HTC One M8 status bar icons... way too many

anon(730457)

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The status bar icons on the HTC One M8 (at least for Verizon) are out of control. The ones on the left (that aren't actual notifications) are now taking up 3/4 to 4/5 of the bar, leaving two or three useful notification icons on the right. I'm not seeing any way to disable or change the excessive ones and some of them are completely useless or excessively long, such as the headphones-plugged-in icon, the Boomsound icon, and the battery-sideways icon (which is twice as long as the Nexus 5's vertical battery icon).

I've attached a screenshot showing them all (with battery percentage enabled, which I want, and vibration-only, which I sometimes want), and then you'll notice two useful icons on the left (calendar day and podcast player status, but then the overflow icon). Note: Boomsound doesn't usually let me disable it, and I found no option to disable the headphone icon.

On every phone I've had before (Droid, Droid Razr, and Moto X), the icons on the right were not excessive nor excessively large, and rarely took up even half the bar. I'm not sure if this is just HTC's customization or it happens on all Android Lollipop phones, but it appears the icons are oversized compared to other phones, and I'm hoping this isn't a new trend because the ones on the left are generally more important to me more often.

HTC One M8 status bar icons.png

Note: The launcher I'm using is Nova Launcher Prime with TeslaUnread badges and Power Toggles as the bottom widget in case you're curious.
 

dty06

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Well, yes, there are quite a few of them, however the ones on the right are pretty standard fare: the time, battery, battery percentage, your carrier's signal strength, the 4G icon letting you know you have full 4G connectivity, the wifi icon, an icon alerting you to the fact that your phone is on vibrate, another icon that signals you have headphones connected, and the BoomSound icon. Of those, only the BoomSound icon is not standard for all Android phones since it's a feature specifically of the M8 (and other HTC phones).

I have both the M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5, and the S5 has the exact same icons at the top right, minus the BoomSound icon. I'm sure there's apps that will let you customize the icons even more, but they likely require root.
 

Mooncatt

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Boom Sound can be disabled when using headphones. They have to be plugged in for the option to become available in the sound settings to turn it off. I actually prefer to not use the Boom Sound enhancements when plugged in because I'm usually feeding it to my car stereo with its own EQ settings. So try it if you haven't already. Because it's an option that may not be noticed by ear alone, the notification icon when active makes sense.

I do agree the battery percentage one is redundant if you already have the other icon. I wish you could select only percentage without the main icon.

Other than that, it's standard fare in your screenshot. Not sure what all you have running that's giving you so many additional notifications, but mine are never that bad. Don't feel to bad, though. My mate's Note 3 routinely has more notification icons than screen width despite the larger screen.
 

anon(730457)

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Well, yes, there are quite a few of them, however the ones on the right are pretty standard fare: the time, battery, battery percentage, your carrier's signal strength, the 4G icon letting you know you have full 4G connectivity, the wifi icon, an icon alerting you to the fact that your phone is on vibrate, another icon that signals you have headphones connected, and the BoomSound icon. Of those, only the BoomSound icon is not standard for all Android phones since it's a feature specifically of the M8 (and other HTC phones).

Two problems: the icons are oversized (see the Nexus 5) and there's too many useless ones. When I look at my Moto X, it has the same standard icons and they don't take up even half the screen. The biggest problem is the useless ones that aren't standard can't be disabled without disabling the service (if that), and provide zero consistent benefit. They're basically for dumb people.

I have both the M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5, and the S5 has the exact same icons at the top right, minus the BoomSound icon. I'm sure there's apps that will let you customize the icons even more, but they likely require root.

Do they take up three-quarters of the bar?
 

anon(730457)

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Boom Sound can be disabled when using headphones. They have to be plugged in for the option to become available in the sound settings to turn it off. I actually prefer to not use the Boom Sound enhancements when plugged in because I'm usually feeding it to my car stereo with its own EQ settings. So try it if you haven't already. Because it's an option that may not be noticed by ear alone, the notification icon when active makes sense.

Yes, Boomsound can be disabled under a certain circumstance, at which point you lose the benefit of Boomsound in that circumstance but still have the icon in other circumstances. Since the icon provides no benefit yet adds to clutter, there's no benefit to having the icon show as the user assumes it's just working correctly. The option to disable the notification should be in settings, this should not be forced on the user.

I do agree the battery percentage one is redundant if you already have the other icon. I wish you could select only percentage without the main icon.

Other than that, it's standard fare in your screenshot. Not sure what all you have running that's giving you so many additional notifications, but mine are never that bad. Don't feel to bad, though. My mate's Note 3 routinely has more notification icons than screen width despite the larger screen.

You may have missed that I said on three previous Motorola phones that the icons rarely take up even half the bar. Also, the Nexus 5, which the M8 is modeled after, has smaller but adequately viewable icons and they don't take up half the bar either. This was a poor choice by M8 as it pushes out useful notifications on the left.

I'm really miffed that people don't see a problem here and just blow it off as "normal". Well with more and more useless and excessive notifications (especially in the pull-down bar) that you have no control over, it's turning into spam, and people I'm talking to are already finding it annoying, so this is not the place to post criticism for the broader audience to see. Enjoy the gulag shoveled on you by these manufacturers making poor decisions; it's amazing to me people criticize Motorola when they have a much cleaner and more sensible interface.
 

stkorn97

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Theres very little on mine, I dont do battery %, I dont run phone on vibrate and I dont use boomsound since my audio player has its own equalizer that sounds better.
 

emeza

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May 27, 2016
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Sorry,at all my english is bad but i ha an answer on this issue my phone is htc m8 ,this issue is not related to the system but to the hardware issue ,some time due to the mal fonction of touch screen =solution try to remove you screen touch "here you must be expert this if not you may loose you phone screen and also may be cracked,reassemble and adjust your screen properly and then it is fixed,please it is not issue of update nor android system,when you drop you phone down,or punch it on something this may end up in this way ,you loose the sensitivity on the top ,where the notification and status bar located as you know you can landscape you phone things went well but not goes on to the top,find me on bbtheos@yahoo.fr,no string attached
 
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