Taskbar - One of the best multitasking app

Repository

https://github.com/farmerbb/Taskbar

Introduction

Over the years, there has been a severe advancement in technology which has helped mankind in solving their daily problems.
The existence of smartphones has been a huge joy for humans. It has been a piece of equipment for helping humans perform their daily activities efficiently in one way or the other.

Multitasking is one great feature present on our smartphone. With the help of this feature, one, two or more tasks can be performed simultaneously. Well, the advancement of technology has made all of these possible.
I recall vividly when I got my first phone which had a Java OS. I always had to close the facebook app to access any other app. Now, I make use of a phone with an Android OS which I can perform different task simultaneously by minimizing one app and accessing another app.

In this blog post, we'll be looking at a project by farmerbb that helps users multitask in a swift and advanced way without having to exit the current interface they're on.
The project's name is Taskbar.

Image source

What is Taskbar?

I may define Taskbar as an android application that lets its users access the list of applications installed on their device without having to minimize the interface which they are on. This application serves as a real multitasking machine.

Getting started

The Taskbar application is simple to install and set up. Follow the following steps to get started:

• Click on this link to get in on Google play store or this link to get it on F-droid.
• After a successful installation, launch the application.

Permissions Needed

User's permission is needed by an application for the application to function in a manner that will be perfect for the user.

After successful installation and launching of the Taskbar app, I observed that it did not ask for permission for me to see the first interface or its homepage. This doesn't mean the Taskbar app does not ask for permission. Of course, it asks for permission but in a different way.

Permissions were asked when I activated the button on the top right-hand side of the homepage. The first was for me to grant permission to draw over other apps.

After I had granted the first permission, I activated the button on the top right corner for the second time. Here, I granted usage permission to enable support for recent apps. Below is a screenshot of the interface that appears when all permissions were granted.

Taskbar In Action

The beauty of the Taskbar application is the ability for me to access a list of all my installed applications regardless of the interface I'm in.

Taskbar covers just a little portion of my screen which makes it very convenient for me to access my list of applications without having to close the interface I'm in.
By default, it arranges my apps in alphabetical order which make it easy for me to locate an app easily, though it's customizable.

Taskbar features

The features of Taskbar can be easily seen on the home screen of the app. They are;

• General settings
• Appearance
• Recent apps
• Freeform mode

General settings
This is where the customization of the Taskbar app takes place. Here, I can choose how I want my start menu to appear(whether list or grid), configure apps in the start menu, change the position of Taskbar on my screen, select to launch the app on boot.

Appearance
As the name implies, this is where I can customize how I want my app to appear. The app has two themes where users can choose from which is the light and dark theme.

I can also choose other options like using Taskbar logo as a start menu icon, showing shortcut icon for pinned apps, visual feedback when selecting icons, making start menu transparent.

Recent apps
With this feature, I can choose recent apps to display on my Taskbar, the sort order for apps(whether ascending or descending), max number of recent apps to display.

Freeform mode
This is the most interesting feature I enjoyed in the Taskbar app. With this feature, I was able to launch different apps at the same time in a desktop-style.
Before I could make use of this feature, it required some setup. The steps are outlined below;

• Go to build number on your device, tap on it seven times to be a developer.
• Go to developer options and enable USB debugging.
• Connect your device to a computer with the Android SDK installed, and run the command below

adb shell settings put global enable_freeform_support 1

• Reboot your device

Once the code ran successfully, I could access other options on the freeform mode. This is shown on the image on the left-hand side above.

Once I activated the freeform mode, It cleared all apps on the screen which I was able to access apps in desktop-style. This is shown in the image on the right-hand side.

Advantage

• One unique feature about the Taskbar app is the freeform mode done in a desktop-style.
• Very reliable

Disadvantage
I am yet to discover any disadvantage of this great application.

Comparison with a similar app

I kept the Taskbar app side by side with a similar app called overlays. On the overlays app, though it comes with some inbuilt apps, I observed that I couldn't make use of my installed applications unless I upgrade to the pro version. This makes Taskbar app better than overlays app cos I accessed my installed apps on the Taskbar free of charge. Also, too many ads are shown on the overlays app which distracts me a lot. For me, the Taskbar app is better and convenient to use.

Project update

The developer of this app is doing his very best to ensure this app is under proper maintenance. The last commit took place 8 days ago. So far the developer has made nine releases and the last release(v4.0.3) was on June 13, 2019. The developer made three changes to the latest release., which are;

• Support for locking the device's screen has been removed
• Updates for Android Q
• Minor bug fixes

Conclusion

The taskbar app is an app you should try out. It's very reliable and convenient to use.

Resources

This post and all its contents are based on my experience, knowledge, and personal use of the Taskbar application.
Most images are from my usage screenshots, and I provided links to all external images where applicable.