Controlling screen orientation in Android applications. Managing device orientation in Android

Why do you need to disable auto-rotate on your phone?

Battery saving
. Such a trifle, but it consumes battery power. The fact is that in phones with Android 9 and higher, the program not only regularly reads the position of the screen using several sensors, but also analyzes human behavior so as not to rotate the screen when it is not necessary.
When using TalkBack or other voice-over services
, for example, the FBReader reader. When you rotate the screen, the text will simply be interrupted, which is inconvenient and begins to irritate.
When using the phone while lying on the bed
. After all, it is not so easy to hold a smartphone at arm's length for several hours, even while lying down. Therefore, you can always put it on the bed edge-on. But here's the problem: landscape mode is instantly activated. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to disable auto-rotate. It's inconvenient.

Interface Behavior Models

To help UX specialists, I divided interface behavior models into 4 types.

Fluid

The interface changes depending on the screen size.

In Skype, icons change their position depending on the orientation.

Pocket's: same mesh, different widths.

Expanding

In this model, the interface not only adjusts to the screen size, but also adds or removes new elements. For example, IMDb for iPad uses a wide area to view filmography in landscape mode. In portrait orientation, this list is available only after pressing an additional button.

IMDb for iPad.

Providing functionality in any orientation gives the user comfort. And at the same time, it allows you to use the application in any orientation without forcing you to hold the device in a certain way.

Complementary

When using this model, changing the orientation causes an alternate screen. For example, a financial application. In vertical orientation the information is displayed as a table, and in horizontal orientation as a graph.

The main and additional interface in the financial application.

Continuous

Changing the orientation allows you to access an additional interface. At the same time, the functionality of the previous interface is preserved in the new one. For example, a TV remote control application. In landscape orientation, a list of channels opens while maintaining the functionality for setting up, recording and viewing channels.

Program guide in Smart Remote.

How can you switch the orientation?

For example, there is a website opened in Chrome for Android. This browser allows you to change the orientation from standard (vertical) to landscape. There will be more text in landscape orientation, and it will be more convenient to read (the font will also be larger). But how can you change the orientation when auto-rotate is turned off?

There are two ways. The first is to turn on auto-rotate for a while, wait for the orientation to change, and turn off auto-rotate.

The second one is suitable for those people who have “pure” Android version 9 and higher on their phone. In this case, when you rotate the screen, a small button appears in the same place where the navigation buttons are located. She suggests turning the screen.

Via AssistiveTouch

Open “Settings” - “General” - “Accessibility” - “AssistiveTouch”.

This option allows you to perform actions that are often reserved for mechanical buttons (for example, screen lock buttons). AssistiveTouch also allows you to rotate the screen in different directions in applications that support this mode of operation. Before using this function, you must disable the gadget's rotation lock.

Next to the “AssistiveTouch” line, click on the switch. It will turn green, indicating that the feature is now enabled. A gray square will also appear on the iPhone screen. Initially it is small and translucent, but when you press - it will unfold.

We exit the settings, and then open any program. “Notes” and “Photos” are suitable, since they are guaranteed to support screen rotation.

Click on the gray square. A menu will appear with options such as Control Center, Device, and Action Center. Select the “Home” option at the bottom of this section. Selecting this function corresponds to pressing the mechanical “Home” button.

Select the “Device” function. A tab with additional options will appear.
Select "Screen Rotation". While screen rotation lock is disabled, this function will allow you to rotate the screen in any direction.
Press "Left" or "Right" to switch to landscape mode. If the running program supports rotation, the image on the gadget will turn upside down. To shrink the AssistiveTouch menu, tap anywhere on the screen.

Accelerometer calibration

The accelerometer is responsible for rotating the screen, the operation of which is sometimes disrupted by physical or software glitches.

Sometimes accelerometer calibration fails after updating MIUI.

To calibrate the accelerometer:

1. Go to the dialer and dial the code *#*#6484#*#* to get to the engineering menu.

2. Find the item “Accelerator” or “Accelerometer sensor”.

3. Tilt the phone in different directions until arrows appear on the display.

4. Place the device on a flat horizontal surface and press the “Calibration” button.

5. Wait until the system displays the message “Calibration success”.

6. After these manipulations, auto-rotate should work.

On new versions of MIUI, the engineering menu has only thetas to check the functionality of the sensors.

