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Guide: Force apps to landscape mode in Android

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 28 Mar 2018 11:35 User comments (3)

Guide: Force apps to landscape mode in Android With most Android phones, user has two options for screen rotation: "lock the rotation", forcing the screen to remain in portrait mode and "automatic rotation", rotating screen automatically according to device's physical orientation.
Problems arise when you're, for example, watching a video clip on your phone's browser, laying on sofa with phone in slightly tilted position - you move slightly and suddenly the video jumps between landscape and portrait mode.

To avoid such situation, you should be able to lock the screen orientation to whatever mode you prefer.

Luckily there's a solution.

Small, free and ad-free app called Rotation Control does exactly that.

Android app in forced portrait mode




After installing the Rotation Control, you'll see a new row in your phone's quick access/notification area that will allow changing screen orientation quickly between wide variety of modes.

In addition to normal "automatic rotation" and "lock to portrait mode", there will be options such as "lock to landscape mode", "lock to reverse landscape mode" and "lock to upside down portrait mode".

Android app in forced landscape mode


Orientation doesn't necessarily work for Android's home screen, but will take effect when you start virtually any app. Thus, you can now use Instagram, Growtopia, Chrome, etc in forced landscape miode.

App also works for tablets that have other set of default options, typically "lock to landscape mode" and "automatic rotation" - it will allow using apps in forced portrait mode, if necessary.

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3 user comments

128.3.2018 18:28

I've been using this for quite a while on my nexus 7 because the rotation control has become very temperamental and doesn't work most of the time

229.3.2018 01:36

Hey, this looks useful, actually. Thanks AD.

39.4.2018 19:14

Originally posted by mcdyer:
I've been using this for quite a while on my nexus 7 because the rotation control has become very temperamental and doesn't work most of the time
My Nexus 7 started having rotation problems and I found people fixing it like this:

Power down the tablet. Lay it face down on a table with a towel or something to cushion the glass. Press fairly firmly on the back, in the area of the NEXUS embossing. Apparently the sensor is in that area and something gets out of place, and pressing on the back sorts it.

It sounds a bit weird but if you do a websearch you'll find lots of references to this.

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