Latest Update: Here we go! The Alpha_5.0 version of the App now supports the latest Samsung update. For those who haven't got the Samsung update yet, you will be pleased to know that BixBye will continue to work.
Latest Update: Tasker Plugin is now added - you can now BixBye to any complicated task.
Major Update: BixBye is now the only App to perform actions without launching Bixby itself (invisible to your slow, naked eyes!)
Hi everyone! After some private testing with some kind XDA members, introducing BixBye.
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"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
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"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
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BixBye, lets you remap the Bixby button even after the Samsung patch, I have noticed more such Apps popping up. However, I have got some feedback that this one is a bit snappy. Let me know how is your experience.
As it goes without saying, the App is highly experimental and is in Alpha Stage, things may not work as you expect to. However, your feedback will definitely help me improve the App.
For this initial release there is some limited amount of options available, more will be added if the App works well for you guys.
Download from Google Play Store. (Please don't forget to leave a review at Google Play Store!)
BixBye in action:
UPDATE/NOTE: From the reports I have received so far, what I understand is that, Bixby itself is a bit inconsistent in its behaviour when the physical Bixby button is pressed. Sometimes it takes a single press to launch and at other times a double press or long press.
BixBye relies on Bixby to function. Once Bixby is in memory, you will notice that BixBye functions quite fast.
It's very likely that Samsung will issue more updates to improve the snappiness of Bixby itself, as a side effect BixBye will become even more snappy. So, updates from here on will be win-win for us.
Thank you @bstapley, @yaddam205 and @xPr0metheus for helping me test the App.
Thank you @theherkman, @xPr0metheus and @apoapostolov who have especially helped me do countless tests to optimize BixBye for Lockscreen! A lot of patience and time, much appreciated!
If anyone is interested in helping me test bleeding edge builds/experiments/improvements please PM me your Skype ID, timezone, free time availability.
___________________
With a little bit of work this can be the real deal. I especially like how it keeps the sliding animation for apps.
Everything is better than bixby...
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I've installed it, remapped the Bixby-button to launch the camera app. and so far noticed two things.
1. When pressed Bixby is launched first, the the camera app starts right after.
2. When in camera app, I press the return key but the camera app keeps opening no matter how often I press return.
I'll keep testing and providing my findings
Just gave it a try. The inconsistency was still there with Bixby in that you'd sometimes have to long press or press it twice for it to pop up. Bixby then popped up for half a second so on the third press the Camera app finally opened and every time past that it worked as intended. Great job Jagan, keep up the good work. I'll keep reporting any inconsistencies (if any).
Edit: Just tried rebooting the phone and it reset back to the state explained above i.e had to press the button a couple of times for the camera to consistently appear.
Edit 2: Appears very inconsistent at times where nothing happens even after 5-6 presses. I wonder why that is.
Edit3: New glitch where it will launch the camera but if i use the back button to attempt and close it or return to a previous app, it will display bixby behind it for half a second and then swap back to the camera - leaving it in the loop unless I go back to the home screen and close all the apps manually.
The one thing thats stops me from using the remaps are that when Bixby is disabled it won't work. So I just have a unused button on the phone. IN other words it would be nice if it would somehow work with Bixby disabled.
Kinarb said:
Just gave it a try. The inconsistency was still there with Bixby in that you'd sometimes have to long press or press it twice for it to pop up. Bixby then popped up for half a second so on the third press the Camera app finally opened and every time past that it worked as intended. Great job Jagan, keep up the good work. I'll keep reporting any inconsistencies (if any).
Edit: Just tried rebooting the phone and it reset back to the state explained above i.e had to press the button a couple of times for the camera to consistently appear.
Edit 2: Appears very inconsistent at times where nothing happens even after 5-6 presses. I wonder why that is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could imagine that's because of ****ty RAM management.
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zakariae said:
I've installed it, remapped the Bixby-button to launch the camera app. and so far noticed two things.
1. When pressed Bixby is launched first, the the camera app starts right after.
2. When in camera app, I press the return key but the camera app keeps opening no matter how often I press return.
I'll keep testing and providing my findings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem I've kind of been trying to figure out what app I would like to use the button for but when I press the return key as well it just keeps going back to the app it opened.
For now went back to bxactions as don't appear to have that problem and works well. But hope it does get fixed for the rest as this one was the next no lag app.
Thank you
Kinarb said:
Just gave it a try. The inconsistency was still there with Bixby in that you'd sometimes have to long press or press it twice for it to pop up. Bixby then popped up for half a second so on the third press the Camera app finally opened and every time past that it worked as intended. Great job Jagan, keep up the good work. I'll keep reporting any inconsistencies (if any).
Edit: Just tried rebooting the phone and it reset back to the state explained above i.e had to press the button a couple of times for the camera to consistently appear.
Edit 2: Appears very inconsistent at times where nothing happens even after 5-6 presses. I wonder why that is.
Edit3: New glitch where it will launch the camera but if i use the back button to attempt and close it or return to a previous app, it will display bixby behind it for half a second and then swap back to the camera - leaving it in the loop unless I go back to the home screen and close all the apps manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding launch of Bixby, it's because of the Samsung's implementation itself. I have heard from many others that, sometimes it requires one press, double press etc, inconsistent. But from many users I heard it works fine, probably depends on the OS update etc.
