Until the end of the 16th century, the local Turkic people bore the common ethnonym Bulgars....
10.12.2017
- Android App Key Remapper, Version: 1.12.0, Price: Free
It so happened historically that on smartphones it is more convenient for me to have the navigation button "Back" on the right. And on my BQ Aquaris U Plus, she is just the same on the left and reach for her "oh, how uncomfortable." It's not a problem to get used to it, but it's too late for my fingers to grow in length, and the inconvenience of getting used to it has not gone away. The smartphone manufacturer BQ Aquaris, unfortunately, did not provide a tool to change the functionality of the navigation buttons, even on the screen, so I had to turn to third-party applications.
The most preferred application - GravityBox - did not cope with the task assigned to it. On pressing the "Back" and "Home" buttons, it allowed to hang any action, but it could not somehow affect the "Recent" button. There was a wild idea to block both the "Back" and "Recent" buttons altogether, assigning all responsibilities to the remaining "Home" button, but GravityBox could not simply disable the "Recent" button. The Spaniards in general somehow protected their smartphones "from the fool", and, as far as I know, so far no one has been able to get system root rights on the stock firmware of these smartphones.
Leaving GravityBox alone, I turned to other softs, the specialization of which was precisely the reassignment of the functionality of navigation buttons. In the battle with the software of the Spanish-Chinese gadget, only one softphone with the original name "Key Remapping" was able to win. I am using it.
It has become popular among mobile software developers to divide their functionality into two unequal parts. The first part - free - allows you to use the softinka quite normally for its intended purpose. The second - paid - brings some additional features and convenience. And this, I think, is correct. Also, the "Key Remapper" application has both basic functions (remapping of single short and long presses on navigation buttons in the amount of no more than two), and premium features (assigning actions to button combinations, removing the limit on the number of remappings). By the way, the latest version of the application got rid of ads even in the free version.
What should be mentioned without fail is that root-rights are not needed for the functioning of softkeys. Recently, I began to notice that branded firmware has become more functional and customizable (we are not talking about AOSP), so root rights have become less and less required ... Yes, and various payment services do not really like ROOT, although it can be hide. But that is another story...
The application interface is minimalistic.
There are only four controls in the free version. These are the three dots under which the settings are usually hidden. This is a switch to activate and deactivate the service. This is the "Quick disconnect" checkbox for displaying the status of the application on the notification panel (with the ability to pause / resume the service with a tap). And this is a round button with a plus sign to add a new remap. In fact, there are no settings in this application, and when you click on the button with three dots, only one item appears - "About the program".
To activate the service, you need to enable these same accessibility features for the application in the gadget settings in the "Accessibility" section.
To disable the service, you need to do exactly the same steps, only special features for the "Key Remapping" application should be turned off. Logical, isn't it? It's very good that you don't have to manually look for the aforementioned "special" features in the wilds of system settings: the software itself will bring you to the necessary points.
The ability to quickly deactivate the application action (without going to the system settings) appeared only in the latest version. Is she really needed? I don't, but maybe someone will find it useful (needed). When the "Quick shutdown" checkbox is activated, a tile (bar?) dedicated to the "Key Remapping" softink appears in the notification panel. By tapping on it, you can quickly turn off and turn on the active reassignment of the softkey.
The information part of the main and only window of the application is represented by two sections: "Premium features" and "Active reassignments". So far, we do not touch the first and pay attention to the second. Active reassignments - this is a list of reassignments performed at our request. In the free version, as already mentioned, only two reassignments are possible, but that was enough for me. I assigned the "Back" action to the "Recent Applications" button (in the application it is called "Recent Applications", but the meaning is the same), that is, the functionality of the "Back" button. And for the "Back" button, I assigned the action "Recent_Apps" ("Recent Applications", presumably). Thus, the "Back" and "Recent Apps" buttons on my smartphone have swapped places. Hooray!
