[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] :
Hello! I thought I should share a fairly simple solution to what I think is the Galaxy S8's worst feature: the navigation bar. I'm all for the bigger screen ratio but with such a large portion of the bottom end constantly covered by the navigation keys, I found myself nostalgic for my old S6's soft keys. Samsung's update to allow hiding of the navigation keys worked to an extent, but I found swiping up just to press the back key quite frustrating. This paired with the fact that there was no way to get the nav bar off the home screen and the S8's inability to use swipe gestures through apps like Pie Control or All in one Gestures was infuriating. Here is my solution to the problem.

Disclaimer: Please follow the steps in order as the apk listed will completely disable the navigation bar. There will be no way to navigate your device if you do not follow the prior steps. All credit for the apk listed goes to Tigerhoods. Thank you so much for your work.

1. Download the apps All in one Gestures, Pie Control, and App Cloner. Each app is essential to properly setting up this workaround.

2. Enable each app to use accessibility services.

3. Go into Pie Control and set up the bottom edge with a pie that has the back key, home, and recents. This will act temporarily as your navigation bar once the apk is installed. To set up Pie Control: turn on the bottom edge, go to level1 of edge, set up button 1, 2, and 3 with recents, home, and back nav keys (these nav settings are found under the Tools menu), and click the plus in the bottom right corner to save. Make sure everything is fully set up before proceeding.

4. Download this apk:

https://xdaforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4188536&d=1497996764

Again, all credit for this download goes to Tigerhood. Amazing work.

Restart your device after installing to have the APK take effect.

This apk will completely disable the nav bar. To complete the following steps you will use Pie Control to use the back, home, and recents keys. If you wish to get the navbar back, simply go into settings, go into apps, scroll down to com.whalesplaho.frameworkresov..., click on it, and uninstall. I highly recommend completing all the steps before going back to the crappy built-in navigation bar.

5. Now that there is no longer a navigation bar and your phone is more beautiful than ever, it's time to set up a more permanent navigation bar. Go into All in one Gesture and enable swiping (make sure to allow it to use accessibility features: go into settings, accessibility, turn on for All in one Gesture). Turn on bottom area and set it to back (or recents if you prefer Samsung's style of navigating). Swipe from the left side of the screen to open the hamburger menu (or press the three lines to the left of the apps name at the top o the screen). Go into Personization then Edge Preference. I suggest you use my settings, but feel free to adjust to your own tastes once you get a feel for the app.

Opacity: 0%

Corner Size: 75px

Edge Sensitivity: 40px

Edge Width: 20%

Horizontal Offset: -20% (Make this a negative value so that it goes to the left!)

Vertical Offset: 20%

Swipe Distance: 0px

This will allow the bottom left of your screen to become the back (or recents) key. You can either swipe up from the bottom left or tap right where the bezel meets the screen. If it's too sensitive, turn the Edge Sensitivity setting down. If you wish to only use swipe and not be able to tap the key, turn up the Swipe Distance setting. If you accidentally hit the keys while typing (I rarely do), simply turn on Behind Keyboard under Personalization.

You may which to turn the opacity up at first so that you know where to press/swipe.

6. Since All in one Gesture only allows the bottom to be used for one setting, we must clone the app to make a virtual key for the other side of the bottom. Go into App Cloner, find All in one Gesture, press flip icon (to make it recognizable as the cloned app), and name it All in one Gesture2 (or something of the sort). Once the app is cloned, find it on your home screen and follow the same instructions laid out in step 5. One key difference: make sure to put the Horizontal Offset as 20% (this will move the virtual key to the right instead of the left). Also in Personalization, under General, I suggest turning on the light theme so you can tell the difference between the cloned and original app.

7. Now that the back and recents keys are set up, customize Pie Control to your liking. I like having the entirety of level 1 be a home key so that it is super easy to access.

8. Enjoy using your s8 the way it should be used.

Issues:

-The hard press home key does not work when the screen is on.

-Pie Control and All in one Gesture only work when the device is unlocked. If you go into Bixby, Camera, or one of the App Shortcuts on the left and right of your lockscreen it may seem impossible to get out of without a navigation bar/home button. To get out of the app you are in simply pull down the notifications shade and click on the settings icon. You will then be prompted to enter your password. Once the device is unlocked you can use Pie Control/All in one Gesture to navigate normally. UPDATE: If you have a Bixby remapper app you can enable the Bixby button to be used as a back button. I use BxActions and it works perfectly.

If for some reason the apk doesnt download, here is the thread I found it on:

https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s8+/th...y-overlays-t3604341/post72746018#post72746018

The apk is found on page 84.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any feedback or get stuck on any of the steps. :cool: