One of the many benefits of customization is users are able to tweak and fully individualize a device. However, such abilities typically come with one caveat, rooting. For the newbies, rooting is essentially unlocking the deepest and darkest system levels of your device. By rooting, users (and more importantly rooted-apps) are granted the access needed to make the customizations possible. One of the longest enduring and popular rooted apps is the Xposed Framework. This in many ways is the rooters Play Store. Once the Xposed framework is in place, users can download modules (instead of apps) which offer the various customizations or features they would not have had. This week we saw the introduction of a very popular feature as a Xposed module meaning anyone who is rooted can download and install it.
ChromePie adopts a feature which was largely made popular by Paranoid Android (PA), one of the most popular custom ROMs out there (with some arguing PA is actually the new CM now CM have gone ‘mainstream’). On PA the PIE control related to the ability to use swipe actions to force different commands and actions. This was typically a ‘settings’ feature and would allow users the ability to simply swipe from the screen inwards (to page) and a small launch panel (in the shape of a pie) would appear. The actions could be pre-selected and simply by swiping and choosing an option the device would follow the already preset command. This has also often made it onto other ROMs like CM and Slim although most would consider this to be a PA feature. Well, now thanks to the work of JT5 (who created the module) any Xposed users can download the ChromePie feature and use it with Chrome. To clarify, when using Chrome users can now use swipe actions to force a specific command. According to the author’s comments the commands currently available include back, forward, refresh, new tab, new incognito tab, close tab, add bookmark, history, request desktop site, find in page, add to home, share, scroll to top, full screen among others
The PIE feature is completely customizable so that users can choose which swipe feature activates which action. This is the first edition of the module and as such it would be wise to expect some bugs or incomplete features but generally seems to be working well. Knowing what Xposed module developers are like, updates and improvements will occur frequently and often so it is worth downloading and giving ChromePie a go. The module should work on most Android devices although the developer does note this has only been tested fully on the Nexus 5. Either way if you fancy giving Chrome the PA treatment by adding a PIE feature then head over to xda page (Source link below) for more information and download instructions.
