Soft keys vs Button Savior

[thel8elvis]

I have soft keys install via autnooter, and have configured it to stay hidden unless I double click the physical home button - which brings up the software keys.

I have seen at least a few posters who like button savior.

I was wondering if some of you who have used both could post some pros/cons or your likes/dislikes, so maybe I don't have to install every single piece just to see if I like it or not - I'm willing to make decisions based on groupthink

 

[rico2001]

Button Savior is better IMO. It is less configurable but is more stable. Some of the buttons on Softkeys don't work for every user. Some people say it works flawless but I myself had issues with multiple versions. Once I installed Button Savior, it worked great "right out of the box". It also has a timed auto-hide will I love. Button Savior will also dock itself to the middle of the right edge of the screen in both portrait and landscape mode, unlike Softkeys, which moves and often shows up in different places. Button Saviors icon is also better than Softkeys. It is very small and half transparent. During normal app operations, the icon is never a distractions and is never in the way, which is sometimes a characteristic of the Softkeys icon. After 10 minutes of installing and using Button Savior, I uninstalled Softkeys and never looked back.

 

[markiej]

Soft keys was good, but I think Savior is less intrusive. Ideal would be a solution which incorporates the buttons permanently onto the main bar (tap the n key to pop it up if it gets hidden by a fullscreen app) - my guess is that it will involve a custom rom.

 

[gadgetrants]

Count me in as another happy Button Savior user. I found SoftKeys virtual button a real annoyance--either too large, or too small...it seemed to float around when I tapped it. I ended up hiding it and using the "n" key to bring up the menu, but worried that that button may eventually break.

The virtual button for Button Savior is not customizable (other than side/position of the icon). But the test for me was: how does it perform during a full-screen video? The answer is "you only notice when you say to yourself, 'where is the Button Savior button!??!?!'" LOL

Users are always impressed when devs are responsive, and make useful updates. In the case of Button Savior, I've noticed that there is now a toggle in the pop-up menu that provides some additional functions: phone, camera, and power. Of course, none of those work on the NC! But if at some point they become customizable (like dock buttons in LauncherPro) it will be an ideal utility.

-Matt

PS On a related note, I'm a bit puzzled by something: I've been going back and reading mid-December comments about the NC, here and on other forums. A lot of people complained about the lack of physical buttons being a deal-breaker. That seems strange to me...it's such a easy thing to deal with once you have soft buttons...right?

 

[tigersgt]

I would go for Button Savior too. SoftKeys just doesn't work well for me. Like others said, the SoftKeys icon won't stay which is very annoying for full-screen video.

For Button Savior, when you long press the virtual Home button, it will bring up the last 6 apps you used. It's really convenient for multitasking.

 

[vapor63]

Soft keys was good, but I think Savior is less intrusive. Ideal would be a solution which incorporates the buttons permanently onto the main bar (tap the n key to pop it up if it gets hidden by a fullscreen app) - my guess is that it will involve a custom rom.

I think people are frustrated with SoftKeys because they aren't properly setting it up.

Yes, the softkeys super-imposed button dealie sucks. So does Button Savior, to be honest. With SoftKeys, you can disable the constantly floating "button". I instead have the "n" key setup to do the following:

Single Press- Bar appears over bottom home bar, in any program, with all of the necessary buttons

Double Press- Return to Home (within 200ms, so essentially double-click).

This is the key advantage of SoftKeys. In normal operation, there is nothing obscuring my screen, ever. As soon as I find it necessary to use one of the necessary keys (usually back), I hit the "n" button. Suddenly, a bar appears on the bottom with all of them there. I hit the one I want, and SoftKeys goes away and performs the action. No floating icon on top of everything all the time reminding me about how the nook color lacks android hardkeys.

As a bonus, when I hit the n button, to bring up the softkey toolbar, it also brings up my most recently used programs at the top, as if I held Home on a normal Android device.

To achieve this setup, make sure that SoftKeys is installed and your default action for the "n" key. Enter SoftKey settings by opening it as an App or whatever and set the following:

Options in order:

SoftKeys Service

1. Uncheck "Run Service"
2. *personal preference*
3. *personal preference* (should be pretty low)
4. *doesn't matter, the "popper" is turned off in #1
5. Check "Auto Hide"
6. Unchecked (*personal preference I assume, haven't tried it on*)

Virtual Home Button

1. Normal Press: set to your Preferred Home Launcher (In my case, Zeam is my favorite)
2. Long Press: SoftKeys
3. Unchecked

I'm not sure why these settings for the Virtual Home Button have an effect, but they seem to.

