How will the capacitive buttons work on the One X?

[ibejack96]

If the One X (and One S, for that matter) use capacitive instead of on-screen buttons, then how will it deal with a legacy app that does not have a built-in menu button for ICS?

 

[MasterElwood]

I second that question

 

[BoostHungry]

The same way an app that is designed to work with both tablets (3.0+) and phones handles it. Its very intuitive when developing an app with menus, I'm not even sure if a developer could possibly get it wrong. When a developer wants a menu, he says I want a menu, than Android decides where it goes and how it behaves, customization of menu location and behavior are more like a request to Android than a hard coded option, if an ICS app wants a software menu button but Android detects a hardware button then the hardware button will win.

Google developed ICS to support software buttons, but they added the support for it to the existing hardware buttons, rather than deprecating hardware buttons.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

So basically if an app needs a menu button and it doesn't see a hardware button it'll automagically make a software button appear on screen? I'm assuming it'd be the little three dots we've grown used to seeing for the "you have more options" kind of stuff?

 

[Benny879]

The same way an app that is designed to work with both tablets (3.0+) and phones handles it. Its very intuitive when developing an app with menus, I'm not even sure if a developer could possibly get it wrong. When a developer wants a menu, he says I want a menu, than Android decides where it goes and how it behaves, customization of menu location and behavior are more like a request to Android than a hard coded option, if an ICS app wants a software menu button but Android detects a hardware button then the hardware button will win.

Google developed ICS to support software buttons, but they added the support for it to the existing hardware buttons, rather than deprecating hardware buttons.

That works fine and dandy when there are onscreen buttons a la the Galaxy Nexus but it wont work with hardware buttons. ICS doesn't randomly put a menu button anywhere on the screen when the app hasn't been updated for ICS.

 

[BoostHungry]

Google wants developers to migrate away from using menus and start using the action bar for menu options. But in almost all situations (specially for apps that are designed for older android versions), if the developer wants more options then fit on the actionbar, then they are placed in the menu overflow. The menu overflow on software buttons is the 3 dots, the menu overflow on hardware buttons is the menu button. If a developer designs an app with the latest sdk in mind they have the choice to design their app without an overflow and only use the action bar, which is what Google wants. But having no overflow will effect software and hardware buttons in the same way.

Bottom line, if an app is designed with out ICS in mind, then they are setting their target and minimum sdk version to an older version which tells Android that overflows are needed if there is no room for options on the actionbar. If the developer doesn't specify anything to be escalated to the action bar, then all menu options will be in the overflow, which again, is the 3 dots on software buttons or the menu button on hardware buttons.

Full reading

 

[kostek92]

Bottom line, if an app is designed with out ICS in mind, then they are setting their target and minimum sdk version to an older version which tells Android that overflows are needed if there is no room for options on the actionbar. If the developer doesn't specify anything to be escalated to the action bar, then all menu options will be in the overflow, which again, is the 3 dots on software buttons or the menu button on hardware buttons.


Ok, so where will appear the 3 dots on a htc one x or one s?

 

[kostek92]

Bottom line, if an app is designed with out ICS in mind, then they are setting their target and minimum sdk version to an older version which tells Android that overflows are needed if there is no room for options on the actionbar. If the developer doesn't specify anything to be escalated to the action bar, then all menu options will be in the overflow, which again, is the 3 dots on software buttons or the menu button on hardware buttons.
Edit: Above is BoostHungry quote

Ok, so where will appear the 3 dots on a htc one x or one s?

 

[ZeroRilix]

On the HTC One X and One S, the menu button for legacy apps will be the Tasker button. It is the right capacitive button. Which is where you find the search button on the Vivid and Inspire. I picked that up while watching the hands on review from PhoneArena. It will be mostly the multitasking, "tasker", button, but will also be a multipurpose button if needed.

 

[BoostHungry]

Didn't realize you were asking which hardware button. As already mentioned, the button on the right will open up the over flow menu items when needed.

You didn't actually think that a company would release a phone with out the ability to open up menus did you? What is this an iPhone?