@zakariae @zone23, @lmanlo. Thank you all for the feedback, please try the latest version, I got reports from Galaxy S8 that it has the back button fixed and also no more Bixby show up. Let me know how it performs on S8+
Just re-downloaded the version from the play store and while it took three or so presses for the Camera to pop up, there is no sign of bixby popping up and backing out of an app seems to be working as intended. Nicely done.
Edit: This was on a s8+
Im on the S8+ btw. I'll try the latest version. Thanks!
S8+, works fine for me. Now button dumps me back at home which is improvement Wonder if we can remap this button to nothing so press does nothing?
Cheers
Cass67 said:
S8+, works fine for me. Now button dumps me back at home which is improvement Wonder if we can remap this button to nothing so press does nothing?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Package Disabler Pro from the GooglePlayStore to disable all the Bixby .apks.................
zone23 said:
The one thing thats stops me from using the remaps are that when Bixby is disabled it won't work. So I just have a unused button on the phone. IN other words it would be nice if it would somehow work with Bixby disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same. When you can use this button while Bixby bloatware is disabled I'll use it
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
That won't be possible without root I assume.
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I'm using an AT&T S8+, build ending in AQD9. And on Alpha 2, BixBye works like a charm.
Like OP says, Bixby itself is surprisingly unreliable in launching when its button is pressed. So I'd definitely point to Sammy as the root cause of inconsistency of launches.
Damn this works like a charm (latest version), much appreciated.
One thing I notice with the app installed, there's a bit of a stutter/"lag" noticable. For example pulling down the notification bar and slowly dragging it back up, it's not as smooth. Same with scrolling through some other apps like Instagram there's a slight tiny lag. Tbh it's barely noticeable, but it's my OCD kicking in probably.
Now that we have root
Is there a more efficient way of grabbing the key press?
My wife loves her dedicate camera button. I just disabled all of it. As I think it's dumb to add the extra button
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Awesome! Works on my Verizon S8+ after update to launch Google Now. Launches even with AOD on!
---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:29 PM ----------
A bug I just noticed fiddling around with it:
When you set it to Notification Drawer, when you click the button once, it works, but then click it a second time when the drawer is open, it brings up Bixby and leaves the Notification Drawer open.
Then I went to try and change it back to Google, it got stuck pulling the Notification Drawer. I had to switch it to Voice Assistant then back to launch app and selecting Google app from there.
Thanks now I have 0 reason to root good job
Related
So I just got my new SGS2 on ATT a few days ago.
I normally like to use the phone stock, without rooting or anything for a few days before doing anything, so i can base my performance off that. (battery life, speed, features, etc.)
I am sad to say this phone is horrible stock. The first and most glaring mistake that samsung made is this Vlingo bs.
I very often double tap the home button to get to the home screen (one tap to exit app, second tap to bring me to my home screen) and now all i hear is "what would you like to do"
A few times while i was in class, i had my phone on silent mode, and 3 times i heard that goddam voice.
And there is no way to turn it off!!!!! are you kidding me samsung? Not everyone (probably no one) wants this crappy app annoying the crap out of them all day. And at least give people the option to disable it if they want to.
I personally wouldn't recommend this phone to anyone who doesnt want to root their phone. You'd think with what happened with the captivate, samsung would have wisend up, but of course not.
You should probably be paying attention in class ;-)
Just because the phone has different actions to buttons doesn't make it crap. I agree though, they should allow you to disable it.
It was the first thing I removed once rooted, the thing is so annoying!
lourivellini said:
I very often double tap the home button to get to the home screen (one tap to exit app, second tap to bring me to my home screen) and now all i hear is "what would you like to do"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps you should answer, and tell vlingo exactly what you'd like it to do (or where it should go.)
when i was on stock this was never an issue for me. i have never hit the home button twice to get home. a friend has been on stock for a long time and never had the problem either. why hit home twice, once works
but yes being an android you should have the option to remove or customize it.
i for one like the voice talk app for when i am driving
That is indeed annoying. I am getting mine tomorrow and I am all ready to root it. In Galaxy Tab though, you have to hold down on the search button to activate vlingo. Even though I don't usually press home button twice, that can be annoying...
lol, out of habit from using crappy phones and a low patience level, I happen to hit the home button about 50 thousand times while the screens load.
I actually like the vlingo app. it is pretty competent most of the time and I haven't found a better solution yet, but I agree they should give you the option to turn it off.
My girlfriend sgs2 never had such a thing, though it was australian/telstra so perhaps it wasn't included.
But I know your pain, I used to continually bring up voice commands on my motorola milestone 2 and it would blast me with "please say a command". So annoying
Sent from my A953 using xda premium
As a temporary fix, there's the option of changing the Vlingo message. Mine now says "Whaddya want now?" on the home button double-tap. Perhaps you could change it to just several spaces? I'm curious to see whether it would work, but I'd rather not annoy my cow-orkers by messing around with it. Sshhhhhhh ...
