Issue 807701  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 792353  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 818423  has been merged into this issue.

Thanks to omrilio@chromium.org for consolidating our individual Tablet Mode shelf-related issue trackers into this combined meta-issue-tracker.

In a similar vein, I've created a table that presents an overview of our community's concerns about Tablet Mode shelf-related issues, with clickable links to the individual issue tracker webpages:
● 'Chrome OS: Tablet Mode Shelf-Related Issue Trackers'
– Google Sheets spreadsheet, 11 Mar 2018
» https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16XSTb96nJlWYlOhs3dPlLqiCdll4vdM1yxVZHMvCt3M/edit?usp=sharing

Note to omrilio@chromium.org: you might like to also merge into this meta-issue-tracker the following individual Tablet Mode shelf-related issue tracker:
● 'Chrome OS shelf appears incorrectly when going into tablet mode', 11 Jan 2018
» https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=800999

While Chrome OS began as a desktop-like, keyboard-&-[trackpad|mouse]-centric, non-touchscreen based operating system, it's in the much-to-be-encouraged process of expanding into also becoming a tablet-friendly, onscreen-keyboard-&-[fingertip|stylus]-centric, touchscreen based OS (with features such as stylus-based handwriting recognition, Tablet Mode split-screen, and a floating onscreen-keyboard). In more fine grade detail, I'd note that at least three positive and progressive Chromebook hardware design trends are closely related to Chrome OS shelf-specific software design issues:
(1) a proliferating range of touchscreen-equipped Chromebooks - from Acer, Asus, Dell, Google, Lenovo, and Samsung
(2) an increasing flexibility in form factor design - now: 360°-hinged 4-in-1 convertibles; soon: tablet/laptop detachables
(3) an expanding number of stylus-equipped Chromebooks - eg: Samsung Chromebook Plus & Pro; Google Pixelbook; Lenovo 500e

So I'd suggest that these encouraging trends towards hardware design flexibility provide a clear clarion call to the Chrome OS development team to rise to the occasion with expanding Chrome OS software design flexibility. Unfortunately, the reverse seems to be true at the moment: the user-determined Tablet Mode FLEXBILITIES in Chrome OS 62 & 63 to...
(1) choose shelf positions 'Left' and 'Right' and 'Bottom'
(2) toggle 'Autohide shelf'
...have been removed in Chrome OS 64 to 66, to be replaced by a developer-dictated INFLEXIBILITY:
(1) shelf position 'Bottom' has become mandatory; its position can no longer be chosen by the user
(2) shelf is always visible; 'Autohide' can no longer be chosen by the user (although thankfully the shelf can still be manually removed and revealed by edge-of-screen swiping)

Unsurprisingly, this developer-dictated restriction of user choice has provoked unfavourable comparisons to the kind of high-handed, for-profit-coporation-centic, developer-knows-best paternalism for which Apple and Micro$oft are notoriously infamous. Hopefully, we're a good deal better than that, in that Chrome OS is a product of community based development, where Chromebook users can assist the OS development team by contributing to improving how the sofware on our computers actually functions - as already indicated by:
(1) the 69 stars acumulated by these issue trackers so far;
(2) the detail revealed in both these issue trackers and their user comments (as collected together in 'Prior Tablet Mode Shelf Position "Bug Fix" Seriously Degrades Chromebook UX' » https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=818423 ); and
(3) the inclusion of this issue on the 'ChromeBook Central - Rising Stars/Top Contributors - watchlist' ( #CBC-RS/TC-watchlist ).

For a number of valid ergonomic and usablility reasons (of which, more later), many end users clearly place a high value on the flexibility previously afforded by Tablet Mode shelf positions Left and Right, so here's hoping that our Chrome OS developer team's internal PRD discussion will embrace our clear user-expressed desire for restoration of Left and Right shelf positions in Tablet Mode (and Tent and Entertainment Modes, too), such that our developer team will:
● make a conscious collective decision to revisit this contentious issue;
● acknowledge the "wildly unpopular", "frustrating painpoint", and "incredibly annoying" negative nature of the poular end user reaction to this novel, developer-dictated, user-interface freedom restriction;
● figure out a way of reliably resizing apps horizontally, to thereby enable Tablet & Tent & Entertainment Modes to again support Left and Right shelf positions; and
● re-enable fully customisable 'Shelf position ❯' submenu functionality for Tablet & Tent & Entertainment Modes as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance for your time and attention in rectifying this issue.