Video instruction

What if the button is pressed?

This indicates that image rotation on the screen is blocked: if you turn the device over, the image will not flip. That's all.

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Source

Reboot

No matter how trivial, but often a simple reboot of the smartphone helps to get rid of the problem. Sometimes you have to take more drastic measures.

Try resetting all settings:

Save your personal data and files.
Go to Settings and go to Advanced Settings.
Select the "Backup and Reset" section.
Click "Reset settings" and delete all files on your phone.

In the most difficult situations, only flashing helps.

If you are an advanced user, flash your smartphone using your usual method (MiFlash, ADB, etc.)

Other users can try reinstalling the MIUI update through the “three dots”:

Go to “Settings” and select the “About phone” section.
Open "System Update".
Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the display and download the full firmware.

After reinstalling the latest version of MIUI, the auto-rotate problem often disappears.

Enabled zoom mode

On iPhone

6 Plus, 6S Plus, 7 Plus, the reason may be that the zoom option is enabled. In this mode, the icons on the display will be larger, which will greatly simplify interaction with small menu items, but the image will not flip after user actions. To correct the situation, you need to perform several steps:

go to settings
select "Brightness"
then in the zoom menu select the "View" line, then click "Standard" and "Set"

After this, screen rotation should work as usual - you can also check it through the "Calculator".

How to change screen orientation manually

If you want to manage template changes manually, you need to use the methods provided by the Configuration class. An object of this class is passed as a parameter to the onConfigurationChanged method, which is called when one of the parameters defined by the Activity attributes in the AndroidManifest.xml file changes. To intercept orientation changes, you need to set the android:configChanges attribute to the orientation value in the manifest file. If this is not done, the onConfigurationChanged method will not be called when the device orientation changes.

Installation methods

The best option is to install the application via an apk file. Downloads are allowed through the manufacturer's app store. But for this you need to change the region to “India”. The application is available on devices with localized and beta firmware.

Source

Tracking the placement of the smartphone in space and adjusting the image output in accordance with the received data is the task performed by the orientation option on Xiaomi. If the phone is in a vertical position, the image will automatically flip vertically. When changing the position to horizontal, the picture will flip 90°. This result is achieved due to the operation of the position sensor of the mobile device in space.

To enable the function, you need to pull down the Xiaomi notification shade and find the icon in the form of a lock with an arrow placed around it. The icon should be gray, i.e. The orientation lock function is disabled. If it is blue, then the smartphone will not automatically flip the picture.

Lock screen orientation

Sometimes we need to prevent orientation changes. For example, for a long list, portrait orientation is preferable because it allows more information to fit on the screen. You can restrict the screen orientation for your activity using the android:screenOrientation attribute. This attribute can be specified in AndroidManifest.xml. android_screenOrientation=”landscape” – landscape orientation, android_screenOrientation=”portrait” – portrait orientation. If you limit your application to one orientation, then the template should be located in the res/layout folder.

Activity (pedometer)

The program calculates steps using the accelerometer built into the phone. The data is in the table. The information is presented in several sections:

The program does not have options to control the stages of sleep or the period of falling asleep.

The user must enter the data himself, the program tries to automatically adjust the indicators, guided by the immobility of the device, but the calculations are incorrect.

Problems with auto-rotate

Sometimes “Orientation” does not work correctly or does not work at all. Rotating the image may freeze and not return to its original position, or the image may not rotate at all. The first thing you need to do is check whether the button is activated.

If it is enabled, but the problem is not resolved, you should rule out failures in the application itself. The cause of the breakdown may be a short-term system failure. In this case, you can restart your phone. After this, auto-rotate begins to function normally.

If rebooting does not help, then you should do a complete reset of your smartphone to factory settings. You must first back up the files located in the gadget’s memory. Updating the operating system to the latest version will help restore image orientation.