I totally forgot about this problem, lol oh man that made me mad when it popped up every time.
Just root it.
Sent from my stable rooted, overclocked and awesome GSII on AT&T using XDA premium!
As mentioned above, you only need to hit the home button once to return to home. Instead of yelling at Samsung for making a double tap actually do something, besides making sure Zombies are dead, just applaud that they've improved things enough that you only have to hit it once to get home.
You can disable it in the motion settings menu.
ou812bkewl said:
You can disable it in the motion settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was almost positive I disabled it somehow but it's been a while and I wasn't sure. I remember doing it the first day because I hated that double home tap crap.
ended up just installing a custom rom, so no problem.
But for the average user, this is super annoying. And i searched around everywhere to see if i could disable it.
I for one am one of those people that presses buttons almost as a nervious tick, like tapping your feet or something like that, so thats what annoyed me the most about it.
ou812bkewl said:
You can disable it in the motion settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it looks like you can disable it, but you can't.
There is a checkbox that says: "Double tap", "Automatically prepare your device for voice commands in Voice talk"
Unchecking it does not disable running Vlingo.
The only times I opened Vlingo, was accidental. It's a huge flaw of the Samsung developers to have this incredibly annoying app hardwired to a button. Even more so the HOME button! Why not attach this app to double-tapping the search button? Or a long press? At least that would never happen accidentally.
For me this is by far the biggest annoyance on this phone (also because it lags the single-tap of the home button).
MaartenK said:
Yes it looks like you can disable it, but you can't.
There is a checkbox that says: "Double tap", "Automatically prepare your device for voice commands in Voice talk"
Unchecking it does not disable running Vlingo.
The only times I opened Vlingo, was accidental. It's a huge flaw of the Samsung developers to have this incredibly annoying app hardwired to a button. Even more so the HOME button! Why not attach this app to double-tapping the search button? Or a long press? At least that would never happen accidentally.
For me this is by far the biggest annoyance on this phone (also because it lags the single-tap of the home button).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess you havent used a motoblur phone before?
the home button (on the atrix) was preconfigured to launch your browser, but could be changed in the options to open different apps.
Button Mapper on the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton&hl=en
If your device is rooted, you have complete ability to remap the Bixby Button. You can disable the Bixby assistant, it does not need to be enabled for this to work. There are no compromises with this method. You can get rid of Bixby and program whatever single, double and long press actions you want.
If your device is not rooted, you can still remap Bixby using an experimental method. This method also works with Bixby disabled, and will allow you to map whatever actions you like to a single press or long press. It requires running a command in adb shell once. After this, the Bixby button can be remapped with Button Mapper. A slight inconvenience, but it works.
If you don't like the stuttering that occurs on Samsung devices with certain Accessibility features enabled, got to Advanced Options and select "Remap Bixby only"
Are you using the Accessibility framework to detect keypresses? If so, that does impact scrolling performance. I also am working on a keymapper for BIxby that doesn't use the Accessibility Framework, and it works very well. If you're not using Accessibility, and you don't have any performance impact, I'd be happy to test this out and provide feedback (and probably stop my work)
EDIT: Yep, looks like Accessibility is used here, which kills scrolling performance (lots of stutters) when you listen for keypresses. I shall continue my work.
Kev1000000 said:
Are you using the Accessibility framework to detect keypresses? If so, that does impact scrolling performance. I also am working on a keymapper for BIxby that doesn't use the Accessibility Framework, and it works very well. If you're not using Accessibility, and you don't have any performance impact, I'd be happy to test this out and provide feedback (and probably stop my work)
EDIT: Yep, looks like Accessibility is used here, which kills scrolling performance (lots of stutters) when you listen for keypresses. I shall continue my work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could do it without accessibility. I'm just piggybacking on accessibility service since the rest of the app uses it.
I wish Samsung would fix that stuttering. It's not even when you listen for key presses, even an empty accessibility service causes that stutter. OnePlus used to have the same issue and they fixed it with a system update.
That's actually not quite true in my testing. The config that causes the slowdown is...
android:canRequestFilterKeyEvents="true"
If you have that enabled, regardless of anything else, it causes stuttering. Setting that to false causes the stuttering to disappear.
Kev1000000 said:
That's actually not quite true in my testing. The config that causes the slowdown is...
android:canRequestFilterKeyEvents="true"
If you have that enabled, regardless of anything else, it causes stuttering. Setting that to false causes the stuttering to disappear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't checked on the latest update, but any accessibility service caused it when I last tested. It was not specific to any setting.
On AQF7 with that flag disabled, all scrolling returns to normal.
does the button remap work when in lockscreen ?
update: Yup, it stutters. even stuttering in Button Mapper setting page.
The stuttering with Accessibility has been there all along. It's not just with the key filter turned on (I am also on AQF7), it's there with bxActions and other accessibility-based apps I've tried that don't filter keys. But you are correct it's not every Accessibility Service. I have an Accessibility service on another app (DevCheck) that does not cause stuttering.
In the end, there's nothing I can do about that stuttering, it will probably be fixed if Samsung updates to Android 7.1.
