Related
SoftKeys provides on screen keys for menu/home/back/search for devices that don't have those keys in hardware.
SoftKeys is also available in the Android Market
If you want to make themes for SoftKeys you will need the tools to build apks (eclipse/android sdk/etc) and the template from the git repository.
http://git.hoopajoo.net
Changelog:
2011/01/11 - 3.06 - Fix notification keys, boot straight to launcher on system startup
2011/01/11 - 3.05 - Fix notification softkeys <b>broken release</b>
2011/01/10 - 3.04 - Adds dpad and up to 6 custom keys, ability to put device
to sleep, improved performance for key injection, built in documentation, bugfixes
2010/12/23 - 3.00 - Most of the layout code has been rewritten to allow for theming, couple of bug fixes, SoftKeys is now gpl3
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Old Changelog (I'm too lazy to reorder this newest to oldest):
2010/12/04 - 1.01 - added launcher selector and remembers last launcher
2010/12/04 - 1.02 - added themes layouts from nemith, looks more like his screenshots but the spinner text is still black so the launcher chooser is hard to read, hopefully I'll have some time to fiddle with that soon
2010/12/04 - 1.03 - My fingers are too fat, I made everything in to image buttons and moved the launcher config to a prefs screen, if anyone has nicer icons let me know these are repurposed from generic android icons
2010/12/05 - 1.04 - Added alternate long-press soft home key for secondary launcher like if you want to use the built-in nook home, added configurable options for what to do if you tap or double tap the nook button while in the softkeys screen, long press on menu/back sends an extra back to the app before sending the requested button for apps that bring up pause screens or something when you move them to the background (angry birds, etc)
2010/12/05 - 1.05 - Integrated the dark theme from nemith, you can choose it in prefs now. Added options to disable the "exit" and "configure" buttons. If you disable "configure" you can still get to the preferences using the "menu" button in the notification bar (e.g. the normal menu button)
2010/12/05 - 1.06 - fix broken key handling, menu and back didn't work, don't use 1.05
2010/12/06 - 1.07 - add recent applications to top of the screen since we don't have a long-press-home recent apps dialog, looking in to re-ordering the buttons next
2010/12/07 - 1.08 - This release adds options to re-order the softkeys, insert soft keys in to the notification area, disable the recent apps list, long press the background to configure if you lost the configure button, and some options for changing the background to dim/blurred/none (note: the notification soft keys show up in the notification area, not in the main status bar like the nook menu/back, I can't put things there as an application you would need to modify system jars to get this effect)
2010/12/07 - v1.09 - Default to non-blurred background and added note about slowness, added option to return to softkeys after pressing back button
2010/12/08 - v1.10 - Selecting "SoftKeys" for your single-press home action will make it so if you launch softkeys, it will go to the launcher unless you hit home again, e.g. single-press home to go to launcher anywhere, double-press home to go to softkeys
2010/12/13 - v2.00 - This adds a new service overlay that is displayed above all apps allowing softkeys to be sent without having to mess with the home button. Default home key behavior has changed to be single click home from anywhere goes to your default launcher, double click home to get to the old softkeys interface. I'm still fiddling with service panel layouts and ideas so things will probably change, I just wanted to get some testing with something simple.
2010/12/17 - v2.01 - The service panel can now be dragged around the screen, you can change it from horizontal to vertial by long pressing it, you can adjust the transparency of the panel and the icon size, and also control if it closes after sending key events. If you don't want the dialog background on the panel you can disable it to just have floating buttons. NOTE: the signing certificate has changed to a release cert, you will need to uninstall the old softkeys before installing this one
2010/12/17 - v2.02 - Now you can move the button that brings up softkeys service, slightly better handling for switching horizontal/vertical layout by long press
veeerrry nice man!
Thanks! I agree with you - I didn't want to permanently re-assign the volume buttons, as I use them in some apps.
