iPhone-style dash, wish Android had this by default

mFat@lemdro.id to Android@lemdro.id – 12 points –

Ever since I switched back to Android after a couple years of using an iPhone SE, i have been missing the iOS feature to open "control center" (iOS term for quick shortcuts) using a swipe up gesture from the bottom of the screen.

This is a great feature that eliminates the need to reach for the top of the screen to pull down the notification shade to access toggles for commonn settings (wifi, cellular, BT, hotspot, torch, etc.). Since we live in an era of huge phones such a feature would have been extremely convenient. Unfortunately it's not implemented in Android.

But I accidentally stumbled upon an app called Neo Launcher that has implemented a similar functionality (kind of, since iPhone control center can be summoned no matter what app you're using, but this only works on home screen).

A dashboard pops up from the bottom of screen, where your thumb can easily reach, with a user-defined shortcut! Toggling wifi and other settings are much easier this way.

I'd highly recommend everyone to give this a try. Personally I've set double tap on screen as a shortcut for the dash.

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But, like, you can do something similar by pulling down twice. That screen can be configured to show almost any toggle. Different actions, similar results. Is it the actions you don't like?

The toggles are still at the top of the screen. The bottom of the screen is closer to the user's thumbs.

You could do the circular swipe from right to bottom to enable one handed mode (pixel exclusive or it's standard? In this way the screen becomes half size) and then the vertical swipe (or a swipe on the fingerprint sensor) from top to bottom to show the quick notification bar

It definitely needs some time to practice though because the circular swipe to enable one handed mode interferes with the back gesture

Yeah as you said you have to swipe down twice and strech your finger to the top of the screen (or use the other hand). Definitely a bottom dashboard is more convenient.

If the argument is that swiping down twice is more difficult than swiping up once, then I agree. If the argument is that swiping up once should be reserved for system toggles, then I disagree. I believe it's a question of properties, not capability, when it comes to Android's decision.

that's my s21 from swiping down twice at the bottom of the screen, you can't tell me that's to far up

That's my S21 and can get there by swiping down twice anywhere on the screen.

I don't think that's too far up at all

Try swiping once with two fingers

There's an option to swipe down with one finger from the "desktop" to pull down the shade too.

Android has that too. Try to pull down from the top. Not too much different than swiping up from the bottom

The argument here is that reaching the top of huge phones with one hand is difficult.

Oh I see. I guess I've avoided phones that large lol. I'm on a Zflip3 right now and can reach the whole screen with my thumb. Could be a struggle with a Galaxy note though.

newer I phones also have a swipe from top (the notch iphones) which is basically the same

iirc some old vivo or some other chinese phones had this swipe from bottom because they copied ios

Honestly, the main reason I won't go iphone is I don't like how apple does mobile ui.

Get a custom launcher, change the gestures for swiping up, profit.

I think Android 11 was doing something cool with the power menu being fused with home controls, always thought they're going to further fuse it with the Quick Settings Panel, but they back paddled that real quick for some reason that I can't exactly understand

Swiping up from the bottom currently opens up the app tray, what does it do on your phone?

I think it makes sense, but only if the app tray is removed like how it is on iOS.

Yeah that's true. Swiping up from the bottom opens up app drawer.

I've set a shortcut using Neo Launcher to open the dashboard by double-tapping the screen.