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[Q] [Android 5.0] Status bar and Navigation bar colors

I just flashed the LRX21T factory image on my Nexus 4 and I am loving it!
Few observations and questions regarding status bar and navigation bar coloring:
1. On home screen (default launcher), the status bar and navigation bar are black. Am I missing a setting to make it translucent? Or is that not possible on N4?
2. Some stock apps, like Gmail, Play Store, Settings, Phone, Contacts are able to change the status bar color (albeit not as good as Tinted-Status-Bar) but they don't change navigation bar color. Is this expected? Or am I missing a setting again?
3. Other stock apps like Hangouts, Chrome, Calendar, Youtube are not able to change either status bar or navigation bar colors. Is this expected? Or missing something?
4. Other non-stock apps, like gReader Pro etc. are not able to change status bar or navigation bar. This is definitely expected
I am just so used to Xposed+Gravitybox+Tinted-status-bar trio to customize fine details and colorings, that I am getting bothered by these things.
Waiting for a N4-Lollipop root to arrive soon, and official Lollipop support for Xposed/GravityBox/TSB.
Any tips for getting rid of the above annoyances while I wait for the Xposed?
Thanks!

I think it might be problem of your wallpaper,try to zoom in and set it again
從我的 用 iPad 發送

ansontyl96 said:
I think it might be problem of your wallpaper,try to zoom in and set it again
從我的 用 iPad 發送
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Not using any custom wallpaper. Picked from one of the stock ones. Tried changing, no dice.
I don't think it has anything to do with wallpaper. Do you mean to say that on your Nexus 4 you are able to see translucent status bar and nav bar on home screen? Can you post a pic?

I noticed this too. I had transparent nav and notification bars in 4.4.4, but lost them on the home screen after flashing 5.0. I'm also using the stock wallpaper.

You guys need to install Google now launcher

Install Google Now Launcher from the Play Store.

Yes, that was it, I had to reinstall Google Now launcher, it didn't return with the rest of my apps.

I'm pretty sure the app disparity is because just like translucence in KK, the colored bars are turned on by the app developers. Not all of Google's apps are updated yet to reflect the new APIs, or you haven't yet been selected for rollout.
I plan to keep using Nova Launcher, so I don't care about the stock launcher black status bars.

shikhanshu said:
I just flashed the LRX21T factory image on my Nexus 4 and I am loving it!
Few observations and questions regarding status bar and navigation bar coloring:
1. On home screen (default launcher), the status bar and navigation bar are black. Am I missing a setting to make it translucent? Or is that not possible on N4?
2. Some stock apps, like Gmail, Play Store, Settings, Phone, Contacts are able to change the status bar color (albeit not as good as Tinted-Status-Bar) but they don't change navigation bar color. Is this expected? Or am I missing a setting again?
3. Other stock apps like Hangouts, Chrome, Calendar, Youtube are not able to change either status bar or navigation bar colors. Is this expected? Or missing something?
4. Other non-stock apps, like gReader Pro etc. are not able to change status bar or navigation bar. This is definitely expected
I am just so used to Xposed+Gravitybox+Tinted-status-bar trio to customize fine details and colorings, that I am getting bothered by these things.
Waiting for a N4-Lollipop root to arrive soon, and official Lollipop support for Xposed/GravityBox/TSB.
Any tips for getting rid of the above annoyances while I wait for the Xposed?
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
1. It is the AOSP launcher. Google has to include that because Android is also available for parties who are yet to be Gapps-approved so they at least has a launcher when the system boots, as Google Now Launcher is based on Google Search, and Google Search is part of the Google Apps Package. The AOSP launcher hasn't receive much change, if not none, since the introduction of transparent status/navigation bars. So you will need to install Google Now Launcher or third-party launchers. Still, since this is obviously a nexus image, Google should have installed it by default for a better user experience.
2. This is correct behaviour. Google did not intend to colour the nav bars for now in their Google Apps, and intention is unknown, probably less intrusive? Still, app developers can now colour both bars in their app for any user running un-rooted lollipop, so you may expect any app to do that.
3. These are expected.
Hangouts is yet to receive any material update despite many other apps did, and hopefully it will receive one soon.
Youtube hasn't received its full material redesign yet, as you can clearly tell from inside the app.
For Chrome, the status bar colouring is reserved for web developers who enables HTML Tags for their websites (See Android Police post for more details). So if a website did not have that feature, the status bar will be black.
For Calendar, they are probably working on deciding the proper colour, since different months have different theme-images at the top of tablets. Also, your calendars are colour-coded so they probably don't want to disturb your viewing experience with a specific colour on the status bar.
4. As said in point 2, it will require a little update from the app developer to enable colours.
Without custom roms or xposed, there won't be a solution at all, unless you download some highly customisable apps like various third-party launchers or Whatsapp Plus which allows you to set your own colours for the bars. For now let's wait for the app developers (including Google) to update. Hope I have solved your frustrations and happy lollipopping!

