Cut phone screen on two parts that do simultaneously two things

Question

Can i create a program which will cut phone screen on two parts.

Those two screen will do simultaneously two things, for example to watch a clip and to read and write sms.

I think that: 1) i need to create a home luncher application first. How can I create a custom home-screen replacement application for Android?

2) Then i can start two fragment in my activity. http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html

3) Finaly i open app1 in first fragment and app 2 in second fragment. Can i do that, open an application in a fragment?

Any other ideas will be usefull.

What would be the point, Every app that will be launched will be screwed up due to changed dimensions.. Anyways I don't think this will work, since many activities is not fragment based. — Anders Metnik, Dec 10 '12 at 09:03
this needs changes in framework, rather than creating just an app — nandeesh, Dec 17 '12 at 05:59
Can you give me more details please? What do i need to know to do this? How can i start that? Do you now a similar framework? Thanks — haythem souissi, Dec 17 '12 at 06:02
Cornerstone does that, but I don't know how. http://www.onskreen.com/cornerstone/ — haythem souissi, Dec 17 '12 at 07:43
samsung has done this in the latest phones, i guess it needs a change in WindowManager — nandeesh, Dec 17 '12 at 10:53
Cornerstone is open source - you could just download their source code and play around with it until you figure out what makes it tick. — camdroid, Dec 20 '12 at 23:32

neteinstein · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-03T17:53:28.277

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I think you need a modified version of the Android ROM to be able to do this. With the standard ROM you can only have 1 application running in foreground at any given time.

Samsung has done something similar on the Galaxy Note by allowing you to watch video while doing other things.

If you don't want to change the ROM you could implement this on your own apps, but not on all the apps.

edited Apr 03 '13 at 17:53

answered Dec 19 '12 at 13:46

neteinstein

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score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

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You can customize the launcher and the homescreen and lancher, check out the links below

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Launcher2.git

How can I create a custom home-screen replacement application for Android?

Compile Launcher/AOSP from Eclipse:

Android Launcher application compilation on Eclipse

Read this for your information on how to compile and run your custom launcher. https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/android-developers/zI9LPeU1mbc

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

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answered Dec 21 '12 at 11:33

Lalith B

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You would need to customize the application launcher and start the launcher in your fragment activity. But this will alter your windowmanager and force all apps to be rendered shabby. I dont this this is a good idea. – Lalith B Dec 22 '12 at 17:50
thanks, i downloaded the project, when i imported to eclipse, i am getting an error in Launcher.java: The import com.android.common cannot be resolved – haythem souissi Dec 22 '12 at 18:26
You cannot build the launcher as a seperate APK. Read the updated answer on how you do it. You need to build it from terminal. It takes quite a bit of time to compile so its recommended you have a strong system config to build it in 10-15 mins. – Lalith B Dec 24 '12 at 05:16

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 22 '12 at 14:22

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that you can have one application with two fragments in it. The top fragment would display video and the bottom fragment would have the messaging. Since fragments are only API 11 and up you don't have to worry about old phones being able to handle it.

Your step 3 states that you'll open apps in your fragments and I don't think that's how they work.

You can think of a fragment as a modular section of an activity, which has its own lifecycle, receives its own input events, and which you can add or remove while the activity is running (sort of like a "sub activity" that you can reuse in different activities).

Read more about Fragments here: http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html

Cut phone screen on two parts that do simultaneously two things

3 Answers3