#CBC-RS/TC-watchlist

Any updates on this? I still cannot write peacefully in Squid without constantly activating overview or multitasking. The 'fullscreen-before-tablet-mode' trick is also having issues. 

It's now 02 May 2018, and annoyingly there appears to be ZERO progress over the last two months on FIXING the developer-caused degradation of the Chrome OS Tablet Mode user interface that is the enforced mandatory imposition of 'Bottom-ONLY' shelf position.

During that time, I have seen THREE other developer-caused degradations of the Chrome OS user interface actually get FIXED:

● Regression: On long press on app icon in launcher, context menu appears and then disappears immediately
– Reported: 09 Feb 2018, Fixed: 16 Feb 2018, and GONE in Chrome OS 65 stable
» https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=810599 

● Android setting "Display Size" not holding
– Reported: 05 Jul 2017, Fixed: 21 Feb 2018, and GONE in Chrome OS 65 stable
» https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=739234

● "Undefined" text typed with On-screen keyboard "caps lock" press
– Reported: 07 Mar 2018, Fixed: 01 May 2018, and reportedly GONE by Chrome OS 66 stable
» https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=819827 

So while my skepticism about the paucity of quality control seems justified (in that developer-caused degradations of the Chrome OS user interface can slip through Dev and Beta phases, and into the purportedly Stable channel), nevertheless my confidence in the Chrome OS development team's ability to ACT to REMOVE such self-caused degradations has been boosted.

With the introduction of the new stylus-equipped 'Tablet Only' Acer Chromebook Tab 10, and the first 'Tablet Detachable' HP Chromebook x2, which is also stylus-equipped, then getting the Chrome OS Tablet Mode to PROPERLY support stylus handwriting again, by RESTORING user-determined Left and Right shelf position CHOICE, really ought to be a HIGH priority - yet this meta-bug-tracker seems to reflect nothing but a frustrating INACTION by the Chrome OS developers. 

Meanwhile, the 86 Chrome OS users who voted for a FIX in this and its 10 merged bug trackers, and the countless other adversely affected Chromebook users, are STUCK with developer-created user interface degradation that means Tablet Mode is WORSE to use now than it used to be.

With the announcement of the roll-out of Chrome OS 66 stable on 27 Apr 2018, even the awkward workaround I've been using to retain shelf position Right in Tablet Mode will soon become inoperable.

If we're to take omrilio@chromium.org at her/his word that "I think this is an important topic and I'd like to make sure we address it accordingly", then...

Q1. WHY are Squid users STILL having their stylus-based note-taking hampered by unwanted activations of the developer-enforced Tablet Mode Bottom shelf imposition?

Q2. WHY are we facing the immanent ANNIHILATION of even the possibility of Right and Left shelf positions with the roll-out of Chrome OS 66 stable?

Q3. WHEN will the Chrome OS development team finally UNDO this Tablet Mode user interface degradation by RESTORING the user-determined shelf position CHOICE which we used to ENJOY?

Acer Chromebook r11 ,issues of shelf position UI not moving on user choice,
"Undefined" issue too.

Just adding in as I see the thread has gone dead - this is also an annoyance for me. The old system of being able to swipe down on the shelf to hide in tablet mode worked really well for me when drawing, which is essential functionality for me. Would like to see the old system return as it was!

Agree entirely. I cannot draw or write on my Pixelbook because the drawer constantly opens apps regardless if it's hidden. 

Yea, nearly 3 months later with no discernable progress, it appears omrillo's  "investigation" of the features we all once used without issue is dead now too. Perhaps hitting up the blogs/news sites and their tip lines will force the issue?

Its another step in the Appleization of devices. Remove choice, remove configurability.

It took 3 updates to break this feature that was working perfectly when I initially purchased my chromebook.

Please let me again put the shelf where I want it. Stop forcing it to the bottom of the screen.

(Bulk Edit) Adding the new conops Chrome OS hotlist to all open issues with the "#CBC-RS/TC-watchlist" tag, our former tracking tag.

Edge swiping to hide the shelf in tablet mode on Samsung Chromebook Plus no longer works since Chrome OS 67. 

I really enjoy my Samsung Chromebook Plus. It was bought for work as I’m primarily an iPad user, but I’d seriously consider it as a home device too if this issue of the arbitrarily fixed shelf in tablet mode can be resolved. This is a deal breaker issue for me; if things stay as they are as of Chrome OS 67 I’ll stick with my iPad.