What an amazing response Miasmic! Thank you for taking the time to write such a crystal clear explanation. This is why XDA-dev forums are a class apart

New features of Android Oreo

Just wondering how many new features of Android o are actually working on our 6p. I have it up and running but I can't seem to find any of the features like picture in picture and changing icon display. The system tuner doesn't have navigation bar so how is it possible to get picture in picture to work? It all looks hunky dory on the Pixel phones but unless I'm missing something, there's nothing available for our 6p. And there's still no night mode. ?

No night mode but I got Pip to work in Chrome with a full screen video but not on YouTube by pressing the home button.

qu3becker said:
No night mode but I got Pip to work in Chrome with a full screen video but not on YouTube by pressing the home button.
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Thanks for the quick reply. Will try that. So I guess we have to root to get this feature via custom navigation bar app. I was wondering how long I could hold off rooting. The ads are already driving me up the wall.?

None of the Android Oreo features are working on mine. Like if you long to the home screen and go to settings, it takes me to Google Assistant settings....
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA Free mobile app

Same here
I flashed the update today, and I was disappointed to see the Marshmallow boot animation, the new app drawer is nonexistent, and I can't change the icons.

Hi guys, it didn't take too long. Already rooted and using custom navigation bar app to enable pip. No more ads and life is sweet again.?

People on the Pixel forum and on reddit are saying that you need a Youtube Red subscription to be able to use PIP on the Nexus 6P without resorting to use a navigation shortcut. That's crazy.
Edit: I'm Canadian so Red is a no go.
I can't press resume after pausing when using the custom navigation button to load pip on YouTube. Am I missing something or are we doomed to restore the window to full screen to press play?

qu3becker said:
People on the Pixel forum and on reddit are saying that you need a Youtube Red subscription to be able to use PIP on the Nexus 6P without resorting to use a navigation shortcut. That's crazy.
Edit: I'm Canadian so Red is a no go.
I can't press resume after pausing when using the custom navigation button to load pip on YouTube. Am I missing something or are we doomed to restore the window to full screen to press play?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, just tested mine. Video can resume after pausing in pip mode.

I just see different between O and N was UI and underhood performance... All the mentioned features didn't work at least for me...

I asked about new stuff on oreo on google nexus forum for our 6p..and i just got answer that notification dots works only on Pixel and PiP mode works on Youtube Red and Chrome when watching video in full screen mode..
Welcome to the Nexus Help Forum.
I understand you're facing issues with the notification dots and PiP mode on the Nexus 6P device after the Android update.
Please be informed that notification dots are only available on Pixel. They are not possible on Nexus. Also, PiP on YouTube is only possible if the you have YouTube Red. There are also many apps that are not currently compatible with PiP. Therefore, please let me know which apps are you trying to use PiP with.

azurehawke said:
I flashed the update today, and I was disappointed to see the Marshmallow boot animation, the new app drawer is nonexistent, and I can't change the icons.
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I'm using Lawnchair launcher, great stock pixel looking with extra option and feature including icon pack support and dots on app on homescreen, different visual effect, highly recommend it

using Amir Zaidi's pixel launcher version 2.1
working reasonably good. Most features works fine , DOTS is acting strange working intermittently.
But as a whole, just an APK to install , no root needed ( I am rooted BTW), and no need for any system.img flash if you wanna go back,

Icons not changing on Oreo

Hey folks!
I've recently updated to Oreo and realized that if I change the icons through the samsung theme store the preinstalled apps(maps,chrome,drive,playstore..) has that same rounded cornered touchwiz crap look and arent changing. On nougat this wasnt a problem,I changed to another icon pack and if the app wasnt themed it would go back to app's default icon. I cant even force the app's default icon(like youtube staying in an ugly white bubble).
Also, I tried turning off icon frames,without luck.The mentioned apps stayed the same
Any advice?

Apperently google apps don't change the frame

That are the beautiful "Adaptive Icons", another great idea of Google. All developers have to include different shapes of icons now, and Google itself is lazy af and just puts a white border around them to match the shape of the other icons. Can only be changed in custom launchers with icon packs unfortunatly...

