Navigation Bar customization supported by System UI Tuner in Android O already works in most builds of Android Nougat, XDA Developers uncovered on Monday. The ability to customize the Nav Bar was not only hidden in virtually every Nougat build for months but also doesn’t require root access and can be activated with a simple ADB shell command, the report reveals. Rumors about this feature have been circulating the industry since last summer as Google has reportedly been developing the functionality for over a year now, but it wasn’t until now that Nav Bar customization in Nougat was actually confirmed to be present and working.
The easiest way to modify the Nougat Nav Bar is to send an ADB shell command to grant “WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS” permission to a particular app or simply modify a specific setting. The former scenario allows an application like SecureTasker to modify Nougat’s Navigation Bar, while Tasker itself provides users with the option of setting up contextual modifications of the thereof. Granting the aforementioned permission to customization apps doesn’t require root seeing how the process itself doesn’t entail any kind of modifications to the System UI Tuner, meaning the entire procedure is significantly easier and is also simple to reverse. Refer to the source link beneath this writing to find the exact commands you’ll have to send in order to enable the Nav Bar Customizer on your Nougat-powered device.
According to XDA Developers, the method works on any ROM that still features AOSP implementation, meaning users who are running some build of Nougat that hasn’t been heavily modified should be able to successfully activate the Nav Bar Customizer without many issues. Users have already been able to do so on Nexus devices as old as the Nexus 5X and many Sony Xperia smartphones. Additionally, the same method reportedly works for the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, OnePlus 3, and the OnePlus 3T. One exception to that rule is the Android 7.1.2 beta build for the Pixel phones, though it’s currently unclear why that particular Android version is incompatible with the procedure. In case you’re looking to facilitate the process outlined above, try using the app called Custom Navigation Bar depicted in the gallery below that was developed by one member of the XDA Developers boards.