I would like to focus on the remapping part and how it works. I can make a Bixby remap that doesn't need accessibility, but first I need feedback on how the remap stuff is working. I can't root my S8, so I'm doing this partially blind and I depend on others to test things. The non-root part works perfectly, but is not easy to set up, so I want to see what kinds of problems people run into and fix them before I push this out of beta.
Kev1000000 said:
Are you using the Accessibility framework to detect keypresses? If so, that does impact scrolling performance. I also am working on a keymapper for BIxby that doesn't use the Accessibility Framework, and it works very well. If you're not using Accessibility, and you don't have any performance impact, I'd be happy to test this out and provide feedback (and probably stop my work)
EDIT: Yep, looks like Accessibility is used here, which kills scrolling performance (lots of stutters) when you listen for keypresses. I shall continue my work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does your method need root?
flar2 said:
Does your method need root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does, yes. I would prefer your method if you could remove the need for accessibility, for sure.
I tested out as much as I could with your solution. Overall, things seem to work. Single, double, and long press all work. However, it doesn't reliably stay working. After screen off, or launching the camera, etc, it seems to stop working. If I relaunch Button Mapper, it works again.
@OP
Thanks for this.
I signed up so that you can do your work,
but hoping once your testing finished, you'd
remove the "Accessibility"!
samteeee said:
@OP
Thanks for this.
I signed up so that you can do your work,
but hoping once your testing finished, you'd
remove the "Accessibility"!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'll probably just make a separate app, since everything else in Button Mapper is tied to Accessibility.
That'll be next week though, I'm out of town until next Wednesday.
Kev1000000 said:
It does, yes. I would prefer your method if you could remove the need for accessibility, for sure.
I tested out as much as I could with your solution. Overall, things seem to work. Single, double, and long press all work. However, it doesn't reliably stay working. After screen off, or launching the camera, etc, it seems to stop working. If I relaunch Button Mapper, it works again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Relaunch, as in just opening the app, or do you have to go to the Bixby screen and tap the switch to turn it back on?
Do you have the "Screen off actions" setting enabled or disabled? It's on the Advanced Options screen.
flar2 said:
Yes, I'll probably just make a separate app, since everything else in Button Mapper is tied to Accessibility.
That'll be next week though, I'm out of town until next Wednesday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That'll be awesome, Look forward to beta testing it!
flar2 said:
Relaunch, as in just opening the app, or do you have to go to the Bixby screen and tap the switch to turn it back on?
Do you have the "Screen off actions" setting enabled or disabled? It's on the Advanced Options screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just opening the app, and more specifically, a warm launch of the app (the process was still live and not removed from memory).
I didn't adjust the screen off actions, so whatever your defaults are there was what I had set.
Thanks guys, this is the only button mapper which I could use without root, Bixby disabled.
I just pushed version 0.44, with some minor bug fixes and a new option to have smoother scrolling.
This new option can be toggled in Advanced Options->Experimental Options->Remap Bixby only. With this option enabled, you can remap Bixby without suffering from choppy scrolling. However, you will no longer be able to remap the volume buttons (because they require the Accessibility Service settings that cause choppy scrolling on Samsung phones).
Thanks, flar! Working well. Scrolling performance has returned to smooth.
One of the last issues I have is the "open recents" option is fairly slow to execute. I find using Accessibility Service that doesn't capture key events still maintains scrolling performance, but allows super quick "open recents" using Accessibility to call it.
Hmm, with this enabled, my battery life has significantly dropped and the phone is warm to the touch. Have you noticed any increase in battery life with this method? This may have existed before, I just didn't test it long enough to notice.
Hi,
Normally when we press home button of Samsung tab/phone it minimizes all the apps and takes us directly to home screen but for some reason when I press home button on galaxy tab s3 it opens google search and there is no way that I can minimize all apps at once.
can yo help me to change the function of home button.
Thank you.
Did you have any luck finding out how to stop the home button going to goggle assistant instead of home screen? I all of a sudden have the same issue and haven't found a solution on the web
It sounds like your home button might be sticking. Do you feel it snap back immediately after pushing it?
Hope you work it out.
David
Sent from my SM-T827V using Tapatalk
There are several solutions in this thread that seem to have worked.
In order of the easiest:
1. A settings change, changing the delay for the google shortcut.
2. Remove battery (I know, not possible with the S3, but included for any phone users searching)
3. Clear cache
All of these fixes seem to have worked for various users who commented on a given fix. There are a lot of posts on that thread, many of them commenting on the fixes I've listed. I'd try one or more of these first, then read the rest of the thread if no joy.
This is probably the last in my collection of Android Wear media players. I'm trying out making a mobile app as well. If this works out, I may make something similar for NavMusic and NavCasts. Make sure your Audiobook has the same name and author to sync between devices.
Play Store Link
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"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Thanks! -Joel
Hello Joel,
thank you for your offer. I only had the chance to test the app on my phone but I like the design. Some buttons are not as self-explaining, as they could be. The left top drop, the timer on the right, but I like the clean look and the audio recognition worked flawless, even through my tes file had problems before with some apps. So that was perfect.
For now, I had two bugs.
My phone is a z5 compact Android 7.1
If I only select one audiobook and by accident press the next file button, the app crashes.
