[zj1995]

Hi everyone! I've been reading threads on this forum ever since the Rome/Mercury/KEYone was announced, and I'm certain that it will be my next phone. I've gone from a Sidekick LX to a Curve 8520 to a HTC M7 and now a Nexus 5X, and I can't wait to type on a physical keyboard instead of an inaccurate virtual keyboard that uses overly aggressive autocorrect. The KEYone seems to have everything I want in a phone: long battery life, a customizable, open, and intuitive OS with all the apps I'd ever need, RGB notification light, and most of all a high-quality physical keyboard. Yes, it's delayed, but I'm willing to wait it out since my 5X still works quite well in situations where its paltry 2GB of RAM doesn't get filled up.

There's just one thing that I'm curious about, and that has to do with how BlackBerry's customized Android deals with the missing menu button. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the menu button was one of the four buttons on older Android devices. It was deprecated to make way for in-app menu buttons, but I use quite a few older apps that haven't been (and probably will never be) rewritten to follow the new guidelines. The result is quite ugly, as you can see here. A while after the M7 was released, HTC pushed an update that allowed a long press on the home button to be interpreted as a press of the menu key, solving the problem of the menu bar appearing whenever a legacy app was in use.

Like the M7, the KEYone doesn't seem to have a menu button, and if there's no workaround like what HTC did with the M7 a black bar with a single menu button will appear on its already small screen when using older apps that expect its presence. I know that the software probably hasn't been finalized even as of now, so things can change at any time. I'm hoping BlackBerry does something to work around the lack of a physical menu button, possibly by long-pressing the back button since both the home button and app switcher button seem to have long-press options already.

If possible, can someone experiment with a pre-release unit to see whether there's any options to work around the missing menu button that doesn't involve the unsightly black bar at the bottom of the screen? Maybe an option somewhere in the Settings app? If there's an NDA or similar preventing that I understand, and in that case I'll just wait until I get the device myself once it's released.

[jafobabe]

Look around the forums, and most defiantly read the front page. Here is a video you need to watch on the KEYone, and there are more videos on youtube.

The Best BlackBerry KEYone Video You Need to Watch | CrackBerry.com

[zj1995]

Nothing in the forum seems to suggest anything about the button, and the video only showed off preinstalled apps that use the new menu-button guidelines. This is the first Android phone from BlackBerry that uses physical navigation buttons so I can't make comparisons to the Priv or DTEK50/60.

[xandros9]

Honestly, in the time I used a Nexus 5, 5X and my current Priv, all had the same button layout and it never changed. Even with a Galaxy S II Skyrocket test device on a KitKat ROM three-ish years ago (that had a menu button) I never ran into an app that needed a menu button. The three buttons I had on all three recent devices are the same as the KeyOne's printed keys and it hasn't been an issue.

[BB-JAM215]

This is 2017. There's no reason to expect that the permanent Android navigation buttons on the KEYone will function any differently than the on-screen buttons on the PRIV or DTEKs.

[hjc73734]

Hi everyone! I've been reading threads on this forum ever since the Rome/Mercury/KEYone was announced, and I'm certain that it will be my next phone. I've gone from a Sidekick LX to a Curve 8520 to a HTC M7 and now a Nexus 5X, and I can't wait to type on a physical keyboard instead of an inaccurate virtual keyboard that uses overly aggressive autocorrect. The KEYone seems to have everything I want in a phone: long battery life, a customizable, open, and intuitive OS with all the apps I'd ever need, RGB notification light, and most of all a high-quality physical keyboard. Yes, it's delayed, but I'm willing to wait it out since my 5X still works quite well in situations where its paltry 2GB of RAM doesn't get filled up.

There's just one thing that I'm curious about, and that has to do with how BlackBerry's customized Android deals with the missing menu button. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the menu button was one of the four buttons on older Android devices. It was deprecated to make way for in-app menu buttons, but I use quite a few older apps that haven't been (and probably will never be) rewritten to follow the new guidelines. The result is quite ugly, as you can see here. A while after the M7 was released, HTC pushed an update that allowed a long press on the home button to be interpreted as a press of the menu key, solving the problem of the menu bar appearing whenever a legacy app was in use.

Like the M7, the KEYone doesn't seem to have a menu button, and if there's no workaround like what HTC did with the M7 a black bar with a single menu button will appear on its already small screen when using older apps that expect its presence. I know that the software probably hasn't been finalized even as of now, so things can change at any time. I'm hoping BlackBerry does something to work around the lack of a physical menu button, possibly by long-pressing the back button since both the home button and app switcher button seem to have long-press options already.

If possible, can someone experiment with a pre-release unit to see whether there's any options to work around the missing menu button that doesn't involve the unsightly black bar at the bottom of the screen? Maybe an option somewhere in the Settings app? If there's an NDA or similar preventing that I understand, and in that case I'll just wait until I get the device myself once it's released.

That button has been taken away by Google years ago.

https://android-developers.googleblo...utton.html?m=1

Menu functions are implemented into all modern app interfaces.

[BB-JAM215]

That button has been taken away by Google years ago.

https://android-developers.googleblo...utton.html?m=1

He knows that and to temporarily compensate for the loss of the dedicated menu button HTC provided a workaround for the HTC One M7 which was released four years ago.

He wants to know if the KEYone will provide the same workaround for something that was dropped from Android phones five years ago. I don't think so.

[zj1995]

Worse case scenario is that the KEYone doesn't provide a workaround and I end up installing an app that forces the navigation bar to be hidden until I swipe in from the bottom of the screen for the few apps that are forever stuck in 2013.

In the end it's not that big of a deal, I just wanted to know if a native workaround exists.

[hjc73734]

I dont think this issue would be exclusive to the KeyOne.

I think there are apps for that. I remember pieContol let's you assign the menu key as a swipe up button like the BlackBerry store up targets

[BB-JAM215]

I don't know about the others, but Pie Control requires the device to be rooted, which BlackBerry does not allow.

[Bla1ze]

I can't even think of an app in which this would be a problem.

[Moon_Man]

Too much text about an non existing issue

Sent from my  BlackBerry Passport™

[emanuel0ss0]

What apps are you using that will never be updated??

[zj1995]

What apps are you using that will never be updated??

A compass that allows instant saving of location and also shows speed (great for driving), emulators for retro game consoles (perfect with a hardware keyboard), and a HP-15C/16C hardware simulator (running the original calculator's ROM), to name a few. All these apps haven't been updated since 2014.

[Flatman]

These are not the Droids your looking for. Move along.

[johnb_xp]

In Samsung phones holding down the back / app switcher buttons will act as the menu button. BlackBerry mobile will probably implement something like this.

[Ulferini Schusterotti]

You should get a Motorola Droid 1. That device had a menu button. Welcome to 8 years later!

[hjc73734]

A compass that allows instant saving of location and also shows speed (great for driving), emulators for retro game consoles (perfect with a hardware keyboard), and a HP-15C/16C hardware simulator (running the original calculator's ROM), to name a few. All these apps haven't been updated since 2014.

Do you really need those apps on a Daily Carry device? Leave those on an old phone and use the KEYone for your everyday tasks.

[Mirko935]

There:
Menu Button (No root) - Android Apps on Google Play

[keyboardweeb]

There:
Menu Button (No root) - Android Apps on Google Play

Forum broke your link... fixed.

[Mirko935]

Forum broke your link... fixed.

Indeed. Thanks. I fixed it now in the original post.