One request, if possible ) - Is there any way to make it go to launcher pro (or whatever you want as default) when pressing "Home" in the app? Right now, it asks me to "Pick Home" every time.
ddenson said:
Thanks! I agree with you - I didn't want to permanently re-assign the volume buttons, as I use them in some apps.
One request, if possible ) - Is there any way to make it go to launcher pro (or whatever you want as default) when pressing "Home" in the app? Right now, it asks me to "Pick Home" every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never personally use the "home" button, I use the quick drawer thing in the notification bar, so I don't really use a launcher. I could probably quickly add a button just for an alternate home or use last home I guess/choose new home I guess. I'll see what I can do. I've also though about adding arrow soft keys, for using in like connectbot, is there any interest in that?
There are also other minor irritating things, like apps that exit when they are not in focus will not work with this hack. For example, monkey kick (a game my son loves to play) will exit if it's not in focus so it never receives the soft keys. I suppose it doesn't matter though since it doesn't use the screen completely anyway, so he just gets to play on my old g1
bpk said:
I never personally use the "home" button, I use the quick drawer thing in the notification bar, so I don't really use a launcher. I could probably quickly add a button just for an alternate home or use last home I guess/choose new home I guess. I'll see what I can do. I've also though about adding arrow soft keys, for using in like connectbot, is there any interest in that?
There are also other minor irritating things, like apps that exit when they are not in focus will not work with this hack. For example, monkey kick (a game my son loves to play) will exit if it's not in focus so it never receives the soft keys. I suppose it doesn't matter though since it doesn't use the screen completely anyway, so he just gets to play on my old g1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again. Using the last home would be great, if that's possible. I don't personally have any use for additional buttons, but maybe someone else can comment? Rgds.
Awesome.
Code would be cool it would be nice to have them popup at the bottom of the screen like when you press the menu button in an app.
Also to take a screen shot you hold the 'n' button and tap the Vol - button. If you have as much trouble as I did with this method, you can also install drocap2 (root required) which does nice job.
awesome app. its perfect! great replacement until someone does the sidebar buttons like the ones available for the archos
nice work... now if you can make this pop up on the bottom of the screen with a black background like the archos tablets it would be awesome...
thank you, this is a great work around
I put the source up at
http: // git.hoopajoo.net
(take out the spaces I can't post links apparently)
That page has a list of my public git urls available, the last one is SoftKeys
if anyone wants to check it out, I'm currently looking at remembering the last launcher picked and defaulting to that for people that use launchers.
-- the rest of this is just for people looking in to the source, to provide some background to why I did it this way and alternate ideas I had --
If any devs look at it I thought I'd post some of my reasons for doing it this way:
1) I looked at creating a custom init service bound to a keycode at first, this would have made it so you didn't need superuser but would have required modifying your ramdisk. Even just making a daemon and communicating through some kind of pipe would require modifying the ramdisk to get it in init. In the end I abandoned the idea because it seemed easier for most normal people to just install an apk.
2) I looked at binding this to the camera button and remapping it in the keylayout, that would preserve the default home screen selections, but would require modifying a file in your /system/ so people would need to adb their stuff. Again I thought an apk would be easier and adding in shell commands would just complicate things for people and I'm not very good at support
3) I spent a LOT of time looking through git repos from aosp to find out if there was some way to bind to the long-press home and take over the recent apps list, since it doesn't even work. This would preserve your home settings and not even remove an existing function. After several hours grepping through the core.git stuff I decided this was just easier to do. If figured good enough is usually good enough. Though if someone can figure this out it would be sweet.
4) I really was hoping that we could just pull whatever archos is doing since that seems ideal, completely soft buttons. However after downloading the aos firmware I found it was encrypted and apparently currently can only be decrypted by the devices using the public key stored on them somewhere and I'm not aware of anyone having dumped their system images yet.
Also I've been looking through the superuser source to see how they handle the popups, they do a good job of not killing the running app and being all around unobtrusive, doing it their way for the popup buttons would be really sweet since it never seems to break the currently running app.
Great except one thing!
