[Verizon LG G2] sefnap:
Hi everybody, as you can see, I'm brand new to the community. This is actually my first post after the 10-post newbie threshhold. :) I'm also new to Android phones, though I've tinkered extensively with my Nook Simple Touch and HD+. I'm excited to be able to contribute my first mod, which addresses one of my few complaints about the stock LG ROM. I'm not a big fan of the permanent menu key, and I much prefer to have a recent apps key at the ready. So I did some digging, some decompiling and some smali hacking, and I've come up with a mod that replaces the Menu key with the Recent Apps key and makes a long-press on the Home key pull up the Menu.

Here's a screenshot:

Launcher:

** Update 9/24 **

I fixed a glitch where the recent apps button was smaller than the other buttons when in portrait mode. It should look nice now. If you flashed the earlier one, please grab the v0.2 version of the zip. I've updated all the links below.

I'm including links to two TWRP-able zips, as there are two variations of the mod. The first, RecentAppsKey_v0.2.zip just replaces Menu with Recents and makes a long press on home pull up the menu. The second, RecentAppsKey_with_ellipsis_v0.2.zip also patches framework.odex so that the system reports that there is no permanent menu key, which causes apps to display the "vertical ellipsis" overflow menu in the Action Bar. The downside to using this one is that older apps (and even the Settings app in the stock ROM) will display an ugly Menu button at the bottom of the screen if there's no permanent menu key. Personally I prefer to have the vertical ellipsis menu, but I figured some people wouldn't want it.

Also one other thing to mention is that in the little preview images in the "Front Touch Button" settings you'll still see the menu key. When you select it, the recent apps key will be in whatever position the menu key was supposed to be. Also, this mod plays nice with the various themes, so if you want a "Lovely Pink" recent apps key, I guess it's your lucky day :D Update: if you change the position of the recent apps button by choosing a new layout in settings, you need to reboot your phone afterwards, otherwise the recent apps button won't do anything! I'm looking into a fix for this, but haven't quite got it yet.

*** Update 9/29: AT&T Version! **

Thanks to the help of users Wesley32 and jug6ernaut, there is now an AT&T version of this mod! Please see the AT&T thread for details.

*** Installation ***

Download the zip you want:

RecentAppsKey_v0.2.zip - Just do the key swap, no overflow menu

RecentAppsKey_with_ellipsis_v0.2.zip - Also add the "vertical ellipsis" overflow menu to the action bar

Update:

As requested by stetsonaw, if you just want the vertical ellipsis action bar menu button and want to leave your nav-bar alone, you can flash VerticalEllipsis.zip which will only patch framework.odex to trick the system into thinking you don't have a permanent menu key. You can still summon the menu from the nav-bar as usual, you'll just also have a button in the nav bar.

To install, just put the zip you want somewhere on your device and reboot into TWRP. Install and reboot and you should be good to go.

*** Reverting ***

If you change your mind and would like to go back to stock, flash RevertRecentKeyMod.zip and it will re-flash the files from the stock rom.

*** Source code ***

Update: 9/25

For developers that would like to include this mod in their work, I've attached the modified sources. There are three zips, one for framework.jar to enable the Action Bar Overflow menu, one for android.policy.jar to change the long-press on home behavior to inject a menu key event, and one for LGSystemUI.apk to swap the buttons. Please let me know if you want more details on what exactly was changed.