. In a lot of cases, it's faster than bringing up nav bar and click on what you want then swipe down to hide. With floating menu, it's just a single swipe.
Anyway, I am not saying anything that is best, you see what you like and that's best for you. I go with my method because it's the cleanest and has no overlay at all. Going xposed is super easy for me as I am very familiar with it.
Some would find it hard to do, some would not want to do it, some just like to hide and bring up nav bar then rehide it afterwards. Hell, some even like to use the quick ball instead. Try them all and you will see what's best for you.
wu5262 said:
Indeed, if you really want to use the full screen, you need to remove the nav bar not hiding it. Since you are using nova launcher so I will use that as an example. If you have a news widget setup to display in 16:9, when you hide the nav bar by sliding down, the widget stays in 16:9 leaving the bottom space empty.
This is just one of the many examples where content won't automatically convert to 17:9 if you hide nav bar on real time. Besides it has been reported that some of the graphic glitch or system slowness are due to the nav bar hiding and appearing.
The solution I went with is to remove nav bar completely, so everything are shown in 17:9 natively, no switching between 16:9 and 17:9 causing the system to do extra work and have chance to misbehave. I haven't personally run the hiding nav bar method for too long as I knew quite early that's not gonna be good enough for me so I can't really comment more on the stability of it.
As of control, there are many method you can choose, simple control allow you to have exactly the same function as normal nav bar but all would run in 17:9 and it can automatically hide nav bar after some interval. Simple pie brings out overlay for nav control, I am running floating menu which is completely invisible. No overlay and is just a quick swipe to perform your usual back, home recent actions. In a lot of cases, it's faster than bringing up nav bar and click on what you want then swipe down to hide. With floating menu, it's just a single swipe.
Anyway, I am not saying anything that is best, you see what you like and that's best for you. I go with my method because it's the cleanest and has no overlay at all. Going xposed is super easy for me as I am very familiar with it.
Some would find it hard to do, some would not want to do it, some just like to hide and bring up nav bar then rehide it afterwards. Hell, some even like to use the quick ball instead. Try them all and you will see what's best for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh very thorough response. Thanks for clarifying as you did bring up some good points.
I've disabled navbar with builp.prop edit now. As pie i'm using gravitybox, the only one i've found working in any possible situation! LMT, unique controls etc., these are all requesting overlay permission, means these are not working like a real xposed code swap would work. The problem with implementations like LMT, etc. is, it fails if you're using apps like paypal, that desktivate all overlay apps in start. That means, open paypal, pie dead, no navigation possible. For me unusable. The only working real replacement is gravitybox. If anybody knows another, nicer desugned one....
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I am running floating menu with PayPal, non-issue at all. Liked i mentioned many times already, if you want the cleanest way to maximise everything in 17:9, you won't get anything better than this. It has no overlay and you don't see anything at all. (or if you want, a bit of overlay to help you click and swipe). Otherwise it's totally invisible.
If you want more functions like app shortcut and so on, simple pie would be better.
wu5262 said:
I am running floating menu with PayPal, non-issue at all. Liked i mentioned many times already, if you want the cleanest way to maximise everything in 17:9, you won't get anything better than this. It has no overlay and you don't see anything at all. (or if you want, a bit of overlay to help you click and swipe). Otherwise it's totally invisible.
If you want more functions like app shortcut and so on, simple pie would be better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same with gravitybox pie, you see nothing until you swipe up from bottom left, right. Anyway i'll have a look to floating menu, too.
Gesendet von meinem Xiaomi Mi MIX
Difference is with pie, you see the overlay when you swipe up then you need to locate the icon then let go. So ya there is still overlay and it takes a tiny more effort.
With floating menu, you swipe up then that's it. You don't locate and you don't see anything at all, hence it's totally clean. I truly believe it doesn't get any simpler than this.
wu5262 said:
I just use xMIUI and the space are totally usable after reboot. Meaning icons, widgets docks can be all the way down at the bottom of screen where the usual nav bar was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What feature do u use exactly in xmiui
wu5262 said:
I just use xMIUI and the space are totally usable after reboot. Meaning icons, widgets docks can be all the way down at the bottom of screen where the usual nav bar was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, do you mind sharing how to use xMiui to do that? I can't seems to find that option. And you mentioned abound simple control? Where can I get it? Thanks =)
I am new to miui
adamo86 said:
What feature do u use exactly in xmiui
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, many I guess, there are a tone of things you can change in XMIUI, you can customise pretty much anything you want
---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 PM ----------
flywithme said:
Hi, do you mind sharing how to use xMiui to do that? I can't seems to find that option. And you mentioned abound simple control? Where can I get it? Thanks =)
I am new to miui
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's under HW keys, and scroll all the way down to nav bar and set it to hide.