I have LauncherPro so when I click the home button, it always gives me a choice between LauncherPro and the original home. Can you make it so I can set a default? I want to just go straight to launcher pro then I select home.
Pinesal said:
Great except one thing!
I have LauncherPro so when I click the home button, it always gives me a choice between LauncherPro and the original home. Can you make it so I can set a default? I want to just go straight to launcher pro then I select home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thread is one page long and your question was already discussed.
One page was too much reading?
How about double click home button for menu and hold the button for back? Just my 2 cents.
I have taken the source code and modified it to a be a row across the bottom of the screen, I think this looks a little bit better
Note the bar at the bottom of both. Ignore that ghosting on the second image.
If anyone is good at graphics I can use some images to create a fancier looking bottom bar.
kabi said:
How about double click home button for menu and hold the button for back? Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am going to play to play with doing stuff like this. For example. Press Home for the menu. Press Home again to make the meny disappear. Double tap home for menu. Long Press for back.
I think next on my plate is setting a default launcher application to use when you hit the soft Home button.
Here is the github respository for anyone interested: https://github.com/bennetb01/SoftKeys
I can't get this to install. The first one instaled fine but when I kick this off it says it will replace the first version then "application not installed" should I remove the first one manually?
Great work BTW. Thanks
lovelacer said:
I can't get this to install. The first one instaled fine but when I kick this off it says it will replace the first version then "application not installed" should I remove the first one manually?
Great work BTW. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can uninstall the first one via the following:
Code:
adb uninstall net.hoopajoo.android.SoftKeys
Install the second one normally via:
Code:
adb install SoftKeys.apk
Interestingly enough the adb uninstall command resulted in a failure as well. I just uninstalled via long press at my app screen and was able to install via root explorer on the nook.
Thanks for the help though.
I do like those buttons, I'm not much for making things look nice, typically I just do back end stuff. If you want to rebase against head and post your git repo I'll merge those changes in to main.
I started using launcher pro and realized it does suck way too much to have to select your launcher every time. It's just 1 button press but I'm too lazy.
And for people re-installing, from adb you have to do:
adb install -r <APK>
Also to remove packages I use appremover, or you can use astro file manager with the package manager under the menu.
nemith said:
I have taken the source code and modified it to a be a row across the bottom of the screen, I think this looks a little bit better
Note the bar at the bottom of both. Ignore that ghosting on the second image.
If anyone is good at graphics I can use some images to create a fancier looking bottom bar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks very much for this, sir.
About those images: what size do ya need? i can do them right now.
-K
I didn't want to start a new thread for this piece of information, so this looks like a good place to discuss it. My wife noticed that you can always access the back button by swiping from right to left across the notification toolbar. This worked on her non-root NC as well as my rooted one. Pretty cool!
Hi guys!
I was wondering if it is possible to use the classic AOSP lockscreen with JKay's theme manager. I mean just the unlock option, sliding from left to right, without camera, FM radio, sms and so on. Thanks in advance
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
I believe so
Sent from my GT-I9100
Go into the jkay app, tap the options top left, top right etc then press menu and select not in use, unlock and sound toggle as you see fit.
ross_ctr said:
Go into the jkay app, tap the options top left, top right etc then press menu and select not in use, unlock and sound toggle as you see fit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much.
Easier than I thought
ross_ctr said:
Go into the jkay app, tap the options top left, top right etc then press menu and select not in use, unlock and sound toggle as you see fit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first off, really new...this is my first post here.
I don't see the options. I am in the JKay app what I have is the following titles for option:
1) Lock Screen
2) Lock screen actions (long press for icons)
3) Lock screen wallpaper
4) Lock screen options
5) Miscellaneous
6) Phone options dialog
No options for me. I too want the simple look.
If it's ok, can you include screenshots?
