[Q] Custom KK quick-settings / tiles without root?

Ghengis042 · Jan 24, 2014

Just got my N5 yesterday and I love pretty much everything about it. One tiny thing I miss coming from CM 10.2 on my old phone, is the ability to customize the "tiles" in the notification curtain. You know, when you do a 2-finger pulldown and it shows tiles to toggle wifi, airplane mode, bluetooth, etc... what do you call that anyway? Is there an "official" name for it?

Anyway, a few of my old favorites are missing, and there's no way I can find to change what's there. I'd especially like a "torch" (flashlight) toggle -- I used to use that all the time. I know there are some apps that can install a toggle bar at the top of the notification curtain in older Android versions, but it seems silly to have 2 separate groups of toggles, one on each "side" of the curtain, just because the one that's already there can't be customized, and I don't know how well those play with KitKat anyway.

danarama · Jan 24, 2014

Ghengis042 said:
Just got my N5 yesterday and I love pretty much everything about it. One tiny thing I miss coming from CM 10.2 on my old phone, is the ability to customize the "tiles" in the notification curtain. You know, when you do a 2-finger pulldown and it shows tiles to toggle wifi, airplane mode, bluetooth, etc... what do you call that anyway? Is there an "official" name for it?

Anyway, a few of my old favorites are missing, and there's no way I can find to change what's there. I'd especially like a "torch" (flashlight) toggle -- I used to use that all the time. I know there are some apps that can install a toggle bar at the top of the notification curtain in older Android versions, but it seems silly to have 2 separate groups of toggles, one on each "side" of the curtain, just because the one that's already there can't be customized, and I don't know how well those play with KitKat anyway.

You'd need root. Why can't you root?

root + Xposed Framework + GravityBox Xposed module

Ghengis042 · Jan 24, 2014

rootSU said:
You'd need root. Why can't you root?

root + Xposed Framework + GravityBox Xposed module

I just spent a few hours setting up the phone, and it would be nice not to have to do all that over again when I unlock the bootloader (and thus lose all my data...). I guess it's only one evening's setup time, so not *such* a big deal, but the other thing is that I want to keep stock firmware / OTA updates if at all possible.

As fro Xposed, I have some concerns:

* I switched to ART just after getting the phone, because I read it improves battery life (Xposed has no plans to support ART in the near future)
* I've heard that it can have stability issues -- the reason I want OTA / stock is so I can spend as little time futzing with the phone as possible and just *use* it
* Xposed opens up some security issues, IMHO

I think if it comes down to root + xposed or just using a "plain" widget, I'll probably go with the widget.

danarama · Jan 24, 2014

Ghengis042 said:
* I switched to ART just after getting the phone, because I read it improves battery life (Xposed has no plans to support ART in the near future)

Correct. For me, the experimental ART feature is not worth losing Xposed for.

Ghengis042 said:
* I've heard that it can have stability issues -- the reason I want OTA / stock is so I can spend as little time futzing with the phone as possible and just *use* it

No stability issues here

Ghengis042 said:
* Xposed opens up some security issues, IMHO

Based on what information?

Ghengis042 · Jan 24, 2014

You didn't address the setup-time issue -- that's one of the big ones for me. I usually have at least 40 apps installed (and yes, I actually use them!) and reconfiguring them is time consuming. I *could* futz with Titanium Backup or similar to automate some of that re-setup process, but I'd rather just avoid it in the first place if possible.

rootSU said:
No stability issues here

Good to hear, at some point I might still investigate -- it's going to come down to how much customization / tweaking I really *need*.

rootSU said:
(Security issues...) Based on what information?

I guess it's about as "dangerous" as rooting -- basically, Xposed gives modules carte blanche to do absolutely anything on your phone, and since the modules aren't distributed through a controlled / centralized store (like Google Play) and as far as I can tell aren't (always) open-source, I don't have any way to be sure they're not doing something malicious. Of course there's a bunch of other attack vectors, but installing a framework that touches every corner of the device, that then runs scripts / mods that I downloaded from some forum somewhere (no offense, guys!) on a phone that holds sensitive personal data... it just worries me a bit, y'know?

BirchBarlow · Jan 24, 2014

rootSU said:
You'd need root. Why can't you root?

root + Xposed Framework + GravityBox Xposed module

What he said.

danarama · Jan 24, 2014

Ghengis042 said:
You didn't address the setup-time issue -- that's one of the big ones for me. I usually have at least 40 apps installed (and yes, I actually use them!) and reconfiguring them is time consuming. I *could* futz with Titanium Backup or similar to automate some of that re-setup process, but I'd rather just avoid it in the first place if possible.

I didn't think it needed addressing? Yes you'll lose everything as we all did. You can backup with Helium to an extent. Maybe even it backs up everything. I have 300+ apps

Ghengis042 said:
I guess it's about as "dangerous" as rooting -- basically, Xposed gives modules carte blanche to do absolutely anything on your phone, and since the modules aren't distributed through a controlled / centralized store (like Google Play) and as far as I can tell aren't (always) open-source, I don't have any way to be sure they're not doing something malicious. Of course there's a bunch of other attack vectors, but installing a framework that touches every corner of the device, that then runs scripts / mods that I downloaded from some forum somewhere (no offense, guys!) on a phone that holds sensitive personal data... it just worries me a bit, y'know?

Xposed modules are still apk's and list permissions as you install them. The same sense applies as installing any apk. Read the permissions, consider the source and either install it or not. The framework doesn't touch every corner of the device. It runs everything in isolation (which is the whole point of it) but yeah that's not really relevant.

All the xposed apps are distributed via XDA, google Play or teh Xposed repo http://repo.xposed.info/module-overview - if something malicious was going on, the module wouldn't exist.

Anyway I'm not here to convince you to install it. There aren't any apps that do it though.

Hammer_Of_The_Gods · Jan 24, 2014

Hi,

Maybe not all will be functional without root but take a look at this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.notificationToggle or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc.

Try these apps to see what you can/can't do with the quick settings without root.

But like it has been said, rooting your device is the best way to have (almost) all what you want.

Ghengis042 · Jan 24, 2014

viking37 said:
Hi,
Maybe not all will be functional without root but take a look at this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.notificationToggle or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc.

Do you know if installing a settings bar on the curtain like this will interfere with... what's the term? Extended notifications? Some apps (Pocket Casts is the first that comes to mind) will show media controls (play/pause/skip) in the notification tray, but only if they're the first entry in the list -- if anything comes above them, you can't use the controls. Is that a problem with these apps?

Hammer_Of_The_Gods · Jan 24, 2014

Re,

I'm sorry but I don't know (not tested and I'm rooted)... The best is to test by yourself and see. I just provide you a link to try to help...

PhilipTD · Jan 24, 2014

Ghengis042 said:
...so I can spend as little time futzing with the phone as possible and just *use* it...

Well that doesn't sound like much fun at all.

arvindgr · May 31, 2014

Ghengis042 said:
You didn't address the setup-time issue -- that's one of the big ones for me. I usually have at least 40 apps installed (and yes, I actually use them!) and reconfiguring them is time consuming. I *could* futz with Titanium Backup or similar to automate some of that re-setup process, but I'd rather just avoid it in the first place if possible.

Yes, TB Backup's fail when I backup 400+ apps and want to restore them altogether. Who would click Next and Install for 400+ times!!! For your point, ADB backup's are slow they really help for Unrooted devices and Guaranteeing safe apk+app-data for sure...

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[Q] Custom KK quick-settings / tiles without root?

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