The second bug happens if I have an audio file active and close the app from the app drawer. The controls still pop up from time to time. It's a little weird if the task manager doesn't show the app anymore, but I still have the control panel.
The next days I'll try the app with my Huawei watch 2 and come back with feedback. I hope that helped.
Vegatta said:
Hello Joel,
thank you for your offer. I only had the chance to test the app on my phone but I like the design. Some buttons are not as self-explaining, as they could be. The left top drop, the timer on the right, but I like the clean look and the audio recognition worked flawless, even through my tes file had problems before with some apps. So that was perfect.
For now, I had two bugs.
My phone is a z5 compact Android 7.1
If I only select one audiobook and by accident press the next file button, the app crashes.
The second bug happens if I have an audio file active and close the app from the app drawer. The controls still pop up from time to time. It's a little weird if the task manager doesn't show the app anymore, but I still have the control panel.
The next days I'll try the app with my Huawei watch 2 and come back with feedback. I hope that helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He Vegatta,
Thanks! That's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. I changed the skip button so it does nothing on the last file instead of stopping the media player. I also updated the Media Player Notification so hopefully won't appear randomly, though it should act separately from the app. Just dismiss it when paused to stop the media player.
Would a tutorial screen on the now playing help to describe button functions or are there better icons that could be used?
Looking forward to hearing what happens with the watch app.
Thanks!
-Joel
Hello Joel,
I can confirm that the app is now working without any crash. Thanks for the update. I tried everything I could think of and standalone the app works flawlessly.
The symbols are absolutely fine. I would either show a tutorial at first opening or a help button, which shows the button functions.
I also discussed the layout with my wife. In our opinion, the play button should be a little bigger, as its the most needed one. Aditional we would leave a little more space between the lower buttons and the menubar. Such a player is often used in a hurry, so you could prevent miss presses and with a bigger play button, a quicker stop is possible if someone speaking suddenly.
The phone app I tested a little as stand alone. I like the layout. Actually its one of the best I had on the watch. It played some test files without a problem, but I had no time to copy the same audiobook over yet for synchronizing.
What I noticed is that I sometimes scroll up and end up at the top of the list suddenly. For long lists that might be useful, but somehow it's too sensitive for my taste. Esp. with limited space on watches, I don't need to reach the top so fast.
The second problem is the next file button. That only works with added folders. I actually thought that it also selects the next audiobook on my list, if I added more than one and if I am done with all chapters, but I have to go back one step for that. Probably a matter of taste though.
As an idea, you could make the cover pressable, which would show it on the screen and hides the controls, till I press the picture again. I would like that sometimes if while biking I want to avoid pressing a button by accident.
Synchronising Ill try at the weekend. I hope to have time then to test that feature, but otherwise, the app is nicely stable and already working really well. Thanks!
Vegatta said:
Hello Joel,
I can confirm that the app is now working without any crash. Thanks for the update. I tried everything I could think of and standalone the app works flawlessly.
The symbols are absolutely fine. I would either show a tutorial at first opening or a help button, which shows the button functions.
I also discussed the layout with my wife. In our opinion, the play button should be a little bigger, as its the most needed one. Aditional we would leave a little more space between the lower buttons and the menubar. Such a player is often used in a hurry, so you could prevent miss presses and with a bigger play button, a quicker stop is possible if someone speaking suddenly.
The phone app I tested a little as stand alone. I like the layout. Actually its one of the best I had on the watch. It played some test files without a problem, but I had no time to copy the same audiobook over yet for synchronizing.
What I noticed is that I sometimes scroll up and end up at the top of the list suddenly. For long lists that might be useful, but somehow it's too sensitive for my taste. Esp. with limited space on watches, I don't need to reach the top so fast.
The second problem is the next file button. That only works with added folders. I actually thought that it also selects the next audiobook on my list, if I added more than one and if I am done with all chapters, but I have to go back one step for that. Probably a matter of taste though.
As an idea, you could make the cover pressable, which would show it on the screen and hides the controls, till I press the picture again. I would like that sometimes if while biking I want to avoid pressing a button by accident.
Synchronising Ill try at the weekend. I hope to have time then to test that feature, but otherwise, the app is nicely stable and already working really well. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Vegatta,
Thanks for the feedback. I just released an update that should address most of theses issues. I adjusted the button sizes a bit to make the play/pause button larger as well as the skip buttons and left the timer and invert buttons the same. There is also a tutorial when a book is played for the first time.
You can also tap the cover to make it cover the now playing screen. The skip buttons are working as intended.
Hey, sorry that it took so long to get back to you.
I tested your app some more and also got your navmusic app, as I really like the book one.
As reminder watch is HW classic watch os update 1.0, watch os app 2.10/ Phone Sony Z5 compact 7.1.1.
Things I noticed as problems:
Phone app: I don't reach the play screen since one or two updates. I click it and it opens and minimizes directly. Interesting enough, I can start the file then through the navbar controls.
Watch app: Same problem. I click a file and it directly goes small to the bottom. If I am fast enough to click the small bar I get the play window and can play the file.