So one of the main things I hated when switching to the LG G3 is the fact that I'm someone who likes to use third party launchers like Nova Launcher. Because of that, I lost one of the main selling points of the LG G3, double-tap to turn off the screen from the Home Screen. Well, this morning I had some random epiphany and realized there's gotta be an app to turn off the screen without using the button on your phone, and remembered Nova has a gestures and clicks shortcut feature to perform tasks. So whether you have an LG G3 and are in my situation OR someone who has ANY other Android device and wants to do this too, be sure to check out my latest
gotroot801 said:
How-To Guide Text Instructions:
1.) Install Screen Off and Lock: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.katecca.screenofflock
2.) Launch Screen Off and grant the app Device Administrator access.
3.) Nova Settings / Gestures and Buttons / Double Tap / Apps / Screen Off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize you can just tap the notification bar to turn the screen off, no matter which launcher you're running, right?
phobos512 said:
You do realize you can just tap the notification bar to turn the screen off, no matter which launcher you're running, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure do! But it's a bigger phone, I don't want to reach up all the time, especially if I can avoid it. Not to mention that on the home screen my notification bar is hidden to save extra screen real-estate. So while that feature is nice in apps, it's not always the most convenient nor is it always an option for everyone. Plus this also lets ANYONE use this feature, not just us LG G2 and G3 usuers.
Dude pretty smart trick.. Been looking for a way to do this with nova.. Thanks
Can't watch the embed for some reason (chrome on g3), but very pleased to see this. I set double tap of home to kill the screen as another option, but still want a tap anywhere setup.
I'd do a short writeup in you original post so you don't have to watch the video as well and give a link to the play store app if one is being used.
Thanks.
For those who use greenify, from within the app select the menu button and create shortcut to greenify and sleep. Single tap but must be on icon where you chose place on desktop. Greenifying is the bonus.
Videos are helpful, but sometimes I just want a how-to guide. Let me save you guys 4 minutes:
1.) Install Screen Off and Lock: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.katecca.screenofflock
2.) Launch Screen Off and grant the app Device Administrator access.
3.) Nova Settings / Gestures and Buttons / Double Tap / Apps / Screen Off
gotroot801 said:
Videos are helpful, but sometimes I just want a how-to guide. Let me save you guys 4 minutes:
1.) Install Screen Off and Lock: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.katecca.screenofflock
2.) Launch Screen Off and grant the app Device Administrator access.
3.) Nova Settings / Gestures and Buttons / Double Tap / Apps / Screen Off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gonna cheat and add this to the main post via copy and paste. Great for people who want to save time or are at work and can't listen. Thanks!
Or even better if you find the apk for the google launcher the phone will have the the stock feel and still have the normal knock on feautre. Link is below how to set it up. I use it on all my devices and have no problems what-so-ever.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2506488
If you have any suggestions, add in comments and I'll update the OP. Going to try to keep this list as comprehensive as possible.
Ambient Display: Stock ambient display sucks, so I don't miss it here. But would be nice to get something similar to Moto's active notifications to make use of the amoled panel.
Smart power-save: What does it really do? Is it limiting CPU speed? Is it using a more conservative governor? I can't tell any difference (performance or battery) when it's on vs off.
Voiceprint: Completely useless. I bet not a single person uses this.
MyVoice: This would be MUCH more useful if you could trigger it without touching phone while screen was off. In its current form, the time it takes to unlock my phone, hold back, say my command, and wait for it to respond, I'd be better off just doing whatever I wanted it to do. Screen off voice commands are natively supported by Qualcomm, even when the phone is in Doze.
Gesture & Motion:
-Double tap to wake is very slow and doesn't work when phone has gone into Doze.
It also works in your pocket because there is no proximity sensor check. There needs to be.
-Shake flashlight: You really need to shake your phone violently now. So violently in fact that you will throw your phone more often than not trying to turn your flashlight on.
-Give us some kind of camera gesture when phone is off. Double tap power, hold volume button, shake phone, whatever.
Navigation Keys: Capacitive buttons should be optional. I like being able to swap which side the back button is on, but we should be able to customize long-presses.
Battery Percentage: Should be displayed inside the battery icon or replace it. Uses up a ton of space on the status bar.