By the way, I learned about the softinka almost a year ago, but I started using it only about two months ago. Why is that? Because on the sixth Android, not all the functionality of the buttons was transferred. That is, all, but only stock. Let me explain. A feature such as jumping to the previous application by double tapping the "Recent Apps" button was implemented by the Google team only in Android Nougat. And the Spanish developers from the BQ team have implemented this in their smartphones and in Android Marshmallow. But when transferring the functionality of the "Recent Applications" button on the sixth Android using the described soft, the processing of the doubletap was lost (it was not transferred to the new button, but disappeared on the old one), as it was, as it were, introduced from outside. I didn’t want to lose such a convenient “chip”, so the “Key Reassignment” softkey did not take root for me then. But I didn’t get used to the “Back” button on the left either, so after switching to Nugu I tried to use the soft again. And not in vain did I try. Now the transition to the previous application by doubletap is also transferred to the new button along with the main action ("Recent applications").
The procedure for adding a new reassignment is simple and straightforward; I think a couple of screenshots will suffice. I remove one of my overrides (for the Recent Apps button) and add it again. After clicking on the add reassignment button, you must select a free or premium action. In the second case, you will be asked to pay the money if it has not already been done.
I choose "Short and long press". In the form that appears, I select the "Recent_Apps" button from the drop-down list, and the action for it is "Back". I put the checkbox "Replaces the standard action", and the checkbox "Long press", on the contrary, I do not put (because I need a reaction to the usual quick tap on the button). Everything, you can press "OK".
When you tap on an active reassignment, a completely similar form opens for changing the action (reassignment), supplemented with only one button - "Delete" - to delete the selected reassignment. With a long tap on the active reassignment, the context menu "Edit" and "Delete" is called.
The lists of buttons and actions are truly huge. First, when you select, for example, a button, you see a list of seven buttons and the "Other" item. So, under this item there is a huge additional list, in which the buttons are represented by both official names (used in the code by developers) and numeric and alphabetic representations.
You can connect an adult external keyboard (if your gadget can do this) and remap all its keys to your taste. The same applies to possible actions, although here everything is a bit opposite: the initial list consists of a little more than 20 actions, and the additional one (hiding under the item "Other ...") consists of only two lines ("Open application" and "Shortcut" ). As they say, the spool is small, but expensive: almost all the functionality of your gadget can be stuffed into these two points.
There is also a limitation: when the screen is locked, soft button presses are not tracked. There are pluses and minuses here. The disadvantages include the impossibility of unlocking the screen with the selected button while launching any application (Phone, for example). And the plus is that the softinka will not constantly eat battery power in the process of monitoring the state of the buttons.
The cost of the softphone (the cost of unlocking premium features) is $0.99, which is a little less than sixty of our rubles.
After the purchase, the "Show application icon" checkbox becomes available, which allows you to hide the application icon from the list of all applications installed in the system (and even from the list of recent applications). To return the icon, you need to press the "Back" button ten times in a row (the system button, not the one assigned by the application).
Well, and most importantly, but not everyone needs it - the ability to use button combinations. Three concepts are hidden under this term: "Double click", "Triple click" and "Two buttons".
We are not interested in double and triple clicks, because they differ slightly from fast and long clicks. But the use of two buttons increases the number of possible reassignments. I consider this already pampering, but to someone the idea of \u200b\u200bchanging "Back" and "Recent" may also seem wild.
In addition, premium reassignments have one significant drawback - they do not replace systemic actions. That is, if I assign any action I need to the double tap on the volume up button, then the volume of the sound will first increase, and only then the action I set will be performed. No, it is clear that a double tap should not completely cancel the system action (otherwise, how can you adjust the volume then?), but the developer needs to do something in this direction.
And one more thing: I have never had an action assigned to the simultaneous pressing of any two of the three touch buttons ("Home", "Back", "Recent Applications"). Mechanical - no problem, touch - no. Either in the application something, or in my phone.
