[ipisors]

Hi,
My galaxy S4 recently lost its capability on the upper part of the top screen, to pull down the notification bar (which is very handy, because it also gets me the whole Panel of quick actions. The workaround for this (I discovered by research), is that when the screen is in rotated mode, and only then (for whatever reason), can I pull down the notification bar. But it's annoying & cumbersome have to fire up an app and then hold the phone sideways just to pull down that bar.

At the moment I'm just living with this, not fixing it, and SO:

1) I find myself making a lot of widget-shortcuts to various settings categories, (but there aren't enough and they often aren't granular enough)

2) I want to see if there is a shortcut I can put to the Notification panel itself. Not directly via an android home screen widget, I know, but any other creative idea/hack? I want to tap something once on my home screen and somehow see notiofications and/or the Panel of all those settings.

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You could install Nova Launcher, which you can then use to assign a swipe-down gesture from any part of the screen to cause the notification panel to come down. There are probably other apps that do only this -- but Nova has so many other great features that it's always worth a try.

[ipisors]

Thank you, that is a very useful response you've provided. I had a feeling that there would be some quasi-solution just about like that. Thanks

[chanchan05]

I am not certain but it may be that thr swipe gestures are only in the paid version of Nova. You could look into it though. I bought Nova Prime like 5 years ago and always used it.

A free option is Microsoft Launcher if you find you need to buy Nova for the gestures. But IMO Nova Prime is money well spent.

[B. Diddy]

I am not certain but it may be that thr swipe gestures are only in the paid version of Nova.

Oh yeah, you're right. But I agree, Nova Prime is well worth it!

Here's another app I found: Pull Down Status Bar