I'm wondering how to display the "hint circles" (I don't know what they're really called, and I couldn't find it anywhere) when opening an app for the first time. I've seen this in many stock android apps, but not in many third party apps. Is there even a way to do this?
Thanks!
Here is a picture of what i mean. (The blue circle with the OK, not the white one)
there is a library for that, check ShowcaseView
From what I have experienced with these, they seem to just be a form of a splash screen, or another image overlaying the actual app. Even if the stock apps don't handle it like that, couldn't you just have the app open up a new screen that contained a mostly transparent image except for where you want the ring or other hints. Then you can just at a button to that screen, so that after the user has read all of the hints, then they could close the screen.
I do not know how to totally do this, but since you said you couldn't find any documentation on it, I figured this could either give you a solution or point you in another direction to keep looking.
Related
I have a question. I wanted to develop an app that would add a shortcut to the keyboard (Samsung SoftKeyboard).
The shortcut should be accessible via the dots at the top right (see attachment).
I would like to add a circle ("floating") over my app, as shown in the picture on the right.
Something specific should then be carried out via this circle (but that's not the point yet).
I've done a little research, but don't really know what to look for.
I hope you can help me.
thanks in advance
Example
afaik there is no such possibility to add anything in there. it's another app with own custom settings and options, you can't edit such or change in any way. your last chance is possibility of published API/some communication way for that app, which would allow to add such actions, but I very doubt Samsung made such API for own keyboard app and allowed ANY 3rd-party app to mess in their software... (btw. that would be very insecure for user)
I have searched a lot but nothing lead me towards this what i am trying to do, so i am here to take expert's opinion, is it possible to change the google text or icon shown in screenshot i have attached in question, somehow i kind of know this that it is nearly impossible but there is a load of geniuses in world who can make anything possible so guide me how can i do it in any app?
As many other Android developers, I'm not a huge fan of splash screens, but still most customers want them because iPhone has them or some other "great" reason.
In the android guidelines it says:
Naturally, you want everyone to quickly learn the ropes, discover the cool features, and get the most out of your app. So you might be tempted to present a one-time introductory slideshow, video, or splash screen to all new users when they first open the app. Or you might be drawn to the idea of displaying helpful text bubbles or dialogs when users interact with certain features for the first time.
Link here, first paragraph in "Don't show unsolicited help, except in very limited cases"
And now in the material design guidelines they recommend developers to use a "Launch Screen"
Because launching your app while displaying a blank canvas increases its perceived loading time, consider using a placeholder UI or a branded launch screen.
I'm guessing the android website hasn't been updated yet. Anyway, the last version of Hangouts (5.0.104...) has a very nice and quick Launch Screen. Its displayed instantly on my Nexus 5 with Marshmallow. So my question, is there an "official" way of doing this?
I've been searching for examples but can't find anything except for kind of workarounds like this example here which uses what I think is the most common approach with a Splash Screen Activity. This, however, shows a white screen when the app has been destroyed before your actual splash screen is shown.
This second example uses a theme with a window background which is shown instantly but disappears almost equally quick.
So, how does Google make the Launch screen like in Google Hangouts which is shown without delay and without any white screen before?
A colleague from my work have been in a material design training at Google HQ in London and their official way of doing it is using the windowBackground in the theme as you posted on your own question: http://antonioleiva.com/branded-launch-screen/
The idea is that the XML theme gets show very very fast by the framework, and as soon as your actual layout is loaded it will be visible.
The difference between Hangouts or even Google Maps, is that their layout is a very heavy/complex layout and they simply take longer to load than a HelloWorld app.
As your app grows and gets more complex and with more elements being initialized during Application.onCreate or Activity.onCreate, your slash screen will also be visible for longer time.
edit:
I've found a Google+ post from the official "Android Developers" profile and repost from Google engineer Ian Lake saying the same thing:
https://plus.google.com/+AndroidDevelopers/posts/Z1Wwainpjhd
https://plus.google.com/+IanLake/posts/SW7F2CJvAmU
It's because the first solution (http://antonioleiva.com/branded-launch-screen/) is changing the theme in onCreate. But the widgets of your activity are not yet rendered in onCreate. That's why you see the white screen. The second example is a good one. If you need longer time set SPLASH_TIME to longer. Check the line Thread.sleep(SPLASH_TIME) in the doInBackground function. You can wait more.
I'm attempting to create an activity which allows a user to mask out part of an image. The way I'm trying to achieve this (yes trying, because it still isn't working for me, please see my other SO questions), is by painting a color over the base image using the canvas. I saw an app this morning which basically does exactly what I need and I thought I'd ask here if anyone knows how the app is doing the hard work and if there is a good tutorial or documentation somewhere for this concept?
Basically you press part of the image and it automatically masks out to the edges of the object in the image, you press again to add more, and press to remove.
the app is called "AThumb Cut" and hope its ok to link to it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instacut2
This is an amazing application indeed. They work like Magi tool in PhotoShop. Try this tutorial it tells you how to do it in Java.
I need a little bit of help and I'm hoping that someone can point me in the right direction. I want to do something that I thought would be simple.
Keep in mind that I'm new to Android development so this answer may seem clear and apparent to some.
I want to create a slideshow of my images that people can download from the app store. The images should change every few seconds and the images will be installed on the home screen. I know how to create animations and I know how to create an application that displays images that change after a few seconds. However, I do not know how to set this up so that it can be displayed on the home page!
What I have right now is an app whose icon you have to click on to launch it. How can I modify my app so that the user could install it and have the slideshow display in the background of the home screen?
I have looked all over and I find examples of Live Wallpapers, but my images are all static. I would REALLY appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction or offer the location of a tutorial I can read through.
Thank you so much!
You want a live wallpaper: see http://www.codeproject.com/KB/android/AndroidLiveWallpaper.aspx for a guide.