Gfhoihoi72 said:
That are the beautiful "Adaptive Icons", another great idea of Google. All developers have to include different shapes of icons now, and Google itself is lazy af and just puts a white border around them to match the shape of the other icons. Can only be changed in custom launchers with icon packs unfortunatly...
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Thanks for the explanation.
Hopefuly Google will provide the correct icon pack (same for LinkedIn I've noticed). Those white frames look very bad

I was having the same issue. In past used "Icon Changer". This also stopped working. Strongly recommend using "Adapticon" play store. Can add widgets that act as app shortcuts. On home screen and in dock. I think it will do the trick.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.damianpiwowarski.adapticons[/URL]

Wait, you mean it doesn't just work like it used to? That feels like a step backwards.

mskvsk said:
Wait, you mean it doesn't just work like it used to? That feels like a step backwards.
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Technically adaptive icons are supposed to come with built in functionality for notification badges too (vs the add ons that Nova could do if you let it, this would be native to the OS) and that was going to be "their advantage" but yeah, they're so ugly.
Everyone I've seen likes the unique shapes that Android app icons could have. It gave them personality AND it was easier to find an app by sight then it is now. Before you could quickly pick out a well-known app just from its outline. Now we've lost that ability with the loss of icon shapes.
Stupid move on Google's part.

My Android P DP2 Experience

Just wanted to add my 2 cents on the DP2 of Android P.
So far my favorite thing is how fluid it is and how nice the animations are (it's more fluid than Oreo in every way -- animations, scrolling, opening apps, switching windows, etc.) . The animations are especially nice when using the Pixel launcher. You lose certain animations when using 3rd party launchers. I've always used third party launchers since 2011 because stock ones never have the features I want but The Pixel launcher on Android P is pretty dang cool. I still miss options like no widget padding, icon packs, icon and folder resizing, gestures, custom desktop and app drawer spaces, but even losing all that is worth it with how amazing Android P runs with the Pixel launcher.
My battery life was terrible the first 2 days and I was considering going back to Oreo but it seems to have settle down now. I still feel I was getting slightly better battery life on Oreo but I can't say for sure. I know others have said they are getting better battery life on P but so far that hasn't been my experience.
I haven't run into any major bugs and have only experienced a couple minor issues like brief freezing (1-2 seconds and has only happened a few times), and had recent apps freeze up twice but hitting the home button fixes it. I know some have reported a lot of apps crashing but I don't use many apps and haven't had any issues there.
For me it's a DD. Wi-Fi Tethering, calling, texting, bluetooth, and GPS all work with no issues.
I'm not a fan of some of the new UI changes but overall it definitely seems like a good step up from Oreo. I can't wait to see how it develops over the next 6 months.

Nice write up! Agree this P is getting better and better!

I know Facebook isn't the best app in the world, and I'm a beta tester for the official app. I cannot get it to install for the life of me. Very odd errors.. keeps throwing error 504

jbarcus81 said:
I know Facebook isn't the best app in the world, and I'm a beta tester for the official app. I cannot get it to install for the life of me. Very odd errors.. keeps throwing error 504
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I don't personally use facebook but I just checked it out because of your post and it installed fine. I also logged in and scrolled through it a bit and it worked fine. Not sure why it's giving you issues :/

imucarmen said:
I don't personally use facebook but I just checked it out because of your post and it installed fine. I also logged in and scrolled through it a bit and it worked fine. Not sure why it's giving you issues :/
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Could be an issue with the beta... I never thought much about it.

I beta test FB as well, and had issues trying to get the app to install too. I have it installed on my s9+, but couldn't get that one to update, so I found the apk for the version that's on the s9+, and it was able to install on the Pixel 2xl DP2. This leads me to believe it's the FB app itself, and not the phone.

Moostafa29 said:
I beta test FB as well, and had issues trying to get the app to install too. I have it installed on my s9+, but couldn't get that one to update, so I found the apk for the version that's on the s9+, and it was able to install on the Pixel 2xl DP2. This leads me to believe it's the FB app itself, and not the phone.
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Perfect! Now to hunt down the latest beta APK .. looks like 172.0.0.51.93 is the latest version.