If none of the above methods help solve the problem, then you need to contact a specialist who will conduct professional diagnostics. Or do it yourself.

Article information

This article was produced by our experienced team of editors and researchers, who reviewed it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Categories: Smartphones

In other languages:

English: Rotate Screen on iPhone, Italiano: Disattivare la Rotazione Automatica dello Schermo su iPhone, Português: Girar a Tela no iPhone, Español: girar la pantalla en un iPhone, Deutsch: Den Bildschirm auf dem iPhone drehen, Français: faire pivoter l' écran d'un iPhone, Bahasa Indonesia: Memutar Layar di iPhone, العربية: تفعيل خاصية تدوير الشاشة في الآيفون, ไทย: หม ุนหน้าจอ iPhone, 中文: 在苹果手机上旋转屏幕, Tiếng Việt: Xoay màn hình trên iPhone, 日本語: iPhoneの画面を回転させる

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Android application example

Let's create a project to demonstrate different ways to change the screen layout when changing orientation. The application will consist of three buttons, when clicked, an activity will open, in which one or another way of working with orientation will be implemented. Inside the application template, using the android:onClick attribute, we will declare methods that will be called when the buttons are clicked.

Our application template looks like: activity_main.xml

:android=”https://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android” >:tools=”https://schemas.android.com/tools” android:layout_width=”match_parent” android:layout_height=”match_parent » android:orientation=»vertical»> <Button android:id=»@+id/btRestricted» android:layout_width=»match_parent» android:layout_height=»wrap_content» android:text=»@string/bt_restricted_orientation» android:onClick=»restrictedOrientation» tools:context=».MainActivity» />LinearLayout></button>

Inside the MainActivity class we will define these methods.

package com.code4reference.orientationspecificlayout import android.app.Activity import android.content.Intent import android.os.Bundle import android.view.View publicclass MainActivityextends Activity{ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){ super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) } /** * Launch an activity that implements * automatic template changing. * @param view */ public void autoOrientationDetection(View view){ Intent intent=new Intent(this, AutomaticOrientation.class) startActivity(intent) } /** * Launch an activity that implements * dynamic template changing. * @param view */ public void dynamicOrientationDetection(View view){ Intent intent=new Intent(this, DynamicOrientationDetection.class) startActivity(intent) } /** * Launch an activity that implements * template change blocking. * @param view */ public void restrictedOrientation(View view){ Intent intent=new Intent(this, RestrictedOrientation.class) startActivity(intent) } }

Implementation of automatic screen orientation

Create a template file activity_automatic.xml in the res/layout-land folder. This file defines the screen view in landscape orientation. layout-land/activity_automatic.xml

We will create a similar file for portrait orientation in the res/layout-port folder. Please note that the TextView has different colors.

To implement automatic template changes, let's create the AutomationOrientation class. Inside the class, we simply associate an xml file with the activity. AutomaticOrientation.java

package com.code4reference.orientationspecificlayout import android.app.Activity import android.os.Bundle publicclass AutomaticOrientationextends Activity{ @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){ super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_automatic) } }

Set Orientation Application

Open Play Store.
Click on the icon in the form of a multi-colored triangle.
In the search bar (at the top of the screen), enter "Set Orientation".
Click Install.
Click Accept and the Set Orientation app will be installed on your device.
Launch the application.
Now select the desired screen orientation from the menu. To access an app, swipe down from the top of the screen and tap Orientation.

Why does iOS desktop rotation not work on Plus versions of iPhone?

If you suddenly notice that iOS desktop rotation has stopped working in Plus versions of the iPhone, then the problem probably lies in the mode of displaying icons on the springboard (home screen).

Follow the path: Settings → Display and brightness → View

Besides Standard

display of iOS interface elements is also
Enlarged
.
In the Enlarged
, all interface elements, including the icons on the springboard, become slightly larger, and the function of rotating the display on the desktop will be disabled. At the same time, everything will rotate normally in all applications.

To reactivate desktop rotation, go to the Standard

and click
Install
. The installation process will take a few seconds.

Articles and Lifehacks

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To avoid such situations, this trick was invented.

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