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Android 11 is breaking apps that modify navigation bar, unclear if intentional

Android 11 is still months from its final version, but the first Developer Preview has shown us a lot of what Google has in store. One potential casualty of Android 11, though, might be the apps that let you tweak or customize the navigation bar.

Over the past few years, quite a few different apps have hit the Play Store with the ability to modify your navigation bar, even introducing custom gesture systems, all without root. These apps include Gesture Plus, Custom Navigation Bar, XDA Navigation Gestures, and more.

To achieve their results, these apps can’t just be simply installed. They also need the user to hook their phone up to a computer and run an ADB command. Specifically, the command “wm overscan” has been used to enable these apps. Strangely, devices running the Android 11 preview no longer recognize this command. When attempting to run the overscan command, Redditors discovered that an “unknown command” error message would be returned (via Android Police).

It’s unclear if this is an intentional change Google has made, but it’s wreaking havoc on apps that mess with the navigation bar. Some of these apps just crash on Android 11, display their navigation systems above the default navigation bar, or see other issues that often see them not working at all.

Notably, this issue was filed to Google’s Bug Tracker, but quickly afterward, access to the issue was restricted.

More on Android 11:

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

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