Physical Home Button

1. Single Tap = Softkeys, Doubletap = Zeam (preferred launcher)

Some people have to reboot after install to get their preferred launcher to appear here

2. *personal preference*

The rest of the options are personal preference, but this configuration seems to be to be rock-stable and incredibly convenient. I am posting this, despite it seeming obvious, because it seems as though some people aren't yet grasping the capabilities of SoftKeys as compared to Button Savior, and as in the above quoted, the immediate features of SoftKeys aren't well known. Hope this helps some people.

 

[thel8elvis]

This is the key advantage of SoftKeys. In normal operation, there is nothing obscuring my screen, ever. As soon as I find it necessary to use one of the necessary keys (usually back), I hit the "n" button. Suddenly, a bar appears on the bottom with all of them there. I hit the one I want, and SoftKeys goes away and performs the action. No floating icon on top of everything all the time reminding me about how the nook color lacks android hardkeys.

I have mine set up this way ( only I switched single and double click ) and I thought it worked exceedingly well. I installed button savior, and it works well, the icon is small and stays put ... but why would I want an icon at all when I can bring the keys up with a double click of the button and not have any icon ?

If softkeys is acting buggy/not working for you, then button savior is a good alternative. But after trying button savior, I think will stick with SoftKeys.

Thanks, Vapor, for a good explanation of how to configure SoftKeys - I think not understanding how to remove the floating icon may be throwing some people off.

 

[tigersgt]

For whatever reason, I can never get the SoftKeys double click physical home and long press virtual home working regardless of the setting and reboot...

 

[gadgetrants]

For whatever reason, I can never get the SoftKeys double click physical home and long press virtual home working regardless of the setting and reboot...

There is probably an easy fix for this: download Home Manager, and open it. It will show you which of your launchers is the default, and allow you to switch it. It may not be intuitive, but SoftKeys needs to be the default launcher. That way, when you press the Home button, control passes to SoftKeys, which then either loads Zeam (I assume that's your launcher) or the SoftKeys menu, depending on how you configured the number of presses.

-Matt

 

[vapor63]

There is probably an easy fix for this: download Home Manager, and open it. It will show you which of your launchers is the default, and allow you to switch it. It may not be intuitive, but SoftKeys needs to be the default launcher. That way, when you press the Home button, control passes to SoftKeys, which then either loads Zeam (I assume that's your launcher) or the SoftKeys menu, depending on how you configured the number of presses.

-Matt

Totally forgot about that part! I used Home Switcher instead of manager, but regardless it is instrumental in getting it running/setting the defaults properly. If settings aren't "sticking" at first, use Home Switcher/Manager to setup the defaults and reboot.

 

[EZRyder]

Thanks, Vapor! I had uninstalled SoftKeys and tried Button Saviour, but I didn't like the little blot on the screen al the time. I was looking for exactly this procedure [- though I really could only get it to work where Normal Press is Zeam and Long Press is SoftKeys - which I prefer anyway, because I only need the Back key in a few apps.

Too bad the task switcher doesn't allow for a long press to kill the process. Oh well. Can't have everything.

 

[gadgetrants]

By using my Jedi mind-powers, I'm able to tune out that annoying icon in Button Savior...even during movies, somehow. But I do figure it's a matter of time before the dev includes an option for adjusting transparency.

-Matt

 

[vapor63]

By using my Jedi mind-powers, I'm able to tune out that annoying icon in Button Savior...even during movies, somehow. But I do figure it's a matter of time before the dev includes an option for adjusting transparency.

-Matt

You're in luck my friend. If you insist on using Button Savior despite its inferiority to SoftKeys -P), you can check out this thread on XDA where they've managed to make the Button Savior button invisible (100% transparency), and posted an .apk to that affect for the unwashed masses to use. Your jedi powers can now focus on the terrible, permenent hiss of the headphone jack instead.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=897253

 

[gadgetrants]

Yikes! I had no idea this was such a minefield-topic. Hatfields and McCoys. Montagues and Capulets.

Thanks for the tip on headphones. Hadn't noticed that hiss you speak of. Until now.

-Matt

 

[atinsley]

Sorry for this being my first post, but I need to head off to work soon and I don't have time to introduce myself. I agree that people who don't like softkeys have not set it up correctly.

When I hit my N button once, it takes me to my Zeam. When I hit it twice, this overlay comes up.

You need to make sure Softkeys is set as your default launcher.

To set your default launcher as Softkeys, you can download Home Switcher. Then you can go into Softkey's settings and click on "Virtual Home Button" to set the actual launcher Softkeys will bring you to when you hit the home button.

You can also disable the Softkeys service in the settings so that annoying little button won't be on your screen all the time.