Workaround: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.kroegerama.android4batpercent
Holster Mode: Completely useless. This is a phone, not a fitbit. Keeping the phone screen on all the time to use as a pedometer will destroy your battery life.
Cast Screen: Why is this not a toggle in the notification shade? Why do I need to dig into the display settings to do this? You have a dual sim quick-toggle, but not a cast screen quick-toggle?
Sound: I really like that when I mute ringer, media volume also mutes. But when you unmute, it goes back to whatever it was at before, which can be a lot louder than you think. Android should tie all volumes except alarm volume together, but if nothing else, let us tie ringer and notification volume together.
Mute Schedule: Why did they remove stock 6.0's timed do not disturb functionality?
Charging Sounds: Should be able to turn off.
Apps: To disable stock calendar, clock, gallery, mifavor launcher, my voice, stock music app, and stock video app, you have to open "stock android launcher" and drag icons from the app drawer to top of screen. Why can't we just disable these same apps from settings --> apps?
Storage: Let us use adaptable storage!
Connect to PC: Does the "Install driver" option do anything? Have not found a computer that does not install driver automatically when MTP selected.
Lockscreen: Get rid of the bell!
Notification Shade: Editing toggles is nice, but let us add and remove toggles. Many of us don't use a 2nd sim card, so having 3 related toggles is a waste of space.
System UI Tuner: Holding the gear icon in the notification shade causes it to spin and settings to open, but System UI Tuner never appears in settings. If you're not going to let us use System UI Tuner, get rid of the toggle.
Stock Weather widget: I really like the widget, but does not scale when resizing. Also, does not open Google clock if stock clock is disabled when clicked. Oh well, back to Chronus.
Toolkit: Not all of these are very useful, but definitely interesting. If you want to create a home screen shortcut to any of these, open the toolkit app and long press whatever icon you like.
Recent Apps: clear button shouldn't cover up 50% of the currently open app. This will be solved in nougat, so probably not worth fixing, but if you're going to put a clear all button on this screen, but it near the top left or top right so it's harder to accidentally press.
Status Bar Color: When status bar turns dark, icons stay dark so you can't read anything. These should turn white.
Speaker Phone: If on speaker phone and screen times out, other person can no longer hear you until you toggle speakerphone off then back on, which means constantly touching your phone's screen so it doesn't time out.
Phone call Proximity Sensor: Doesn't work. If you turn the screen off and hold the phone up to your head, if the proximity sensor sees light, which it will because it's not centered, it will turn the screen BACK ON. With this and the bug above together, phone calls are a huge pain in the ass.
Dolby Atmos: This resets EQ settings very often. I can't figure out what causes it to reset to default, but the settings just never seem to stick.
Anyone have any more info on this?
Write Protection on Rooted phones: Rooted and still can't get adaway or titanium backup to work? Turns out there's an extra layer of write protection here that's not found in other phones. Why do we need this? Luckily, there's a simple fix: Plug phone into computer, load up adb, type "adb reboot disemmcwp" (source:http://androidforums.com/threads/zte-write-protection-for-zmax-and-other-zte-phones.1040331/)
Disable stock apps: in B20, you could disable several stock apps that did not allow you to disable them in settings --> apps by opening"stock Android" launcher and dragging app drawer icons to disable. Seems that has been removed in B27, so now we have no way to disable redundant clocks and calendars to name a few.
Any more suggestions? Anyone know any fixes for the above?
xxBrun0xx said:
Battery Percentage: Should be displayed inside the battery icon or replace it. I use this feature, but no reason to have both this and the battery icon together. Uses up a ton of space on the status bar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can enable this with an app - search for "Battery Percent Enabler" in the Play Store. This was mentioned elsewhere in the forum - credit goes there.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app
Good summary. I can't believe someone actually thought the notification bell (and subsequently, the inability to turn it off) was a good idea.
I'm going to try to list workarounds here as well, so if someone can come up with good fixes for any of this stuff without waiting for ZTE, please share!
Updated with some new findings and ideas.
