Android Oreo has been officially introduced and, as always, it brings a host of changes and upgrades that we’ve already seen in the developer beta. However, as you know, not every feature available in the developer beta makes it to the final version. When it comes to Android Oreo, one of my favorite features dropped with its final release. The feature I’m talking about is the ability to customize the navigation bar. Now, it’s not completely gone, in fact, it has been available on Android since the release of Android Nougat. However, the feature was hidden and only surfaced with the developer beta of Android Oreo. Now, with the public release, the feature has been hidden once again and cannot be accessed directly from the Settings page.
However, as we know the feature already exists, we can enable it with a little tweaking and without rooting our Android device too. So, if customizing the navigation bar is something you really want to do on your Android Oreo device, Here is how you can customize the navigation bar in Android Oreo without root access:
note: Although this tutorial is written from the Android Oreo perspective, it will also work with Android Nougat. This is because the feature was introduced with Android Nougat, albeit in a discreet form.
Prerequisites for Customizing the Navigation Bar in Oreo
1. Enabling USB Debugging
This is the easiest step and many of you may already know how to do it. For the inexperienced, just to go Settings->About Phone->Build Number and tap on it 7 times. This will enable Developer Options. Now go to Developer Options (it will be on main settings page) and enable “USB Debugging”.
2. Installing the Custom Navigation Bar App
To get the ability to customize the navigation bar on our Android phones, we will have to enlist the help of a third-party application, which is the Custom Navigation Bar application (To upload). The app is free to use with ads. You can get the pro version ($1.99) that removes ads and gives you access to extra themes (more on that later).
3. Installing the Android Debugging Tool (ADB)
As I mentioned earlier, while the ability to customize the navigation bar is available in Android Oreo, its setting is hidden inside the operating system. We will have to use a tool called ADB to take advantage of the hidden settings. You will need a desktop to run ADB commands on your Android device. You can use both Mac and Windows to run ADB commands.. But before you do that, you will need to install the ADB tool on your desktop.
Installing ADB on Mac
First, open Terminal on your Mac. Now paste the following command and hit return/enter.
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”:
Now paste the command below and hit enter/return. This will install ADB on your Mac.
brew cask install android-platform-tools
Installing ADB on Windows
To install ADB on Windows, go to: Download Android SDK Go to page and scroll down. Click on the link shown in the picture and download the zip file. Extract the zip file and run the .exe file. Deselect everything except “Android SDK Platform-tools” and then click Install. This will install the ADB tool on your PC.
Customizing the Navigation Bar in Oreo
Now that we’re done with the preparations, let’s continue with the process of customizing the navigation bar on your Android.
1. Launch the “Custom Navigation Bar” app on your phone and Tap the “Get started” button. The next page will show you all the steps you need to give the app the necessary access.
2. With USB Debugging enabled connect your phone to your Desktop running ADB. After connecting Start Terminal (Command Prompt for Windows users) and copy and paste the below command and hit enter.
adb shell
3. Now we will allow the application that will allow us to customize the navigation bar using it. To do this just Copy and paste the following command and press enter/return.
pm grant xyz.paphonb.systemuituner android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
4. As soon as you run this command, you will see: application page color will change from yellow to green. This means that the app now has the access it needs. Now tap the right arrow button and on Tap on “Start” on the next page.
5. Tapping the start button runs a compatibility test on your device. After her run is over, shoot the next arrow Until you reach the main page of the App, which should look like the image below.
6. Now, Tap on the “Navigation bar” option. Here you can see the list of changes you can make with this app in your navigation bar. For example, you can reverse the back and endings button, resize etc. As you can see in the picture below, I reversed the back and ends button on my phone.
7. There are many changes you can make here. Let’s take a simple one for example. You can do Change the look of your navigation bar by going to Themes. Here you will see a list of the different styles of navigation buttons you can use. Again, this is a professional setting and you will have to pay for it..
8. Another great thing we can do is we can add two extra buttons to the navigation bar. It’s very simple to do. Go back to the main page from the “theme page” and Scroll down to find “Extra left button” and “Extra right button” options. Let’s add the left button first. Tap “Type” and then choose your button type. I’m going to create a navigation button that will let me pull down the navigation shade.
9. Now we will select the button icon. As soon as you select the button type, you will see the option to select its icon. Tap on it and select the icon you want. I will choose “Chevron down” as the down arrow will remind me of its function.
10. Similarly, you can create another button (extra right button) that will appear at the far right of the navigation bar. See the image below to see how it looks when I enable both buttons.
SEE MORE: How to Enable Notification Dots Like Android O on Any Android Device
Change Theme and Set Custom Navigation Bar Buttons in Android Oreo
Android Oreo is a great update for the already mature Android operating system. Having said that, it still lacks a navbar customizer that I was hoping for. Fortunately, there are other ways to customize the navigation bar in Android Oreo. So, try this method on your smartphone running Android Oreo and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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