HTC keeps effing up with the button layout, why not go with on screen buttons?

Chad_Petree · Feb 25, 2013

Wow very surprised to see how many people hate the on screen buttons :/ that was a reality check , but at least people still think it was dumb to get rid of the multitasking button , we can agree on that

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

blenkows · Feb 25, 2013

My LGOG has a 3-layout and a menu key. I use Nova launcher so I don't have the option for the double tap to get the MT. I have to hold the home button which isn't so bad. I'll admit, it gets a bit annoying though. But I love my menu key haha

On-screen buttons I'm not fond of but I see where people are coming from. I know for the LGOG, a lot of people in the forums complain because it's a big phone that's awkwardly shaped and their fingers are too short to comfortably reach the capacitive back button. They say they like the on-screen keys because they can comfortably reach it. I think it takes up too much real estate of the beautiful screen though so I try to stay clear.

Just giving my two cents.

ADHDassassin · Apr 18, 2013

I love on screen buttons. I adore my Galaxy Nexus and if it weren't for the fact that there still isn't a Nexus with LTE I would go that route again. I really like the clean look of on screen buttons as well as how they dynamically change to more accurately reflect their functionality. (like when a keyboard pops up and back changes to a down arrow). I know opponents of them hate the screen space being lost but in my experience it hasn't bothered me. Also in a perfect world, the whole front of the phone would be edge to edge screen and so the any buttons are taking up space that could potentially be screen space.

Apoxx · Apr 18, 2013

ADHDassassin said:
as well as how they dynamically change to more accurately reflect their functionality. (like when a keyboard pops up and back changes to a down arrow)..

Isn't that the only time they actually do change? I don't mind on screen buttons, I think they are way better than my S3, where the home button is hard to press, and you always accidentally press back or menu. I have yet to try a HTC phone so I will reserve my judgement on how it works out until I get my One.

americasteam · Apr 18, 2013

On screen buttons suck. Baffles me why someone would want to waste screen space like that.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

rpmccormick · Apr 18, 2013

On Screen buttons = Not bad, but a waste. In some apps looks really bad. Full bar like nexus 4 looks better than just ... though.

Capacitive buttons like HTC = ok, saves screen space, I still miss tactile feel.

Capacitive buttons like Samsung = So dumb... when not lit up you can't tell which is which... and there are 4 of them... and they keep changing the order and functions of those 4. Drives me nutz! (I might not have got the HTC if the back button was on the right like all of Samsung's 3-button new layout... just doesn't make sense in my head... I will never get used to it... back button goes on the left! You can put it on the top-left like iOS or on the bottom-left like all other Androids... why does Samsung put it on the right now!?!?!? Maybe it's just me because I am left handed?) I do kinda like the one physical button in the middle with cap buttons on each side though.

I love the 4 physical rocker-buttons on my SideKick 4G (Home/MT across the top, Back/Menu across the bottom), and I love having a physical 5-row keyboard... but I guess I am in the minority! I also wish they would bring back the Green/Red Answer/Hangup buttons. Nothing is worse then when your hands are wet or something, so your damn touchscreen wont let you drag to answer a call and it goes to VM.

I think people choose form over function too much. Physical buttons are so much better than capacitive, as is a slide-out-keyboard in exchange for a slightly thicker phone. If a quad-core slider existed I would give up on the HTC One in a second, but I don't see it happening any time in the near future, and although my SK4G is still the most ergonomically pleasing phone I have ever used (with the original T-Mobile G1 a distant second), the buggy OS is still stuck on Froyo so I need a new phone and can wait no longer.

MT button: I can't say I ever use it. Back or Home gets me to the desktop, then I click on which app I want. All my "multi-tasking" groups are on a desktop page together, so why would I want a seperate MT screen where the order of which app I want constantly changes? On my SK4G I hacked the MT button to be a search button instead. Home/Search/Back/Menu/Answer/Hangup... those are all the keys I want, and I want Volume Up/Down to double as RightArrow/LeftArrow when typing. ...plus a slide out 5-row.

