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Taskbar

Taskbar puts a start menu and recent apps tray on top of your screen that's accessible at any time, increasing your productivity and turning your Android tablet (or phone) into a real multitasking machine!

Taskbar supports Android 10's Desktop Mode, allowing you to connect your compatible device to an external display and run apps in resizable windows, for a PC-like experience! On devices running Android 7.0+, Taskbar can also launch apps in freeform windows without an external display. No root required! (see below for instructions)

Taskbar is also supported on Android TV (sideloaded) and Chrome OS - use Taskbar as a secondary Android app launcher on your Chromebook, or turn your Nvidia Shield into an Android-powered PC!

Features

  • Start menu - shows you all applications installed on the device, configurable as a list or as a grid
  • Recent apps tray - shows your most recently used apps and lets you easily switch between them
  • Collapsible and hideable - show it when you need it, hide it when you don't
  • Many different configuration options - customize Taskbar however you want
  • Pin favorite apps or block the ones you don't want to see
  • Designed with keyboard and mouse in mind
  • 100% free, open source, and no ads

Desktop mode (Android 10+, requires external display)

Taskbar supports Android 10's built-in desktop mode functionality. You can connect your compatible Android 10+ device to an external display and run apps in resizable windows, with Taskbar's interface running on your external display and your existing launcher still running on your phone.

Desktop mode requires a USB-to-HDMI adapter (or a lapdock), and a compatible device that supports video output. Additionally, certain settings require granting a special permission via adb.

To get started, open up the Taskbar app and click "Desktop mode". Then, just tick the checkbox and the app will guide you through the setup process. For more information, click the (?) icon in the upper-right hand corner of the screen.

Freeform window mode (Android 7.0+, no external display required)

Taskbar lets you launch apps in freeform floating windows on Android 7.0+ devices. No root access is required, although Android 8.0, 8.1, and 9 devices require an adb shell command to be run during initial setup.

Simply follow these steps to configure your device for launching apps in freeform mode:

  1. Check the box for "Freeform window support" inside the Taskbar app
  2. Follow the directions that appear in the pop-up to enable the proper settings on your device (one-time setup)
  3. Go to your device's recent apps page and clear all recent apps
  4. Start Taskbar, then select an app to launch it in a freeform window

For more information and detailed instructions, click "Help & instructions for freeform mode" inside the Taskbar app.

Changelog

To see some of the major new features in the latest Taskbar release, visit the changelog.

Download

Taskbar can be downloaded as a standalone Android app from:

Google Play F-Droid

Taskbar is also included as part of the following Android distributions for PCs:

How to Build

Prerequisites:

  • Windows / MacOS / Linux
  • JDK 8
  • Android SDK
  • Internet connection (to download dependencies)

Once all the prerequisites are met, make sure that the ANDROID_HOME environment variable is set to your Android SDK directory, then run ./gradlew assembleFreeDebug at the base directory of the project to start the build. After the build completes, navigate to app/build/outputs/apk/free/debug where you will end up with an APK file ready to install on your Android device.

Running tests

Taskbar uses Robolectric as its unit testing framework. The entire test suite can be run with ./gradlew testFreeDebug, or you can generate a Jacoco coverage report using ./gradlew jacocoTestFreeDebugUnitTestReport which will be output to the app/build/jacoco/jacocoHtml directory. If you contribute code improvements such as bug fixes, we recommend writing tests alongside it using Robolectric.

For Third-Party App Developers

Android 10 Desktop Mode support via libtaskbar

Taskbar can now be included as a library inside any third-party launcher, to quickly and easily add Android 10 Desktop Mode support into your existing launcher with no additional setup.

For more information on including Taskbar inside your application, see the libtaskbar documentation.

Icon Pack Support

Taskbar includes support for ADW-style icon packs. If you are an icon pack developer and would like to include support for applying the icon pack from within your app, simply use the following code:

Intent intent = new Intent("com.farmerbb.taskbar.APPLY_ICON_PACK");
intent.putExtra("android.intent.extra.PACKAGE_NAME", "com.iconpack.name");
startActivity(intent);

Contributors

Pull requests are welcome! See the contributor guidelines for more details.

  • Mark Morilla (app logo)
  • naofum (Japanese translation)
  • HardSer (Russian translation)
  • OfficialMITX (German translation)
  • Whale Majida (Chinese translation)
  • Mesut Han (Turkish translation)
  • Zbigniew Zienko (Polish translation)
  • utzcoz (Additional Chinese translation, code cleanup + unit testing)
  • RaspberryPiFan (Additional German translation)
  • Diego Sangunietti (Spanish translation)
  • Tommy He (Chinese translation for Desktop Mode)
  • Aaron Dewes (German translation updates)
  • Ingo Brückl (German translation updates)

Special Thanks

  • Mishaal Rahman (xda-developers)
  • Jon West (Team Bliss)
  • Chih-Wei Huang (Android-x86)