Help app toolbar on left hand side

[writerman]

I have only been using Android for about a week now, so excuse me if I am a bit green about how some bits of it work.

Every now and then I accidentally do something on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S3), I don't know what it is, but it causes a half-moon image to appear about half way up the left hand side of the screen. This image sits on top of all other applications. If I touch it, it causes a toolbar of apps to appear on the left hand side of the screen.

What is this called? What turns this feature on? And, most importantly of all, how do I turn it off once it has appeared? For reasons I cannot fully justify, I find it really annoying.

 

[Hadron]

Sounds like the "split screen" feature. I can't recall how to turn it off (don't have one myself), but someone will know. Otherwise a browse through the S3 forum should turn up the answer.

P.S. Welcome to the forum

 

[rayhipkiss]

This can be turned on or off by holding the back button for a second or two. It's actually to control the multi window feature and can be permanently disabled in Settings > Display and untick the Multi window option.

 

[sleeco]

It's for quick access to split screen apps, press back to remove it.

 

[donmeca2020]

i think he's talking about the multi window task bar that came up on mine the other day. go to your system settings and just disable multi window tab.

 

[BynoUK]

This can be turned on or off by holding the back button for a second or two. It's actually to control the multi window feature and can be permanently disabled in Settings > Display and untick the Multi window option.

^^^ This is the answer you seek.

 

[keffey]

Thanks for instructions for turning it off. The little blue half-moon thing often blocked text I was trying to read or type. Annoying, and the new functionality seemed to not really add anything new - just a different way of switching between apps.

 

[funkylogik]

Nah it lets you have two apps on the one screen. Youre right though, its very limited in what apps you can use unless you root the phone :thumbup:

 

[disc golfin]

If you do not want to disable it, you can also move the tab by pressing and holding it....same as moving an app icon.

 

[Firewill10]

If u pull down the notifications bar it has the quick link to disable it

 

[heat57]

P. S. the Samsung terminology is 'Multi-Window' and yes, as described above it enables viewing and running two apps simultaneously by dragging them from the bar to the centre of the screen, where they will then be placed one above the other.

Since I am no longer running a Touchwiz based ROM I don't use or need it. Frankly I think it's more of a gimmick as the screen size is too small to make any sense -but that's my opinion.

 

[funkylogik]

I actualy miss it since moving to AOKP lol. I liked using the AF app while watchin tv

 

[arparaspolo]

Hold the back button to turn Multi Window On/Off. Hold back to turn it on. Then hold and drag app from the left menu to snap it to the screen. Then choose another and do the same. You now have two apps running at the same time. You can drag the middle bar to make one app larger or smaller. There is also a button to switch between said two apps. Hold back to turn it off.