The MT button isn't even a true task-switcher/closer as it should be... it is just an app-launch history that you can clear things from. The whole system just seems like a lie to me. People think they are closing down apps by swiping them away, and they should be, but they are not. If an app gets launched by another app or on startup it doesn't even get added to the list... and the list always confuses me as I wish it was sorted in the opposite direction. An MT button would be great if it functioned like Windows TaskManager, but until then, I have no use for it.

sohamssd · Apr 18, 2013

americasteam said:
On screen buttons suck. Baffles me why someone would want to waste screen space like that.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

Its not a waste of space, anyways your capacitive buttons will be occupying the space. Instead the screen can take the space which imo is far better. Also by a custom ROM (like pa) you can hide the buttons making the complete screen for use (which obviously can't be done with capacitive keys)

Sent from my One™ V using xda-developers-app

Element515 · Apr 18, 2013

Android should just adopt pie controls as an option.

Gambler_3 · Apr 21, 2013

lol at all the people saying on-screen buttons take space. Well you know capacitive buttons take space as well seriously are people that dumb?

I have suggested this solution before in other forums and I will say again. The BEST solution is to have a separate screen for navigation buttons. If you make the HTC one a 5" phone with on-screen buttons then its going to be wider than it is right now unless you make the screen even wider than 16:9 which wont make any sense. However if you give it a 4.7" screen AND a dedicated screen for buttons then you dont have to make it any wider. Sure it drives up costs a little bit but the flexibility you get in usage is well worth it.

Caliban007 · Apr 21, 2013

Gambler_3 said:
lol at all the people saying on-screen buttons take space. Well you know capacitive buttons take space as well seriously are people that dumb?

I have suggested this solution before in other forums and I will say again. The BEST solution is to have a separate screen for navigation buttons. If you make the HTC one a 5" phone with on-screen buttons then its going to be wider than it is right now unless you make the screen even wider than 16:9 which wont make any sense. However if you give it a 4.7" screen AND a dedicated screen for buttons then you dont have to make it any wider. Sure it drives up costs a little bit but the flexibility you get in usage is well worth it.

So basically you just want what is already there, but make those capacitive buttons a 2nd screen and customizable instead? Seems like a lot of effort that a small amount of power users would want. I like the capacitive buttons over on screen. I have an HP Touchpad running the Cyanogen Mod and it's annoying to have that bar on the bottom in some games. But just my opinion!

illestfob · Apr 21, 2013

rpmccormick said:
On Screen buttons = Not bad, but a waste. In some apps looks really bad. Full bar like nexus 4 looks better than just ... though.

Capacitive buttons like HTC = ok, saves screen space, I still miss tactile feel.

Capacitive buttons like Samsung = So dumb... when not lit up you can't tell which is which... and there are 4 of them... and they keep changing the order and functions of those 4. Drives me nutz! (I might not have got the HTC if the back button was on the right like all of Samsung's 3-button new layout... just doesn't make sense in my head... I will never get used to it... back button goes on the left! You can put it on the top-left like iOS or on the bottom-left like all other Androids... why does Samsung put it on the right now!?!?!? Maybe it's just me because I am left handed?) I do kinda like the one physical button in the middle with cap buttons on each side though.

I love the 4 physical rocker-buttons on my SideKick 4G (Home/MT across the top, Back/Menu across the bottom), and I love having a physical 5-row keyboard... but I guess I am in the minority! I also wish they would bring back the Green/Red Answer/Hangup buttons. Nothing is worse then when your hands are wet or something, so your damn touchscreen wont let you drag to answer a call and it goes to VM.

I think people choose form over function too much. Physical buttons are so much better than capacitive, as is a slide-out-keyboard in exchange for a slightly thicker phone. If a quad-core slider existed I would give up on the HTC One in a second, but I don't see it happening any time in the near future, and although my SK4G is still the most ergonomically pleasing phone I have ever used (with the original T-Mobile G1 a distant second), the buggy OS is still stuck on Froyo so I need a new phone and can wait no longer.

