I've had a phone with the soft home/back/recent buttons before but I don't remember having trouble with them. On this phone, they're driving me bonkers. For example, I like to use the camera zoom app so I can touch the screen to take a picture. But when I have the camera app open, and want to close it and go to the home screen, when I drag up to get the soft keys to show I inadvertently take a picture. Then when I hit the home button, I take another. It takes several tries to get the app to close, and then I have to go and delete all the pictures I accidentally took. When I'm playing homescapes on my phone, when I drag up to get the buttons to show i drag the map all over. Not a huge deal, I guess, but it bothers me. I've only been using the phone for a day so I can only imagine the other apps that will give me issues. Are there any controls for the soft keys? Or tips to make using them easier?
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Help Soft keys driving me crazy. help.
- Thread starter gale65
- Start date
Apps get to choose whether or not the software navigation bar should be hidden, and the system then has to obey those wishes. I'd suggest reaching out to the developers of the affected apps to let them know about the UX issues you're encountering when trying to access the navigation bar.
M
Member 1919122
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Don't swipe up. Touch the bottom middle area of the screen instead
That's exactly where the shutter button is and I can't disable it.
The app actually has an exit button but it doesn't work, plus I'm so used to hitting that home button. I will probably have to switch to a different camera app but I'm so used to touching the screen to take a pic and I haven't found a really good camera app that allows that.I had the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 5 before my last phone (S7) so I'm very used to using soft keys. Those never seemed to interfere with the camera app so I don't understand why this one is.
I'll try that-thanks. Even if I could just disable the shutter button when the setting to touch the screen to take a pic is active that would be great. But right now I can't find that option.
eta: even the stock camera has the same issue. The home/back/recent buttons disappear and I have to swipe or tap to bring them back up. I am having the same problem of accidentally taking pictures with it too, but not quite as bad. I honestly don't think I'll remember to be super careful every time I try to close the app so both apps are not great with the soft keys.
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After some playing, if I can get used to swiping at the sides of the screen instead of the middle to bring up the soft keys I have a better chance of not taking a picture. It still does about 1/2 of the time when I hit the home button but that's better than 3 or 4 every time.
Hmm, the stock camera app on my phone doesn't use immersive mode, so there's no need to swipe to get the navigation keys. Of course when reviewing photos it will go immersive if you tap the picture, but then there's no shutter button.
Now I am running Android 9 with the gestures turned on, so have the pill rather than the 3 buttons, but it behaves the same when I switch to the traditional interface. And I don't recall it being any different in Android 8 either. So I'm a little puzzled by what's going on with your camera.
Now I am running Android 9 with the gestures turned on, so have the pill rather than the 3 buttons, but it behaves the same when I switch to the traditional interface. And I don't recall it being any different in Android 8 either. So I'm a little puzzled by what's going on with your camera.
Yeah, same here. The Google Camera app does not switch to immersive mode. I wonder if there's another app hijacking that behavior?
here's a screen shot of my camera app (the stock app).
eta: I just realized this is the samsung camera. I bet it transferred when I did the initial transfer of data from my old phone to the new. I don't have the google camera so I'll download it now.
eta again: it won't let me download the google camera. It says there are no eligible devices for app install. I can't find it in my list of apps. what now?
ok when I go into the camera app shown in the screen shot and go to the help file, it says it's google camera. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling it from the play store. Scratch that-I don't have the option to uninstall it. Guess I'm stuck with it.
eta: I just realized this is the samsung camera. I bet it transferred when I did the initial transfer of data from my old phone to the new. I don't have the google camera so I'll download it now.
eta again: it won't let me download the google camera. It says there are no eligible devices for app install. I can't find it in my list of apps. what now?
ok when I go into the camera app shown in the screen shot and go to the help file, it says it's google camera. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling it from the play store. Scratch that-I don't have the option to uninstall it. Guess I'm stuck with it.
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The Google camera app is just called Camera on the phone, and should be pre-installed. And your screenshot looks a lot like the stock camera app on my Pixel 2, which is definitely the Google app (see attached).
The only difference I can see is that your navigation buttons are hidden. Are you certain you don't have some app that controls or changes the immersive behaviour? There are plenty of them, I have 2 on my phone with that capability (but ensured both were off before confirming the navigation bar behaviour with the camera).
The only difference I can see is that your navigation buttons are hidden. Are you certain you don't have some app that controls or changes the immersive behaviour? There are plenty of them, I have 2 on my phone with that capability (but ensured both were off before confirming the navigation bar behaviour with the camera).
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Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.
The only app that I could think of that would do it is Nova Launcher. I can't find any settings in it that have anything to do with the soft keys except what the home button does when it's pressed. Changing that to different options didn't change anything.
eta: I switched to pixel launcher and it's the same. the keys disappear in the camera.
Nothing stands out to me as a UI customisation app. Nova doesn't change the nav bar behaviour (I use it myself).
And at least on mine I can see nothing in the developer options, system UI tuner (hidden in Android 9 but still findable with a little research), nor in the Camera app's own settings, that affects immersive behaviour. So it's a mystery to me why your camera app hides the buttons.
And at least on mine I can see nothing in the developer options, system UI tuner (hidden in Android 9 but still findable with a little research), nor in the Camera app's own settings, that affects immersive behaviour. So it's a mystery to me why your camera app hides the buttons.
Try rebooting into Safe Mode, opening the stock Camera app, and let us know if the navigation controls still get hidden.
it's the same in safe mode. The buttons disappear.
I'm running out of ideas. What you're seeing is not normal behavior.
When you set up the Pixel 2, did you copy/transfer/restore your apps and settings from another Android device or cloud backup?
When you set up the Pixel 2, did you copy/transfer/restore your apps and settings from another Android device or cloud backup?
From another device.
I wonder if something might have gone wonky in that process. You might try going to Settings > System > Advanced > Backup > Back up now to make sure you've got a good cloud back up of your current configuration, Settings > System > Advanced > Reset options > Erase all data (factory reset) to completely wipe the phone, and then set up the phone again fresh. You can choose to restore your apps and data from the cloud backup but I'd recommend not restoring any settings in case something got messed up in the background.
I'm hoping to avoid resetting so I went to the play store and clicked uninstall on the camera app from there. It didn't uninstall the camera, but it uninstalled the latest update. After that the soft keys didn't hide. To test it I updated it and they are hiding. On my phone, anyway, the last update is causing the problem. I might just uninstall the last update again for now. I really really really hate resetting my phone. Even with the backup it doesn't go back to the same, and I have to re-add all of my pictures that I keep on my phone for reference and have to reset my ringtones and all of my custom notifications and restore my sms and mms messages, which I have to do over cell data because my wifi is too slow (I used to use the sd card for that but of course this phone doesn't give me that option, and for some reason I can't transfer the restore file from my pc to my phone).
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I just looked at the reviews in the play store for my device and at least a couple of others said something about the buttons not staying on top. It must be the update.
eta: other reviews are pretty bad after the update for other reasons. I set it to not automatically update and I'll wait and hope they fix it in a future update.
eta: other reviews are pretty bad after the update for other reasons. I set it to not automatically update and I'll wait and hope they fix it in a future update.