Feature request:
For the watch app, Is it possible to get the same player layout like in the music app? Like two screens, either it shows the cover and if you slide you get the controls. I listen while riding a bike with the watch speaker and sometimes I hit some controls. I imagine with the same method like in the navmusic app that could be prevented. Maybe I would even start with control mode but make it so that if you want, you can hide the controls via sliding (basically opposite to navmusic which starts for me in cover mode and you slide for controls).
The sync option I couldn't test as of yet, sorry. The explorer app and my watch os hw2 don't work together sadly. It connects and shows my watch and even copies files over. But in the end, nothing changed on the watch. Same from the watch, a while ago I copied music files into a folder fav and not into music. I click copy in the app, go to the music folder and paste and nothing happens. Its a really weird problem and I am not sure how to give a better bug report fo that one.
Thanks again for your fast changes and hard work. Even with some problems, I really enjoy your apps. Navbook is my go to on phone and watch for audiobooks now and the music app is working great too (even though I wish there would be also a search bar for finding a position in the song, sometimes I just want to hear a part of a song again).
Vegatta said:
Hey, sorry that it took so long to get back to you.
I tested your app some more and also got your navmusic app, as I really like the book one.
As reminder watch is HW classic watch os update 1.0, watch os app 2.10/ Phone Sony Z5 compact 7.1.1.
Things I noticed as problems:
Phone app: I don't reach the play screen since one or two updates. I click it and it opens and minimizes directly. Interesting enough, I can start the file then through the navbar controls.
Watch app: Same problem. I click a file and it directly goes small to the bottom. If I am fast enough to click the small bar I get the play window and can play the file.
Feature request:
For the watch app, Is it possible to get the same player layout like in the music app? Like two screens, either it shows the cover and if you slide you get the controls. I listen while riding a bike with the watch speaker and sometimes I hit some controls. I imagine with the same method like in the navmusic app that could be prevented. Maybe I would even start with control mode but make it so that if you want, you can hide the controls via sliding (basically opposite to navmusic which starts for me in cover mode and you slide for controls).
The sync option I couldn't test as of yet, sorry. The explorer app and my watch os hw2 don't work together sadly. It connects and shows my watch and even copies files over. But in the end, nothing changed on the watch. Same from the watch, a while ago I copied music files into a folder fav and not into music. I click copy in the app, go to the music folder and paste and nothing happens. Its a really weird problem and I am not sure how to give a better bug report fo that one.
Thanks again for your fast changes and hard work. Even with some problems, I really enjoy your apps. Navbook is my go to on phone and watch for audiobooks now and the music app is working great too (even though I wish there would be also a search bar for finding a position in the song, sometimes I just want to hear a part of a song again).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback!
I just pushed an update that hopefully addresses most of these issues. I added the cover resize on wear and fixed the bug where the audiobook stops when it starts.
Keep it up!
-Joel
Hello Joel,
thanks for the fast update. All my problems from above are solved now. I'll try to test the synchronizing feature as soon as possible. Thanks again for your hard work.
Hi Joel, Just got NavBooks from play store and also a Google Play Books audiobook, which I downloaded to my phone. I have Navbooks installed on both phone and watch (Ticwatch E). How do I add the audiobook to NavBooks? What folder do I navigate to? Have you posted instructions anywhere? I also got NavCasts and it is syncing with my Pocket Casts.
NewCapVikram said:
Hi Joel, Just got NavBooks from play store and also a Google Play Books audiobook, which I downloaded to my phone. I have Navbooks installed on both phone and watch (Ticwatch E). How do I add the audiobook to NavBooks? What folder do I navigate to? Have you posted instructions anywhere? I also got NavCasts and it is syncing with my Pocket Casts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
Thanks for showing interest in the app. Currently you have to use NavExplorer or something else to transfer audiobooks to the watch. Also, I believe Google play audiobooks might be drmd and are definitely in root, so I haven't looked into automatic syncing with that yet. I am out of town right now, but I may be able to find a solution for root users. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Thanks!
-Joel
Joel, thank you for this app. I desperately needed this for paddleboarding this summer!
Are you taking requests for future improvements? These are for the watch app only, as I could not test the phone app.
Bookmarks: Could I ask that you add some way to add and navigate bookmarks from the watch, maybe add it to the play screen or a second screen if you swipe right? This is very much needed for audiobook apps.
Accessibility/usability: Blue icons on red background are very hard to see even for me, and I have perfect eyesight. Chances are many users will use this app outdoors, where visibility is even worse. Any chance you could make the icons white on black background, and also increase the size of all but especially the skip buttons?
Thank you in advance and thanks for even creating this app in the first place!
PS: app crashes on my phone - can’t at all use it there, Xiaomi MiA1. Will send report over Play store. Would be great to have the synching option, though having this work in stand alone on the watch is so much more important for me.
Hi Xendula,
Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I am definitely looking for feedback and improving the app. Bookmarks sound like a great idea. The colors for the playback screen are dynamically generated based on the cover art of the book. I could pretty easily add a setting to just use white instead of getting an accent color though.
I thought I had the Xiaomi crashes fixed, but probably people with those phones just stopped using it.