As a result, I can and recommend using the soft on your smartphones, especially if you need to change the functionality of short presses to the buttons available on the gadget. Here softinka works incomparably. If you, like me, wanted to swap "Back" and "Recent", then you don't even have to buy a softinka: the free version is enough for your eyes. If you want to make more than two reassignments, then you can already sponsor the developer. But the rest of the premium functionality is not even worth the money that they ask for it, IMHO.
That's all, good luck and health to you. Read Helpix.
One of the main advantages of the Android OS can be called quite a wide range of customization options. For example, no matter what model of smartphone you have, it must have hardware buttons that control the volume, turn on the device, or “home”. It is possible to bind other necessary actions to these buttons.
It is much more convenient, for example, without taking your phone out of your pocket, switch one or another music track by long pressing the volume key, launch the "camera" application or another frequently used one. In this article, we want to talk about such a feature of Android - button remapping.
In fact, there are several ways in which you can remap hardware buttons. The simplest, which does not require special knowledge or "superuser" rights, is the free Home2 Shortcut application (Home2 Shortcut).
The program is designed to expand the ability to launch applications with the "Home" buttons (double click), or the combination of "Home" plus "Search" (or + "Menu", + "Back"), as well as long pressing the "Search" and " Camera".
So we do the following:
The next step is to change the interval of double taps (taps) on the button (a smaller value will make the phone (tablet) respond to a double tap with a long interval). For now, we leave it in the normal position.
Now, after we press the "Home" button, a window will appear prompting you to select a launcher, select "Home2 Shortcut", then click "Always":
If everything was done correctly, then by double-clicking the "Home" button, we should see the action that we configured.
Clarification for Galaxy S4 owners who support S Voice. Go from S Voice, then "Menu", then "Settings". Now we remove the checkbox from the second option that launches the Home button.
If you liked the idea of how to remap buttons on Android, then try other options using the Home button using shortcuts to programs. For example, by selecting "Other key options" after launching the application, you can reprogram the camera button, if your device has one.
Note The Home2 Shortcut app may not work on the Galaxy S2.
Everything always breaks unexpectedly. Dropping a phone on a tiled floor is an unfortunate accident; drowning it in a bathtub is a commonplace that is more common than it seems at first. The statistics of calls to service centers contain many complaints about accidents from the series “it fell and crashed” even more often than drownings. At the same time, you should not expect that the very first fall will take away the touch substrate or even the screen itself - in most cases, the consequences of unfortunate accidents do not look so destructive. Among other things, this is the sudden inoperability of the physical back, home and menu buttons. If this trouble happened to your phone, and there is no money for repairs yet - do not worry. There is a relatively simple solution to this common problem. Now we will teach you how to enable the on-screen buttons on your smartphone if the physical ones no longer work.
For everything to work out, you need to get Root rights. Administrator access to the depths of system files is sometimes difficult to get. But with the advent of applications that get the necessary access for you, you no longer need to read multi-page instructions. Just install the Kingo Root program on your computer and connect your phone. The only thing that needs to be done while the program is being installed is in the phone settings, the "security" section, enable "USB Debugging". That's all. By pressing the big Root button in the interface Kingo Root, activate administrator rights.
Step two looks a little more complicated. You will need to download the Root Explorer program from Google Play (or a little ... alternative sources). Install it on your smartphone. Run this application, find the System directory, and in it - build.prop. If such a file is not visible in the system directory, it does not matter. In the upper corner of the program there is an ellipsis - tap on it to open a submenu. In the program settings, check the "Show hidden files" item. The loss will show up immediately.
In the left corner root explorer there is one more item we need - r / w. Touch it once and confirm your choice. This action activates the ability to edit system files. Now touch build.prop and hold your finger on it. The top menu will change and from the drop-down list (in the same ellipsis) you will find the sub-item “open in a text editor”.
Scroll to the very bottom of the open file - all these long lists of settings are not needed yet. At the very bottom, add the line qemu.hw.mainkeys=0. Save the file and restart your phone.
Done, three on-screen buttons appeared at the very bottom of the screen - similar to what you can see on the screen of any tablet. And after repairing the physical buttons, it’s quite possible to hide the virtual ones back by replacing the line qemu.hw.mainkeys=0 with qemu.hw.mainkeys=1 and restarting the device again.