MT button: I can't say I ever use it. Back or Home gets me to the desktop, then I click on which app I want. All my "multi-tasking" groups are on a desktop page together, so why would I want a seperate MT screen where the order of which app I want constantly changes? On my SK4G I hacked the MT button to be a search button instead. Home/Search/Back/Menu/Answer/Hangup... those are all the keys I want, and I want Volume Up/Down to double as RightArrow/LeftArrow when typing. ...plus a slide out 5-row.

The MT button isn't even a true task-switcher/closer as it should be... it is just an app-launch history that you can clear things from. The whole system just seems like a lie to me. People think they are closing down apps by swiping them away, and they should be, but they are not. If an app gets launched by another app or on startup it doesn't even get added to the list... and the list always confuses me as I wish it was sorted in the opposite direction. An MT button would be great if it functioned like Windows TaskManager, but until then, I have no use for it.

I completely understand haha. I'm still using my G2/Desire Z mainly because of its physical qwerty. I'm also still on 2.3... so have never even seen the multitask button stuff yet. but it sounds like a glorified recent apps menu. on the G2 i just long press the home key to get to the recent apps menu, which is how it is on the One too. I do use the capacitive menu key quite often. gonna miss it on the One...

Gambler_3 · Apr 21, 2013

Caliban007 said:
So basically you just want what is already there, but make those capacitive buttons a 2nd screen and customizable instead? Seems like a lot of effort that a small amount of power users would want. I like the capacitive buttons over on screen. I have an HP Touchpad running the Cyanogen Mod and it's annoying to have that bar on the bottom in some games. But just my opinion!

I am not an engineer but I dont think it would need that much "effort". HTC is not even the big brand anymore so they really could do with attracting the power users in any way possible. Its not like this method is going to cause any issues to the casual user.

Why are they annoying? If you are playing a game there would still be capacitive buttons beneath the screen what difference does it make if they are on-screen? With on-screen buttons its always best to subtract 0.2-0.3" to get to the real usable space so people arent disappointed.

Long813 · Apr 21, 2013

techguyone said:
What are you on about?

The whole point of Android going to a 3 button from 4 button layout was to REMOVE the menu button...

It went from: MENU BACK HOME SEARCH

to: BACK HOME MULTITASK

no one with a 3 button layout has MENU as a dedicated button anymore.

I really like(d) my SNS with BACK MENU SEARCH HOME.

Always was lost using friends phones where BACK was not far left. The SEARCH was nice when I was on a browser and it also allowed you to go to google right from SEARCH, instead of pulling up the browser.

Long press for menu is nice though, I need to adapt to it. And, the multitask? New concept to me ... not sure if I even see much use for it yet.

Note_2 · Apr 21, 2013

rpmccormick said:
On Screen buttons = Not bad, but a waste. In some apps looks really bad. Full bar like nexus 4 looks better than just ... though.

Capacitive buttons like HTC = ok, saves screen space, I still miss tactile feel.

Capacitive buttons like Samsung = So dumb... when not lit up you can't tell which is which... and there are 4 of them... and they keep changing the order and functions of those 4. Drives me nutz! (I might not have got the HTC if the back button was on the right like all of Samsung's 3-button new layout... just doesn't make sense in my head... I will never get used to it... back button goes on the left! You can put it on the top-left like iOS or on the bottom-left like all other Androids... why does Samsung put it on the right now!?!?!? Maybe it's just me because I am left handed?) I do kinda like the one physical button in the middle with cap buttons on each side though.

I love the 4 physical rocker-buttons on my SideKick 4G (Home/MT across the top, Back/Menu across the bottom), and I love having a physical 5-row keyboard... but I guess I am in the minority! I also wish they would bring back the Green/Red Answer/Hangup buttons. Nothing is worse then when your hands are wet or something, so your damn touchscreen wont let you drag to answer a call and it goes to VM.

I think people choose form over function too much. Physical buttons are so much better than capacitive, as is a slide-out-keyboard in exchange for a slightly thicker phone. If a quad-core slider existed I would give up on the HTC One in a second, but I don't see it happening any time in the near future, and although my SK4G is still the most ergonomically pleasing phone I have ever used (with the original T-Mobile G1 a distant second), the buggy OS is still stuck on Froyo so I need a new phone and can wait no longer.

