[Lumute]

Hi,

I just upgraded to a Pixel 2 XL with latest Oreo and found that I'm not able to create shortcuts for my accounts in the Home Screen.

My previous phone (Pixel XL also with latest Oreo) had them but they were created on Nougat before upgrading so I never noticed the problem...

I tried everything, even resetting to Factory defaults and install the Hub+ before anything else yet still does not work, it says it created the icon but it doesn't.

I then noticed, when using the BB Launcher this does not work anywhere (Chrome, Firefox, etc.), No application is able to create Home Screen shortcuts.

There was a change in functionality where creating shortcuts now brings this icon preview that allows you to hold and place the shortcut where you want, I'm guessing the Launcher needs to implement this?

I also found this info on another forum related with the same problem on nother launcher:

"The issue is caused by a behaviour change in Android 8: https://developer.android.com/about/...0-changes.html
"The com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT broadcast no longer has any effect on your app, because it is now a private, implicit broadcast. Instead, you should create an app shortcut by using the requestPinShortcut() method from the ShortcutManager class."
The browsers have to consider this. With Chrome 60.0.3112.116 I get the following error message in the log: ActivityManager: Broadcast com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT no longer supported. It will not be delivered."

Are there really BB employees in these forums? If yes, could you guys please look into this? Now that I lost my shortcuts I have no way to get them back, this makes the BB Launcher useless...

[max-bb]

This is a fundamental change into Android O and it will take some time for all apps to adapt.

Our December release of BB Launcher and Hub should support dynamic shortcuts, where you can long press on Hub (or other apps) to view its shortcuts. They can then be dragged to the home screen of BB Launcher.

Unfortunately, the shortcut frameworks have changed version to version of Android and developers are still trying to catch up with all the new and different methods.

[Lumute]

Thank you for the info Max, I can understand this requires work and its good to know you guys are aware and a solution will eventually come on that December release...

Thanks

[Lumute]

This is a fundamental change into Android O and it will take some time for all apps to adapt.

Our December release of BB Launcher and Hub should support dynamic shortcuts, where you can long press on Hub (or other apps) to view its shortcuts. They can then be dragged to the home screen of BB Launcher.

Unfortunately, the shortcut frameworks have changed version to version of Android and developers are still trying to catch up with all the new and different methods.

Hi Max,

I just got an update to the BB Launcher which includes the dynamic shortcuts you mentioned (more known as app shortcuts). Unfortunately this is really not a solution to the problem I described above, its definitely something good to have but does not really solve the problem... Maybe what I got is a Beta release and not the final version? not sure as I am subscribed to Betas and I don't see a way to differentiate them but this is what I found:

- The main problem with this is that spark on icons are shared for all icons created with this method. With the previous method of adding account shortcuts to the Home Screen each account icon would get the spark only when new items were received on that specific account. Now a single account receiving a new item makes the spark to shown on all icons... As is, this is really not useful at all...

- For some reason not all my accounts show in the popup window with the app icons. I have 4 email accounts configured: 3 of them are EAS and one is a GMail account, only the 3 EAS accounts show up. Not sure if this is because the popup window has a 3 icon limit (have not seen any other app with more than 3 shortcuts so far) or because for some reason my GMail account does not show up (bug?).

- Putting the Hub+ aside, with the BB launcher it is not possible to create any Home Screen shortcuts at all, this makes the whole Launcher useless as you cannot create shortcuts to web pages with Chrome or Firefox, etc.

- The "Create a home screen shortcut" option in the Hub+ account settings still does nothing.

[max-bb]

Thanks, I'll take your feedback back to the team for further discussion.

[zyad1]

The problem of sparks on every account shortcut is present on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 too, so this problem isn't exclusive to Oreo. I'm on Nougat.

[rolfep]

The problem of sparks on every account shortcut is present on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 too, so this problem isn't exclusive to Oreo. I'm on Nougat.

I am on KEYone BBB100-1 PRD-63116-001 Android 7.1.1 and just factory reset in an attempt to get one of my email account icons back. I had deleted it as an experiment to see what I had done to get the spark working and, now, I have none of the original, working (spark) email account icons. Hub > Hamburger menu > Settings > any email account > "Create a home screen shortcut" > "... is added to your home screen" still does that much but no icon appears on the screen, no matter how many long reboots or coming at it from different directions. Thus the factory reset. I can add a slightly different icon (additional small envelope at lower right) by long-pressing Hub or from the Hub shortcuts in the app drawer but my experience with that has been spark is indiscriminate: it shows on all shortcuts when there is mail from any account.

[rolfep]

KEYone BBB100-1 PRD-63116-001 just updated to AAS212. I answered a call by thurask to roll back Blackberry Launcher in order to compare icon behavior: https://forums.crackberry.com/blackb.../#post13101900 and create a home screen shortcut looks to be working like before, with notification icons individually assigned to the appropriate account icon.

[Lumute]

OMG, OMG! just got an update for the BB Launcher!!!

I had seriously lost hope and thought this app was abandoned...

I can finally create shortcuts again from Hub+ and any other app (Chrome, Firefox, etc.), yay!

That said, these new shortcuts do not display sparks at all

One step forward, one back... @max-bb, any chance this will be fixed? now that at least someone touched that code maybe you guys can pay him a couple more hours to fix the sparks?