I actually like the bell, let's me check the time without having to worry about somebody seeing embarrassing notifications. ?
CandyFoxJ said:
I actually like the bell, let's me check the time without having to worry about somebody seeing embarrassing notifications. ��
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But Android already has a perfectly working system to hide notification content before unlocking the device. You can even pick which apps to show and which ones to hide. And, most importantly, it's OPTIONAL. And it's actually much better at protecting your privacy. With the bell, all the content is visible without actually unlocking your phone.. it just makes it more inconvenient to access.
Ability to turn off charging sounds.
Added charging sounds. Thanks for the feedback!
xxBrun0xx said:
Added charging sounds. Thanks for the feedback!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the charging sound? I got my phone on vibrate all the time (a phone ringing is considered super rude in most part of europe) and it just vibrates a bit when plugging in.
RedWave31 said:
What about the charging sound? I got my phone on vibrate all the time (a phone ringing is considered super rude in most part of europe) and it just vibrates a bit when plugging in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine does the same (also on mute all the time). Apparently if you have volume on, it makes noise. Either way, should be able to toggle the "charging notification".
Added speaker phone and proximity bugs.
xxBrun0xx said:
Added speaker phone and proximity bugs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope speakerphone gets fixed soon. Use it a lot. We need to get all this great info to ZTE. Thanks for great thread.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
"Wake on Plug" toggle (waking up screen on plug or unplug). I have this option on a Nexus tablet and OnePlus One phone, but it does not exist in MiFavor.
xxBrun0xx said:
Apps: To disable stock calendar, clock, gallery, mifavor launcher, my voice, stock music app, and stock video app, you have to open "stock android launcher" and drag icons from the app drawer to top of screen. Why can't we just disable these same apps from settings --> apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean with stock android launcher? Where do i find it? I cant deactive this bloat without root
The phone, at least in US version, comes with a launcher called "Stock Android Launcher", but it is just a differently themed MiFlavor launcher, not a real stock android launcher. Confusing, but that is what is there.
deluxxx said:
What do you mean with stock android launcher? Where do i find it? I cant deactive this bloat without root
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings > Themes and Wallpapers.
On the US model, there's a theme titled "Stock Android". When using that theme, you can open up the app drawer, press and hold on an app, and on the top of the screen there's a "Disable" option. This is different from the standard Settings > Apps > selecting an app > Disable (which is greyed out for most of the stock apps).
xtermmin said:
Settings > Themes and Wallpapers.
On the US model, there's a theme titled "Stock Android". When using that theme, you can open up the app drawer, press and hold on an app, and on the top of the screen there's a "Disable" option. This is different from the standard Settings > Apps > selecting an app > Disable (which is greyed out for most of the stock apps).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, no such option on G Version -.- only 5 slightly different ZTE themes.
Also no Myvoice in g version. WTF?!
@xxBrun0xx: I saw you linked to this list in a ZTE forum, but I think it would be better if it had its own thread as well.
In addition to "wake on plug" toggle I mentioned a few posts above, I would like to see an option to remap capacitative buttons to whatever user wants, right now they can only be "flipped", but ability to have custom functions (on both short and long press) would be helpful. I personally, would like to use one of the button for menu rather than for recent apps.
How cand we edit the button order and/or toggles? Can't edit, nor found settings for
Had exactly the same issue, follow these steps and should work for sure(a little bit long procedure).
1. First of all download this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zacharee1.systemuituner&hl=en
2. Give permissions using adb(if you get some security error, make sure to enable usb debugging, plus usb debugging(security settings)
3. After that go inside this app, go to toggles and then press reset
4. Now there will be two pages of toggles, swipe left to access the second page and the last item will be EDIT
There is a faster way.
Go to Setting/Additional settings/Full screen display and toggle "Mirror buttons".
Hancoz said:
There is a faster way.
Go to Setting/Additional settings/Full screen display and toggle "Mirror buttons".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After toggling 'Mirror buttons',what to do next?