 Say what you like about Apple, but they do understand the ergonomics or tablet use. The Dock on iOS 11 works extremely well and is there when you want it at any time with a swipe. I can’t understand how anyone thought removing this functionality in Chrome OS would benefit anyone, especially as many Chrome OS laptops tend towards the 16:9 ratio and are thus lacking in vertical space to begin with. 

I use my Samsung Chromebook Plus almost exclusively in tablet mode. Having the shelf on the bottom and and having no option to auto-hide makes my life harder. Some of the apps that I have installed draw underneath the shelf (for reasons I don't understand), Since I can't hide the shelf with an edge swipe and the shelf doesn't auto-hide in tablet mode and there is no way to reposition the shelf, I am unable to interact with some UI elements in the applications I use, which is a real problem.

Based on the tracker history, there hasn't been an update on this issue for a while. Can someone confirm that it's still on someone's radar?

I am also using a Samsung Chromebook plus and as Kevin mentioned the loss of real-estate in tablet mode when using many apps is really frustrating and a major step backwards. For God's sake let people decide how to use this space autohide or not, leave it to the user, do not impose a feature which is retrogressive.

Just wanted to add my disappointment with this change as well. I exclusively use my device for note taking and drawing and this change has really degraded this. With no way to hide the shelf writing or drawing constantly brings up other apps. Even in keep! Please at least return at the very least the ability to hide the shelf or turn it off when I pull out the stylus. Thanks

Please revert the changes made to the shelf, bring back the ability to position as well as hide the shelf. Or at minimum allow a flag to be set to change the default behavior. The direction the dev team is going in regards to removing this basic option is making me regret purchasing a Chromebook as it degrades my user experience when reading or drawing.

Agreed. I bought the HP Chromebook X2 just 2 weeks ago because I jumped at the opportunity to own a versatile, actual ChromeOS tablet. The full tablet experience only lasted for days, because now I'm forced to look at this desktop-looking shelf at all times in tablet mode once I upgraded beyond V66. 

The shelf auto displays over fullscreen Android apps.  Many apps have buttons in the same position.  Since I have pinned apps to my shelf, I find most of the time when I tap a button, the shelf will reappear from behind the fullscreen Android app and launch the pinned app.  I then have to close the new app and try to tap the button again.  

This makes a lot of full screen apps unusable and breaks my favorite solitaire game.

I suppose a workaround would be for me to unpin apps from the shelf, but then the shelf would be less useful.

I use a Samsung Chromebook Pro since October 2017. I have been following this issue since the beginning. "Outrage" is only slightly hyperbolic when describing my feelings about the loss of shelf position choice in tablet mode. I got used to it. It seemed like nothing would change, and it wasn't directly affecting the function of apps.
Now with version 67 comes the inability to hide the shelf in tablet mode. Some apps don't behave the same way, some are just less useful without full screen.
This is kind of the last straw for me. If I can't trust that a tool I rely on won't be changing significantly every couple of weeks (in a way that impacts my productivity, not to mention enjoyment), then I guess the only "choice" left is to pursue a different platform.
Unfortunate... This was so good for awhile.

Just seems to be going backwards at this point. My Chromebook Plus became an invaluable resource for annotating scripts on set, but the now total loss of shelf customization makes it more of a chore than a productive experience. Any Apple enthusiasts in my vicinity just pointed and laughed. That's not said for effect...it happened. Embarrassing. And downright frustrating.

Agree 150%! Was so good but they just keep spoiling it. Why don't they just
leave options to the user, getting worst than Apple.

Ron

Acer Chromebook, let's get the flexibility of the shelf position back !A shame that the Powers dictate what they think the masses want.
Notification swiping and a lousy keyboard also need to be addressed.

Please return auto-hiding of the shelf in tablet mode. Having it permanently visible wastes valuable screen space and is distracting.

Please restore auto-hiding the shelf in tablet mode or at least being able to swipe it down.  Writing on the Chromebook Pro is EXTREMELY frustrating. My hand constantly activates the settings panel or tab switcher.    

While frustrating, I actually have no issues with apps starting up, guess I know how to write appropriately.

+1 on restoring hiding the shelf by swiping. I use a stylus a lot, and that's become very frustrating.

Still no response from any project members. Very disheartening. I reported the issues with stylus usage months ago, and it seems to have been completely ignored.

Please fix this issue.  I am a medical student who uses the stylus in tablet mode to take notes and utilize electronic medical records for patients.  The start bar gets in the way and has made it so I cannot accurately and quickly use my chromebook when rounding or note taking.