MT button: I can't say I ever use it. Back or Home gets me to the desktop, then I click on which app I want. All my "multi-tasking" groups are on a desktop page together, so why would I want a seperate MT screen where the order of which app I want constantly changes? On my SK4G I hacked the MT button to be a search button instead. Home/Search/Back/Menu/Answer/Hangup... those are all the keys I want, and I want Volume Up/Down to double as RightArrow/LeftArrow when typing. ...plus a slide out 5-row.

The MT button isn't even a true task-switcher/closer as it should be... it is just an app-launch history that you can clear things from. The whole system just seems like a lie to me. People think they are closing down apps by swiping them away, and they should be, but they are not. If an app gets launched by another app or on startup it doesn't even get added to the list... and the list always confuses me as I wish it was sorted in the opposite direction. An MT button would be great if it functioned like Windows TaskManager, but until then, I have no use for it.

I think they put the back button on the right with the 3 button layout because it is used more than menu and quicker to press, therefore more convenient. I don't get how you can't remember where 4 buttons are when they aren't lit up, unless you are switching phones every other day, it should be easy to remember. Take writing on keyboards for example, you don't have to remember where buttons are- you just know after enough use.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

Joshnor713 · Apr 21, 2013

Can't stand buttons taking up screen real estate. Glad these manufacturers are sticking with capacitive buttons.

Wrong move Google.

Fihlvein · Apr 21, 2013

HTC won't ditch physical soft keys simply because it's part of their brand, and most importantly they (as many Android manufacturers) want to differentiate from others. That's why Galaxy S line will also have the physical home button for the time being.

It's really brave of Sony to go with Nexus style on screen buttons, as it's one item less to differentiate. Of course the on screen buttons can be tailored which is what Sony did and is what I'd like to see more from manufacturers. Maybe they don't like giving users a possibility to customize the buttons.

rpmccormick · Apr 22, 2013

Note_2 said:
I think they put the back button on the right with the 3 button layout because it is used more than menu and quicker to press, therefore more convenient. I don't get how you can't remember where 4 buttons are when they aren't lit up, unless you are switching phones every other day, it should be easy to remember. Take writing on keyboards for example, you don't have to remember where buttons are- you just know after enough use.

Back button on right just seems backwards to me, and I am left handed, so for me, no, it is not more convenient at all

I use multiple phones, including one mounted into the dash of my car, and I configure other peoples phones a lot for them. So when buttons keep moving around it is quite confusing. Not a problem if you can read what the button is without having to touch one of them for it to light up the icon first. I hope the HTC One buttons aren't invisible when not lit, but they do look visible in all the pics... and I guess it's hard to forget when there are only 2 buttons (and they are in the "correct" by-my-standards order).

rovex · Apr 22, 2013

I think Samsung have it right with the Galaxy S. I hate on-screen buttons and the One has some sort of horrible hybrid. I miss the home key, its the Ones biggest flaw.

Gambler_3 · Apr 22, 2013

rpmccormick said:
Back button on right just seems backwards to me, and I am left handed, so for me, no, it is not more convenient at all

I use multiple phones, including one mounted into the dash of my car, and I configure other peoples phones a lot for them. So when buttons keep moving around it is quite confusing. Not a problem if you can read what the button is without having to touch one of them for it to light up the icon first. I hope the HTC One buttons aren't invisible when not lit, but they do look visible in all the pics... and I guess it's hard to forget when there are only 2 buttons (and they are in the "correct" by-my-standards order).

You can increase the duration of the backlit keys on galaxy phones.

HJAMA · Apr 22, 2013

I think the no dedicated multitasking button isn't a huge problem, however most apps decide to have their menu let which could fit in a 0.5x1 cm box but decide to take 1cm chunk from the bottom of the display, meaning I have less screen real estate

Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

HTC keeps effing up with the button layout, why not go with on screen buttons?

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