If you've been following me for a while, you know I'm big on Android customization and for this year, I've being going all in on using Linux (via Kubuntu). Since my last layout update in February to create a Android homescreen to look like the phone from The Expanse, I began thinking of creating a layout that more or less matched the taskbar in kubuntu. To that end, I've finally completed a layout that I feel does so.
- Direct Video Link
- Prerequisites
- KLWP
- Grant Notification Access for notifications panel and media player
- Global Variables
- Image - For icon at the top left of the screen and accents
- Font - To easily change font for entire layout (currently set to Ubuntu Regular)
- Toggle - Text version for panel switching
- Nova Launcher (any launcher that allows turning off its dock should work but need ability to access app activities to create a shortcut to Google search from its app and open app drawer)
- Layout
- Header
- Touching image opens KLWP settings
- Touching date opens Google Calendar
- Search widget has quick access to search, Assistant and Lens
- Apps - Open App Drawer (via Nova Launcher shortcut)
- Favorites - A simple list of apps I use regularly (I manually picked the colors as there's no current way to pull colors from app icons that I could find)
- Notifications - Top 10 cancellable notifications
- Media Player - Shows album art and track info for mp3 player and podcasts
- Weather - Icon shows current conditions icon & temp with panel showing bigger current weather conditions, the current day's high & low temp and sunrise/sunset and a 5-day forecast
- Notes
- Accent colors pull from default image when no media is playing with colors updated to match media's cover art when playing
- Selection bar shows above the selected dock item and goes away when a selection is made or the icon is touched again
- Touch accent set for apps and notifications to close the menu when selecting any item (touching notification icon dismisses the single notification)
- Touching weather condition in the panel forces a refresh/update while touching the details opens the weather app and closes the panel
- Special shout out/thanks to Brandon Craft aka CraftMath for the video that helped me get the panels setup the way I wanted
- Links