I will try to fix these issues and get back to you as soon as possible.
Thanks again!
-Joel
Thanks, Joel!!!You rock!
Gotcha about the colors, I just had the bad luck that the book I tried has a bright red background and baby blue icons. Someone with red/blue color blindness would not see the icons.
Any chance you could also add a way to override the generated background and add an option make it default to black? Otherwise there my not be enough contrast with lighter colored covers. I just listened to this book, and neither the generated, nor the white icons on beige background would give it enough color:
Don't worry. Got you covered. The latest update adds a high contrast option as well as fixing some bugs. Please try the mobile app again to see if I've fixed the bug. I will try to add bookmarks soon.
Joel, MUCH better on the watch side since the update! Thank you! When you implement the bookmarks, any chance you could also make the skip buttons larger? I think you may need to get them closer to the play button, otherwise they may be too close to the progress bar and accidentally hitting that bar would suck, with no way to go back. Or maybe flipping the progress bar and the chapter header may help prevent accidental hits. Would it help if I sent you pics of of what I see?
Phone app update success: it now opens and plays back. How would I make it synch book location with the watch?
I can’t thank you enough for this app and your continual support of it!
xendula said:
Joel, MUCH better on the watch side since the update! Thank you! When you implement the bookmarks, any chance you could also make the skip buttons larger? I think you may need to get them closer to the play button, otherwise they may be too close to the progress bar and accidentally hitting that bar would suck, with no way to go back. Or maybe flipping the progress bar and the chapter header may help prevent accidental hits. Would it help if I sent you pics of of what I see?
Phone app update success: it now opens and plays back. How would I make it synch book location with the watch?
I can’t thank you enough for this app and your continual support of it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. I added bookmarks in the latest Beta update. You can opt in here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.turndapage.navbooks
Please let me know how this works so I can push it to public release.
joelphilippage said:
Okay. I added bookmarks in the latest Beta update. You can opt in here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.turndapage.navbooks
Please let me know how this works so I can push it to public release.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wonderful. Tested on New Balance RunIQ and works! THANK YOU!
Is it possible to have navbooks play all files in a directory in order? That way, when one part ends the next plays? That’s how audiobook software usually works, and maybe there is a way to already do this in Navbooks and I don’t know how? That way, the bookmark would carry over no matter which part of the book you are in.
I went paddleboarding with Navbooks this weekend and it was AWESOME, until my battery died.
xendula said:
Wonderful. Tested on New Balance RunIQ and works! THANK YOU!
Is it possible to have navbooks play all files in a directory in order? That way, when one part ends the next plays? That’s how audiobook software usually works, and maybe there is a way to already do this in Navbooks and I don’t know how? That way, the bookmark would carry over no matter which part of the book you are in.
I went paddleboarding with Navbooks this weekend and it was AWESOME, until my battery died.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should play the files in order. How did you select the audiobook? You should be able to long-press on the directory that contains the files to open them as a single audiobook and seek through the whole thing.
joelphilippage said:
It should play the files in order. How did you select the audiobook? You should be able to long-press on the directory that contains the files to open them as a single audiobook and seek through the whole thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry so late. I had to return the watch I had bought for this due to a few defects, and I can’t make NavExplorer work on my Vapor. Not a problem on My other watches, but the friggin Vapor won’t accept files. At the end of my witts. Do you have any pointers or have heard of this issue before?
xendula said:
Sorry so late. I had to return the watch I had bought for this due to a few defects, and I can’t make NavExplorer work on my Vapor. Not a problem on My other watches, but the friggin Vapor won’t accept files. At the end of my witts. Do you have any pointers or have heard of this issue before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There has been a bug on the Huawei Watch 2 with Wear OS where the app is not granted write permissions even after the permission has been granted. The only solution I have been able to find is to open the permission settings in the Watch settings and toggle the storage permission off and back on. Could you try this and see if this fixes the issue. If it does, I will probably add a warning for vapor watches.
Please let me know if this works!
Thanks.
-Joel
I experienced the Mate 20 full screen gestures recently, which is really good to use, I think I should always use it. If you still don't know how to use full screen gestures, please see the instructions below for a quick experience.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Back：Swipe in from the left or right side of the screen
Home：Slide up from the bottom of the screen
Recent tasks：Slide up and pause from the bottom of the screen
The actual operation interface is like this:
Small screen mode
The full screen looks really cool, but sometimes it is inconvenient to operate the big screen phone with one hand. At this time, we can turn on the small screen mode to solve this problem. How to use the small screen mode, please see the instructions below.
We only need to slide in from the bottom left or bottom right corner to open the small screen mode, if you want to exit the small screen mode, click anywhere in the offscreen area.
This is the introduction of Mate 20 full screen gestures. Welcome to share your experience with me.
[email protected] said:
I experienced the Mate 20 full screen gestures recently, which is really good to use, I think I should always use it. If you still don't know how to use full screen gestures, please see the instructions below for a quick experience.
Back：Swipe in from the left or right side of the screen
Home：Slide up from the bottom of the screen
Recent tasks：Slide up and pause from the bottom of the screen
The actual operation interface is like this:
Small screen mode
The full screen looks really cool, but sometimes it is inconvenient to operate the big screen phone with one hand. At this time, we can turn on the small screen mode to solve this problem. How to use the small screen mode, please see the instructions below.