 

[kostek92]

So the right button will have two purposes - opens multitasking view and depending on the situation serves as the menu button. Could be confusing for some users?

 

[kenguy79]

This seems like an awful design to have the tasker button/icon multi-task. Seems like they could have put a vertical ellipses on the far right that only lights up when it's needed.

Or they could have stuck with the 4 button design

Or they could use soft buttons.

Or...

 

[katamari201]

I thought the right capacitive button was for menu when you tap it once, the multitasker if you hold it? That makes sense to me.

And THANK YOU HTC for keeping the capacitive buttons. I am not impressed by ICS at all. It looks like Gingergread, and Froyo, and Android in general. No major changes besides stuff under the hood. It's actually worse for me since it has that really lame bar on the bottom that won't go away and has those ugly icons that take up a portion of the screen, like I just bought an ad-supported app and there's this THING stuck on the bottom. It doesn't save any space at all since there is usually a black bar under the screen anyway, to keep symmetry on the top and bottom and to put radios behind and other things. Reducing it to three buttons really frees up a lot of space too. My US version Galaxy S II has four buttons and I am CONSTANTLY pushing the search button when just holding the phone since all the buttons are all crowded on the bottom and there isn't much empty bezel around them to isolate each one. The One X buttons look way more isolated.

 

[hmmm]

I have a transformer prime running ICS. The Google news and weather app is useless because there is no menu button. Hopefully on a phone this is different.

 

[davekr]

I really hope they don't use the Multi-tasking capacitive button to double as the menu button. That would kind of defeat the whole purpose of the multi-tasking button. The point of adding that button is that you can press it from anywhere and bring up the task list, so you can easily switch. If you have to start thinking about which apps you are in and when the button will work that way, it might as well not even be there.

 

[ibejack96]

for everybody wondering, there is a little bar that opens in legacy apps... look at this youtube video and go to about the 7 minute mark

 

[E_man]

The same way an app that is designed to work with both tablets (3.0+) and phones handles it. Its very intuitive when developing an app with menus, I'm not even sure if a developer could possibly get it wrong. When a developer wants a menu, he says I want a menu, than Android decides where it goes and how it behaves, customization of menu location and behavior are more like a request to Android than a hard coded option, if an ICS app wants a software menu button but Android detects a hardware button then the hardware button will win.

Google developed ICS to support software buttons, but they added the support for it to the existing hardware buttons, rather than deprecating hardware buttons.

Except it doesn't really seem to work like that I don't think. If it did, google wouldn't have the mysterious floating menu button on the GNex. It's the biggest complaint I hear about the device. I don't think google wants to risk auto-generating an action bar and populating it. At least, that's what I understand you to be saying. They wouldn't want to screw with developer layouts.

At this point, the only time an action bar is assumed is on any HOLO themed app (except certain themes that turn off the action bar). You may be confusing the fact that some apps don't yet support the Actionbar, and Honeycomb/ICS add in a soft menu button. The One X cannot do that in the same way, since it's buttons are the first time we've seen an ICS/Honeycomb phone with ICS/Honeycomb capacative buttons. It doesn't have the capacative menu key like the Nexus S. If it did, this would be a piece of cake, and no app should not work. Like you said, I'm not sure if it's possible to screw up the menu system on a device with a menu key. So the question is, where will this menu key pop up on a phone with capacative keys and no menu button? It's got to be somewhere.

Sorry if I misunderstood what you are saying.

I have a transformer prime running ICS. The Google news and weather app is useless because there is no menu button. Hopefully on a phone this is different.

If there is an old style menu, there will be an old style menu button next to the other ICS buttons.

for everybody wondering, there is a little bar that opens in legacy apps... look at this youtube video and go to about the 7 minute mark

That's interesting. Probably the best way they could solve the problem. That is, without making a capacative menu key. Then again, a swipe up from the bezel would have been cool, and not always taking space on apps that need the menu key.

 

[davekr]

Thanks for that! That's not a bad way to handle it. Considering that it will only be needed until apps are updated for ICS, that works for me.