You can download simple control from App Store. Same developer that created simple pie.
This is my personal preference: Float menu > simple control > simple pie
wu5262 said:
Well, many I guess, there are a tone of things you can change in XMIUI, you can customise pretty much anything you want
---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 PM ----------
It's under HW keys, and scroll all the way down to nav bar and set it to hide.
You can download simple control from App Store. Same developer that created simple pie.
This is my personal preference: Float menu > simple control > simple pie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much
After testing :
Apps now run 17:9 natively.
One issue: simple control get killed by system memory cleaner using the recent button while clearing all task. Will need to wait for about 20s for simple control to work again.
flywithme said:
Thank you so much
After testing :
Apps now run 17:9 natively.
One issue: simple control get killed by system memory cleaner using the recent button while clearing all task. Will need to wait for about 20s for simple control to work again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more argument to use gravitybox pie feature. It is not killed by systems taskmanager! And well, there's only an overlay if you trigger the pie.
Gesendet von meinem Xiaomi Mi MIX
flywithme said:
Thank you so much
After testing :
Apps now run 17:9 natively.
One issue: simple control get killed by system memory cleaner using the recent button while clearing all task. Will need to wait for about 20s for simple control to work again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
White list it and you won't have this problem. At least not with floating menu, mine is not getting killed even if I press X to clear all.
There is also the exposed method if you really can't get it to work
wu5262 said:
White list it and you won't have this problem. At least not with floating menu, mine is not getting killed even if I press X to clear all.
There is also the exposed method if you really can't get it to work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pappschlumpf said:
One more argument to use gravitybox pie feature. It is not killed by systems taskmanager! And well, there's only an overlay if you trigger the pie.
Gesendet von meinem Xiaomi Mi MIX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One thing I like about simple control over the rest is that I can set a delay before it disappears. I can do operation like double back easily to exit some app which require it. The app is also more simple and elegant to use compare to floating menu.
@wu5262 how do I use the exposed methods?
Don't get me wrong, I love the app and the idea. It's just the description in the Google play store seems stupid to me. Here is what I'm talking about;
Code:
KNOWN LIMITATIONS:
Unfortunately, XDA isn't God. As such, we are limited in what we can and cannot do. Please read this!
- There is no way to make a space for the pill
- We cannot detect the presence of a keyboard
- We cannot directly detect changes in full screen mode
- Screen off and screenshot actions are only possible with root
My problem is with the first two "restrictions" which I feel like there are ways around.
First off the space for the pill....
Instead of disabling the nav bar with this adb command:
Code:
adb she'll am overscan 0,0,0,-202
You could leave it there and disable each individual button on the nav bar. I know this can be done because this is a feature of Custom Navbar app (Screenshots for proof). Then you could display the pill Navbar overtop of the empty space. You can display stuff over the Navbar. Rounded screen corner apps do this. If you did this the keyboard would display above the Navbar, and then you wouldn't have that issue either. It just seems like they don't want to try it....
And what's up with "this app doesn't work on Android P Dev preview? The command I listed earlier works fine when you turn off the gesture Navbar. Have they changed the way overlays work in Android P? I don't think so because all in one gestures still works.
I am honestly thinking of using Tasker scene to create my own pill Navbar above the blank Navbar as a proof of concept.
I tried to use it and these are my openions
It also overlapsthe screen content
Having a pill is pointless, it exists now only as a step to the no pill nav gestures that are going to be in Android Q. Can't alienate casual users by changing too much too fast unless your Apple after all. However that may be there are a half dozen apps on the market that do what they say can't be done; OnePlus gestures for example that costs you a buck fifty. Color me unimpressed with the XDA gestures.
Also got it to ignore that I was on Android P and let me set up the app. Screen shots of it working on Android P