Episode Details

Kubuntu style taskbar launcher in Android [Blog & Screencast]

Published 4 years, 9 months ago

Description

If you've been following me for a while, you know I'm big on Android customization and for this year, I've being going all in on using Linux (via Kubuntu). Since my last layout update in February to create a Android homescreen to look like the phone from The Expanse, I began thinking of creating a layout that more or less matched the taskbar in kubuntu. To that end, I've finally completed a layout that I feel does so.

Direct Video Link

Prerequisites

KLWP

Grant Notification Access for notifications panel and media player

Global Variables

Image - For icon at the top left of the screen and accents

Font - To easily change font for entire layout (currently set to Ubuntu Regular)

Toggle - Text version for panel switching

Nova Launcher (any launcher that allows turning off its dock should work but need ability to access app activities to create a shortcut to Google search from its app and open app drawer)

Layout

Header

Touching image opens KLWP settings

Touching date opens Google Calendar

Search widget has quick access to search, Assistant and Lens

Apps - Open App Drawer (via Nova Launcher shortcut)

Favorites - A simple list of apps I use regularly (I manually picked the colors as there's no current way to pull colors from app icons that I could find)

Notifications - Top 10 cancellable notifications

Media Player - Shows album art and track info for mp3 player and podcasts

Weather - Icon shows current conditions icon & temp with panel showing bigger current weather conditions, the current day's high & low temp and sunrise/sunset and a 5-day forecast

Notes

Accent colors pull from default image when no media is playing with colors updated to match media's cover art when playing
Selection bar shows above the selected dock item and goes away when a selection is made or the icon is touched again
Touch accent set for apps and notifications to close the menu when selecting any item (touching notification icon dismisses the single notification)
Touching weather condition in the panel forces a refresh/update while touching the details opens the weather app and closes the panel
Special shout out/thanks to Brandon Craft aka CraftMath for the video that helped me get the panels setup the way I wanted

Links