Please fix this issue. I am a student who uses OneNote on a Samsung Chromebook Pro and I had to start typing my notes, or writing them on paper and importing the PDF, which I is absolutely not what I have bought this specific device for. My decision to buy it was entirely based on the reputation of the SCP for reliable stylus functionality.

This "feature" finally caught up with me when my Samsung Chromebook Plus updated to 68. The inability to hide the shelf in tablet mode has absolutely broken tablet mode for me. Utterly baffling to learn that this was a deliberate design decision on the part of the developers

+1 For bringing back the ability to manually hide the shelf in tablet mode.  Not having this feature is a serious nuisance.

Yeah, it's ridiculous that this has been removed. It's wildly inconvenient while using the stylus.

I agree as well that the "auto hide" feature for the shelf in tablet mode should be brought back! Was excited to replace my desktop with my new samsung chromebook pro and this particular point is sad and annoying. I can't interact with some buttons on certain apps. 

It seems as though *some* apps can override the shelf and implement fullscreen mode, Netflix being a simple example.

Is it now the case that affected Android apps will need re-writes to enable "super fullscreen mode"?

vjvale...@ comment 46, 

I've noticed that as well. The Android Amazon Kindle app, recently fixed, can hide the shelf.
The Android Google Play Books app can not.

As far as I've been able to tell, any Android app which uses immersive mode hides the shelf when it is full screen.

However, even if note taking apps all suddenly supported immersive mode (so I didn't keep hitting the shelf whilst using my stylus), it wouldn't solve the problem entirely for me.

I frequently use squid in split screen mode (I had split screen turned on with the flag before it was enabled by default in v67). I do this so I can make notes on one side, and have content I'm making notes from on the other. In this scenario, the shelf cannot be hidden.

When an immersive app is the only app, the shelf is hidden. When it's part of a split screen, the shelf cannot be dismissed, even if both apps are in immersive view (having tested with both Safari Queue and Xodo docs configured for immersive in their settings).

This also doesn't account for the fact that even with the shelf hidden, it's still very difficult to use bottom UI elements without inadvertently triggering things on the shelf. The whole paradigm needs to be overhauled.

just got my first chromebook this weekend - it's a 2-in-1 and I discovered this issue straight away when trying to use a note taking app with handwriting recognition

Glad to know it is getting some good community support to be resolved - fingers crossed!

I've not got much faith at this point. This issue was opened by a member of the chromium team, and it's basically been deserted by them.

Bit disappointed. Bought the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, looking forward to the "true" Chrome OS tablet experience and see I have to contend with a distracting bar if I choose to read an ebook in Google Play Books.

Meh. Clean this mess up guys.

I also really miss the ability to swipe down the shelf in tablet mode.  I now have no way to fullscreen pictures and videos in tablet mode from apps such as Plex or FStop.

I am also very frustrated I can no longer hide the shelf in tablet mode, it makes several apps basically unusable for me in tablet mode.

This is seriously annoying. Does nobody on the chromeos team use the pixelbook with a stylus? 5 minutes of trying to use it for note taking or other primary use cases illustrates that fixing the shelf to the bottom isn't a good UX. Seems like this issue is largely being ignored however. I hope some progress is going on behind the scenes.

I'm interested in taking some time over a weekend (or several) to see if I can figure out how restore this functionality and submit a patch. I did some searching and found some commits that remove the relevant functionality, but there was no information that I could see about why it was being done. I don't want to try "fixing" it without understanding why it was removed in the first place. Can a Chromium dev fill me in?

On a related note, is there any news at all on this? I understand that you're busy, it's an open source project, and the bug tracker is not a customer support line. But right now it feels like our concerns are being redirected to /dev/null, and I suspect that that encourages "me too! this sucks!" comments instead of useful comments about what users need.

OK everyone, bear with me as I try to explain a work around.

1. In laptop mode > open an app

2. enter immersive mode with the key
View full screen: At the top of your keyboard, press  Full screen (or F4).
Help page https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/177891?hl=en

3. flip to tablet > the shelf stays hidden > can be swiped up/down

4. this immersive mode will be remembered per app if you close the app in immersive mode 

So, initially, you'll have to do this for each app you want to hide the shelf in. If you don't, the shelf appears and can not be hidden.

Deleted: Screenshot 2018-07-26 at 5.07.49 PM.png 42.5 KB

	Screenshot 2018-07-26 at 5.07.49 PM.png 42.5 KB View Download

That was incredibly helpful. Great to see a workaround until fixed.

