Enable NavBar Tuner on your device running Nougat

You can enable Navbar tuner on Android Nougat, without having the need to install any custom ROM.

Google certainly has its ways when it comes to starting new projects. So instead of keeping all the goodness to themselves, they are generous enough to share it with the users, in form of experimental features. This has been happening since the last two Android versions, where we could find such features under a hidden menu known as System UI Tuner.

With Android Nougat, we get a chance to peek at another worthy feature that may compliment the upcoming updates. This is the Navbar Tuner. Up until now, we have experienced navigation bar customization only through custom ROMs and may be Google has realized its importance and finally implemented it as an experimental feature in the current update.

But there’s a catch. Unlike System UI Tuner, NavBar Tuner is not something that you can access by making a few taps. Rather, it requires some modifications in the SystemUI APK (The actual device framework application), which is not an easy task for an average user.

Fortunately, an experienced XDA member (AL_IRAQI) had the time and took the effort to track down the code and unveil this feature. Apart from making the discovery, the user was also keen enough to prepare a bunch of flash-and-go zips for the common Nexus devices that run Nougat. So users like you and me wouldn’t have to go through the headache of decompling, editing and recompiling the APK.

Let us take you through the process to enable NavBar Tuner on your device and also how you can make use of it.

How to Enable NavBar Tuner

Before you proceed to install, you must know that this mod will only work on the devices including Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 9 and Pixel C. Since this is a flashable mod, you must have TWRP installed on your respective device.

If you’re going to make use of commands to boot into recovery, you must install SDK tools and enable USB debugging on your device.

1. First off, download the mod corresponding to your device and build number: Link | Mirror
2. Skip if directly downloaded to device: Connect your phone to the PC via USB cable and transfer the mod zip to the storage.
3. Reboot your device into recovery mode – Open a command prompt/CMD window on your PC and enter the following command while making sure that your device is connected to the PC.

    fastboot reboot recovery

4. In TWRP, tap on “Install” and browse the storage for the mod zip file (E.g. 6P_SystemUI_Navbar_Tuner_NRD90T.zip). Select the file and swipe the “Swipe to confirm Flash” button.
5. Finally, tap on “Reboot System”.

Make Use Of It

Once you have flashed the mod, you can access NavBar Tuner by going to Settings > System UI Tuner > Navigation bar. For now, you will only get the basic customization options, and nothing fancy like changing button colors or icons.

You can freely add new buttons or remove the current ones. If there is a button that you would like to remove, just tap on the “X” icon corresponding to it. As for adding a new one, scroll down to the very bottom and tap on “Add button”. You will get to choose from a few options (Custom buttons are not available). If you’re going to add a lot of buttons in there, make sure to add some “Spacer” (s) in the appropriate positions.

Rearranging the buttons is quite easy too. Just press and move the scroll icon (double-line) corresponding to the button that you want to rearrange. To increase or decrease the size of the buttons, just tap on the double-sided arrow button and make the required adjustments.

When you feel you are done, tap on “SAVE”. But just, in any case, you want to roll back to the stock arrangement, press on the 3-dot overflow button and tap on “Reset”.

So this is how you can enable NavBar Tuner on your Android Nougat device. While these are not much but are definitely sufficient to enhance your experience on stock firmware.

We hope that you find this mod useful. If you have any questions, drop a comment below. Kindly share this article on your social media, so that your friends could also benefit themselves using NavBar Tuner.