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Friday, January 01, 2016

Hide Android Soft Keys on Android One G1 without Root

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR~! My New Year's Resolution for this blog would be to at least post more entries this year compared to the last one. Here's to 2016! *cheers*

Ok moving on...

Some Android phones like my Cherry Mobile Android One G1 have on screen navigation buttons. These allow for smaller phones as there's no need for hardware buttons that are prone to bork out. These "soft keys" have its downsides. Some apps are incompatible with phones that have soft keys, one example is: Snapchat.

The latest version of Snapchat still doesn't support soft keys. Enabling Auto-rotate will enable you to take a pic/video and hit the next button. The next step involves choosing the recipient. However, this screen does not rotate, so you won't be able to actually send a pic/video:
Snapchat Camera with Soft Keys

Snapchat Send screen with Soft Keys
Attempting to chat with a Snapchat friend is even more frustrating. The soft key bar will be covering the text box and this screen also doesn't rotate. You wouldn't be able to type a message to send at all!

Snapchat with Soft Keys
Now here's a fix that wouldn't require you to root your android device:

GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode

Settings
Take note that here's a PRO version:

Snapchat PRO version 160.07 PHP
PRO features
PRO version restrictions
But the free version was more than enough to fix my Snapchat problem. When you click the text box, the keyboard won't immediately show up. The app warns you about this. (I wasn't able to take a screenshot of the pop-up.)
GMD turned ON - Chat
What you need to do is to swipe up to make the soft key bar appear and then click on the chat box. The keyboard will be pulled up and you can now type!
GMD in action - Chat
GMD in Action - Snapchat Camera
Of course there are other ways of hiding soft keys. I find that this one is the most user friendly option since alternate solutions would require you to root your device. For now I'll be keeping GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode installed on my phone.

Download GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode app HERE.

I hope that helped!

What app/s are you using that doesn't support soft keys? Did this app work for you? Share it on the comments below!