Excellent advice on the work around. Thank you.

Fantastic! Now Firefox behaves! (Yes, I'm quite aware of the situational irony).

I'd like to add: chromeos folks, if you do nothing else, please don't "fix" this workaround "bug" in subsequent updates.

Yes. Please don't fix the one thing that covers up your stupid shelf design flaw. 

Google, please attend to this issue. Please do not close this workaround if you're not going to fix this issue for real. Apps should enter full immersive mode AUTOMATICALLY, without a workaround. If you want users to love using Chromebooks, make them love using them!

Well, perhaps I could have worded it better. I believe it should be the
default functionality but or course, the OPTION is always the best
implementation.

Any update on the reason that the original functionality was disabled? I'm genuinely interested in trying to contribute to a fix, but would want to know what the rationale was for the original change.

The only thing I ever found was a commit that simply said something like "ux wants shelf to always be on the bottom".

Please bring it back.  I primarily bought my Pixelbook as a large Android tablet.  The shelf impinges on valuable screen real estate.  Cool device and OS, with few flaws, this is one, clearly not hard to implement because it was before.

Looking forward to native Linux :-). As all my workstations run Linux it's my happy place.

Please enable users to set the location of the shelf in tablet mode. It would be ideal if it could be set to dock on left, right, or bottom. It would be even better if we could, additionally, set it to auto-hide.

For me, it is now impossible to use the stylus feature of the pixelbook. As this was the feature I was most excited about when I purchased this device and the accompanying stylus, I am quite disappointed.

The reason the stylus doesn't work any longer is that I rest the lower palm of my hand on the work surface when I write. This completely breaks the writing experience on the pixelbook, since my palm will periodically graze the application icons in the shelf, opening them mid-phrase.

Thanks very much!
Christine

I'm a teacher and instructional technology trainer. Our teachers were using the Samsung Pro Chromebook in tablet mode during classroom instruction to draw on the screen for math and to annotate images and text. The location of the shelf makes this difficult because apps keep launching when the teacher's wrist touches the screen/shelf. 

Please enable users to set the location of the shelf in tablet mode. 
Thank you!
Stacy

In Chrome 68, even the workaround has stopped working. Prior to that you were able to open device in laptop mode, hit full screen button, switch to tablet & the screen would remain full screen with the ability to swipe up/down to display/hide the shelf. Now this function has also gone. Please allow the user to decide whether they want the shelf to show or not, and where they want it displayed on the screen. I do not like the shelf being always on screen in either mode. In laptop mode I have it set to auto hide, I have my windows taskbar to autohide on my PC. We have these screens, lets use them properly!!

In my opinion, you should *always* be able to hide/unhide the shelf (by sliding up/down) - whenever and wherever - even regardless of the auto-hide setting. 

You could always add an option to "lock" the shelf for cases where people don't want to be able to hide/unhide the shelf at all.

Maybe ad a hotkey for this as well (for non-touchscreen devices) - if one doesn't already exist...

Sorry to be a bother, but can _someone_ from the project provide folks here with _some_ kind of update? This has 108 stars and counting. Any kind of acknowledgment would be better than silence. Right now I'm starting to feel like we're being deliberately ignored.

Taking notes in tablet mode is a bit of a drag when my forearm grazes an application or settings menu and interrupts my writing. Especially when taking notes. It often takes 25 minutes to regain focus after a three-second distraction. Accidental application launch or multitasking view happens more than once every 25 minutes and really hinders my college studies.  eventually went old school and threw the pixelbook to the side for old-fashioned pen and paper because the issue was that much of a drain of focus. I originally posted this on another bug but noticed it was merged here So i repost it

I'm still having the same problem and school is about to start! As a K-12 teacher, we use the Chromebook in tablet mode to cast to the screen and annotate during instruction and to explain and solve problems during instruction. There is really no way to use the Chromebook stylus effectively when every little bump touches the shelf and launches something.

Is there any news as to whether this flaw (aka "bug") will be fixed?

Without autohide functionality - the Shelf is nothing but a flaw and distraction when using a stylus, or even when using YouTube Android app (try to fullscreen a video, and see the Shelf is still there!)


Please bring this feature back. Autohide is a necessity. The shelf should only show up when seeing the desktop or when pulled from bottom.


and no, a keyboard is not an option.