Many are familiar with the situation when you buy a new smartphone, and the physical power button does not have a photographing function, just as there is no separate key for this, but on the previous device it was and helped out a lot. At first glance, a trifle, but the hands themselves are drawn to the mechanics, not the sensor, and at the most inopportune moment.
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Special programs come to the rescue, allowing you to completely reprogram the physical keys of the gadget and assign any action to them. This is especially helpful if the power button is broken or you want to rewind tracks like on an mp3 player, but the built-in one cannot do this ... Do you need root rights for this? Will there be glitches? How does it even work? Today I will try to answer the questions posed.To begin with, I will introduce the test subjects. The first application is called: "Key Remapping", at least in Russian Google Play. It can work with both physical and touch manipulators, but for some actions it requires root rights. The second participant will be Button Mapper, which can do the same, but does not require root rights at all, which is already interesting.
The test equipment was:
- Tablet DEXP Ursus 8EV2 3G (Android 4.4.2, MT8382 processor, 4 x Cortex-A7 1.3 GHz, Mali-400 MP2 video core, 1 GB RAM, 4000 mAh battery, 3G module, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n );
- Smartphone Homtom HT3 Pro (Android 5.1 Lollipop, MT6735P processor, 4 x Cortex-A53 1.0 GHz, 64-bit, Mali-T720 video core, 2 GB RAM, 3000 mAh battery, 4G module, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/ n).
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Overview of the Keymapper app
The program has not been updated for a long time, but perhaps this is not necessary, since it can do everything that can be done with physical keys: assign any action, launch certain applications, disable buttons, and even prescribe key combinations to access special functions.
"Key Remapping" works only with Android 4.3 or higher, is distributed shareware and includes a translated interface into Russian. Thus, we get a kind of standard for such programs, which we will rely on in the future. Or maybe we won’t, because this is only a first impression.
Do not forget that the firmware of the device plays an important role, especially if it is modified, so you do not need to treat the program as a panacea.
Control buttons are divided into mechanical and software. The first ones are located on the body of your gadget - this is the power button, the volume rocker (two buttons with one rocker key) and sometimes the button Home(Recently, it is more often software.
The second ones are virtual buttons located on the screen of a smartphone or tablet and also controlled by pressing a finger, but already on the screen. This is a soft button. Home, button Back and button Latest Apps(sometimes it is a context menu button). The appearance of these buttons depends on the version of Android OS that you are using. This can be a house, a curved arrow and two rectangles one after the other respectively (Android 4.x version) or a circle, a triangle and a square respectively (Android 5 version).
Let's stop at assignment of control buttons.
Button assignment nutrition and swings volume obviously. However, the peculiarity is that the inclusion turned off smartphone is made by long (more than 2 seconds) pressing the power button, followed by the OS boot process. At working smartphone short press calls to this button lock screen(if it is enabled in the settings) or directly go to the desktop. When the smartphone is running, a long press on the power button calls up the Menu, which contains items shutdown,Data Transfer, Offline Mode and Reboot(Restart).
mechanical button Home a short press brings up the lock screen or the transition to the main desktop. Long press may cause list of recently launched applications, and double-clicking one of the programs (for example, the S Voice application is called up on Samsung smartphones).
Soft button Back causes a transition to previous screen, successive clicks - respectively, on several previous screens until the application closes. It should be emphasized here that in the latter case, the application is unloaded from RAM, while pressing the button Home causes a transition to the main desktop, but the previously opened application remains in memory and continues work in the background.
Button Latest Apps very convenient, because if you need to restart one of the previously used applications, there is no need to look for it again in the general list of programs ( Application Menu) or look for its icon on desktops. Applications in the list are always arranged in reverse chronological order of their launch (last launched first in the list). In addition, the list window also contains additional buttons for calling the List of active tasks (working in the background of applications), the Search for applications button and the button for Clearing the list of recent applications.
