Google released Android 7.0 Nougat earlier this week, for all of the current Nexus devices. However, there seems to be quite a few features missing from the update, many that were leaked in the past few weeks. Google announced that they would be doing quarterly maintenance releases with Nougat, with the first one coming soon. Google didn’t confirm this, but many are speculating that the new Nexus devices from HTC will be available around the time that Android 7.1 hits the streets. That is also when many of the leaked features are expected to debut, as well as Google Assistant.
Now there’s another leak about what may be coming soon to Nougat, and that is the ability to customize the navigation bar in Android. This is a feature that is already fairly prominent in a number of custom ROMs on the market right now, so it’s about time it came to stock Android. Currently, it appears to be available in the SystemUI Tuner, but not for everyone. Now this could mean that it may come in Android 7.1, or it may be waiting for Android O, which should be hitting our smartphones around this time next year.
It appears that there are four buttons that can be added, with the primary three buttons having the ability to be removed. There’s a clipboard button, a menu/keyboard button, a spacer button and a “keycode” button. Which according to the source, this button can be assigned to any key that you want. Currently, Clipboard and Keycode buttons are non-functional, which is likely the reason why it is sitting here in the SystemUI Tuner and not in the rest of the UI for Nougat.
Those of you that want to get this functionality now on your Nexus 6P running Android 7.0 Nougat, well you can do just that. The source has posted a flashable zip onto XDA Developers for everyone to flash. Be careful though, as this could break some things on your smartphone. So proceed with caution, if you do decide to flash the zip onto your Nexus 6P. Unfortunately other Nexus devices appear to be incompatible for now.
Download: Nexus 6P Navbar Mod