I went back to Oreo the same day I flashed P DP2. This was the same day DP2 was released. I don't remember every detail but here are the things that made me go back:
- A handful of apps would simply not work/open. I forgot which ones they were.
- I don't like the way the Quick Settings look.
- I don't like it that the Quick Settings wont open a quick detailed view and instead just open the settings app. Seems minor, but is a step-back if you ask me.
- QS icons in landscape mode are out of place.
EDIT: - Accessing the settings app via notification drawer now requires you to pull down the drawer completely. That's because the gear icon becomes only visible/accessible when it's fully expanded, while in previous Android versions, like O, the gear icon was visible even on a collapsed notification drawer.
I reeeeally love the new sound controls!

very ugly LTE icon

Literally the only thing I don't like is that the gesture bar is still eating up screen space like the nav bar did and WTF on the LTE font/icon. There is no reason to not expand displayed content all the way to the edge of the display and have the pill hover over the content. Also I see no reason for the back button. If swiping in one direction takes you back to the last used app, make swiping the other direction the back button inside an app. Other than that, I much prefer the roundness of the UI seeing the the display corners of my Pixel 2XL are rounded. It just looks more cohesive. I was a huge fan of Flux Ui, so P taking on that styling cue is another plus to me. Also the animations are much better. I haven't tested a full day of usage for screen on time yet without my phone touching a charger at some point, but the fact that I'm consistently getting a 1 to 2 percentage battery drop overnight is already better than any android version I've been on.

nitrous² said:
I went back to Oreo the same day I flashed P DP2. This was the same day DP2 was released. I don't remember every detail but here are the things that made me go back:
- A handful of apps would simply not work/open. I forgot which ones they were.
- I don't like the way the Quick Settings look.
- I don't like it that the Quick Settings wont open a quick detailed view and instead just open the settings app. Seems minor, but is a step-back if you ask me.
- QS icons in landscape mode are out of place.
EDIT: - Accessing the settings app via notification drawer now requires you to pull down the drawer completely. That's because the gear icon becomes only visible/accessible when it's fully expanded, while in previous Android versions, like O, the gear icon was visible even on a collapsed notification drawer.
I reeeeally love the new sound controls!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree on all your points but for me the fluidity and animations more than make up for it. Hopefully some of those things you mentioned get addressed. I definitely do not like the new QS style.
darkoj2007 said:
very ugly LTE icon
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Agreed. That's is one of the new ui changes I'm not a fan of at all. It looks like it belongs on a phone from 6 years ago. Perhaps they did for people who are far sighted but it would be nice to have the option to use the old little LTE and 3g icons.
AndrasLOHF said:
Literally the only thing I don't like is that the gesture bar is still eating up screen space like the nav bar did and WTF on the LTE font/icon. There is no reason to not expand displayed content all the way to the edge of the display and have the pill hover over the content. Also I see no reason for the back button. If swiping in one direction takes you back to the last used app, make swiping the other direction the back button inside an app. Other than that, I much prefer the roundness of the UI seeing the the display corners of my Pixel 2XL are rounded. It just looks more cohesive. I was a huge fan of Flux Ui, so P taking on that styling cue is another plus to me. Also the animations are much better. I haven't tested a full day of usage for screen on time yet without my phone touching a charger at some point, but the fact that I'm consistently getting a 1 to 2 percentage battery drop overnight is already better than any android version I've been on.
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The gesture bar needs some refinement. I hate the back button as well. They need to at least make it have rounded corners and solid to match the rest of the ui. The sharp corners and hollow look really doesn't match and looks awful.
LTE and 3G icons are awful.
For some reason my battery just isn't performing as well on P as it did on Oreo. Especially the AOD -- it chews my battery up. It still easily get through the day with plenty of juice to spare and I work at home and always have a charger handy so it's not a problem.

dark google discover with nova launcher

I read multiple places that the dark discover feed has to be implemented by google server side. IF thats the case then how come pixel launcher has it ? Does anyone have a dark google feed with nova right now? drives me crazy tahts the onyl not dark part of my phone.

What link to click?

If you use a dark wallpaper then the Google Feed is automatically supposed to switch to dark mode. Try to see if changing your wallpaper to something darker helps

Use substratum (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=projekt.substratum) and swiftblack theme (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brit.swiftblack.layers) ... I have all Google apps black (except trips, pay and measure)

Logix said:
I read multiple places that the dark discover feed has to be implemented by google server side. IF thats the case then how come pixel launcher has it ? Does anyone have a dark google feed with nova right now? drives me crazy tahts the onyl not dark part of my phone.
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If using a dark background worked, I doubt the question would be here. I have this launcher on this phone, and even with a solid black background, Discover is still white. All signs point to it only working on Pixel launcher, for some reason. What that reason is besides someone with design control at Google being painfully stupid.
Notifications and Google apps, if these were dark I could totally like Android. Least the OP6T can get very dim at night.

I do got to say I switched to lawnchair and it works just fine now. all other launchers cept cpl did not including nova prime. Still feel is not a google serverside thing.