We only need to slide in from the bottom left or bottom right corner to open the small screen mode, if you want to exit the small screen mode, click anywhere in the offscreen area.
This is the introduction of Mate 20 full screen gestures. Welcome to share your experience with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice!
In my experience for recent apps it works fastest if you swipe up and instead of holding you just swipe back down again a little bit. This opens the recent apps tab almost immediately and multitasking feels much smoother
AndiThebassman said:
In my experience for recent apps it works fastest if you swipe up and instead of holding you just swipe back down again a little bit. This opens the recent apps tab almost immediately and multitasking feels much smoother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried this, works really well! Great tip, thanks.
Gestures with 3rd party launchers are iffy. Swiping up on Nova brings up recent apps before going home.
Yes with nova it's annoying. Try the ms launcher... The same issue but recent apps are only visible very short and then switches instant to the home screen... So better than nova
Gesendet von meinem LYA-L09 mit Tapatalk
I'm currently using action launcher with the xda gestures. When setting up the gestures, there's an option to hide the navigation bar so it looks clean. The animations aren't as slick as the factory gestures but it works very well with a launcher and is quick.
AndiThebassman said:
In my experience for recent apps it works fastest if you swipe up and instead of holding you just swipe back down again a little bit. This opens the recent apps tab almost immediately and multitasking feels much smoother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great,thanks for your sharing.
Too bad there is no switch between the 2 most recent apps and launching of Google Assistant gestures that's why I'll nvr use gestures. OP6 at least offered a gesture for switching and launching Assistant
raspdeep said:
Too bad there is no switch between the 2 most recent apps and launching of Google Assistant gestures that's why I'll nvr use gestures. OP6 at least offered a gesture for switching and launching Assistant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can activate the Google Assistant gesture through geuture settings.
AndiThebassman said:
In my experience for recent apps it works fastest if you swipe up and instead of holding you just swipe back down again a little bit. This opens the recent apps tab almost immediately and multitasking feels much smoother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks this helped me a lot, I only got the phone yesterday and still trying to get used to the gestures, now we just need one to switch to the last app quickly!
wellsey said:
I'm currently using action launcher with the xda gestures. When setting up the gestures, there's an option to hide the navigation bar so it looks clean. The animations aren't as slick as the factory gestures but it works very well with a launcher and is quick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where to get that version of launcher?
You can use the Fluid Navigation Gestures app (in beta at the moment) with the 3rd party launchers
Is it normal that when you're on the home screen, you can't access the recent apps with gesture ?
If I want to access to that screen from home, I need to open an application first, and then to make the gesture to open the multi-tasking view... It's really annoying !
Very good, thank you for sharing
[email protected] said:
I experienced the Mate 20 full screen gestures recently, which is really good to use, I think I should always use it. If you still don't know how to use full screen gestures, please see the instructions below for a quick experience.
Back：Swipe in from the left or right side of the screen
Home：Slide up from the bottom of the screen
Recent tasks：Slide up and pause from the bottom of the screen
The actual operation interface is like this:
Small screen mode
The full screen looks really cool, but sometimes it is inconvenient to operate the big screen phone with one hand. At this time, we can turn on the small screen mode to solve this problem. How to use the small screen mode, please see the instructions below.
We only need to slide in from the bottom left or bottom right corner to open the small screen mode, if you want to exit the small screen mode, click anywhere in the offscreen area.
This is the introduction of Mate 20 full screen gestures. Welcome to share your experience with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing
Is there any way to change what gesture does what ?
I deactivated the Google Assistant one, and I'd love to be able to put the "back" gesture in its place instead of swiping from the sides of the screen, which conflicts with a lot of apps that have side menus that you can bring up with this gesture.
For example with Discord or Gmail, trying to pull the side menu will often send me back to the home screen because it was detected as the "back" gesture. And as the phone is so tall, I dont really want to have to reach all the way at the top left corner just to click on a button when I can just swipe.
I still prefer this navigation mode over buttons, it looks much cleaner imo. But sometimes this "back" gesture just isnt convenient, despite being more intuitive than swipping from the bottom imo.
At least if we could edit the portion of the screen that was registering it, it would be cool.
This annoyed me to no end. Thanks to the app fluid gesture navigation it's all fixed AND for some reason fluid makes the return home transition smooth when using the stock launcher. It was so jittery before .
UM Marneus said:
Is it normal that when you're on the home screen, you can't access the recent apps with gesture ?
If I want to access to that screen from home, I need to open an application first, and then to make the gesture to open the multi-tasking view... It's really annoying !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You still can but it seems to take longer than with an app.
I recommend you do what was advised in first page. It works especialy well when trying to access multitask from the home screen : swipe up from tje bottom of the screen, then once your finger is between half and 3/4 of the way up, slide it back down to 1/2. It should immediately trigger multitask.
MDSLHC27 said:
Gestures with 3rd party launchers are iffy. Swiping up on Nova brings up recent apps before going home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is literally why I stopped using gestures