Acer Chromebook Tab 10

FYI, fellow disgruntled ChromeOS users, this exists:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=857607
I have already posted with a link to this page. We should all go over there and STAR the topic to draw attention to it. I think we should REFRAIN from turning it into a complaint thread, like we have (I think reasonably) done here. My understanding is that this is not supposed to be a general discussion forum, but used to report and discuss in dispassionate technical terms. Our views are well expressed here. Maybe we can get more visibility by just increasing the star number on that issue thread?

Please also star (and DO NOT comment on) this issue, which is a proposal for a compromise that lets us have a chrome flag to control the functionality. 
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=873549

I created it and didn't mention it because I was worried it would devolve into a complaint thread and be ignored by omrilio. Again, unless you have technical input, please DO NOT comment.

That bug has been marked as "WAI" which means working as intended. Which means they have no intention of fixing it. 

tjp...@gmail.com
Remember, kevinp asked everyone NOT to comment on 873549. Sorry to point this out this way, but I agree that refraining from unnecessary commentary on that issue thread will be in our favor. Perhaps you should consider deleting your comment.

When I recently purchased a Pixelbook I was under the impression that it would be able to also work as an Android tablet and allow me to run Play Store apps in tablet mode. However, not being able to auto hide the shelf greatly inhibits the functionality I expect from a typical Android tablet running Play Store applications.

I understand that this is --somehow-- WAI, but I would like to add myself to the many people asking that this decision be reconsidered.  I take notes and draw in Squid and other apps on my Chromebook Pro using the stylus, and I end up triggering app launches far more often than I would like since this change was rolled out.

I understand that this is the direction that Chrome OS is apparently going, but please at least create a flag to allow hiding the shelf on swipes for those who may want that functionality.

Not sure that a flag would fix this though, since the problem isn't just not being able to "hide" the shelf. Even when we were able to swipe it away, a light rest of the palm near where the shelf would be inadvertantly triggered other apps to open. So it would seem that it's not really hidden to begin with, making the ability to do so purely cosmetic and not at all functional when using drawing or note-taking apps. 

please take away the shelf in tablet mode or allow for an option to at least do that. Swipe down would be a simple way or a feature in settings. It's impossible for a left handed written to use side by side apps in tablet mode while trying to hand write notes. 

My hope for the flag is that it can be implemented sooner rather than later as a stop-gap measure. A fix for every problem with the shelf can't happen overnight. Adding a chrome flag and putting some code back? I don't know. Seems like it shouldn't be too huge an ask.

Hi all, thank you so much for the feedback and help in understanding where this fails. Your feedback was crucial for finding some underlying issues which we fixed. We are also enabling "Auto-hide" for Shelf, see more details in the first comment.

 Issue 873549  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 857607  has been merged into this issue.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, omrilio@chromium.org

Omrilio@ - THANK YOU!

Yes, thank you so much! This will be a valuable fix for my HP X2.

Wonderful! Thanks so much. Very much appreciated. Adds infinite value to the user experience. 

Joy. Thank you, omrilio@chromium.org, for listening.

Omri, great news!  I have been filing bugs and following this since February. Bringing back auto-hide goes a long way towards making things better, however there is still at least one outstanding issue.  I like my shelf on the right, so that I get more vertical real estate.  Please bring back the ability for the shelf position from clam shell mode to be honored in tablet mode. 

Don't worry, those of us who like this setting will know where to find the shelf! :)

Thanks for the future feature! I have the HP Chromebook X2 and I spend 95% of my time on it in tablet mode with the keyboard detached.

Thank you so much omrilio@chromium.org! I can't wait for this feature to be pushed out. One of the other things discussed in this thread, though, is allowing the shelf position (left, bottom, right) to be changed while in tablet mode instead of locking it on the bottom. Would this be a potential future update as well? I often switch my Chromebook (Lenovo 500e) to tablet mode when I'm reading a large amount of text or viewing certain sites, and I'd like to put the shelf on the left side so I have more vertical reading space.

If this feature is also being added and I just didn't know about it, please let me know! :)

I can't wait for this feature to be implemented soon too! I bought Chromebook to take e-note and I do the writings in tablet like I write on a book. With that shelf bar at the bottom, even if my note taking android app has palm rejection technology, that shelf isn't and it's auto launching apps as I write. And, it's so so annoying to close the other apps and then get back to take note and then they pop back up... it's a vicious circle.

We are all glad you like the resolution. 

Regarding side-shelf, that's a little more complicated issue for tablet mode. 
We are currently investigating how to have a future facing shelf, and supporting side-shelf is extremely tricky, both from UX complexities, and engineering. 

This is a topic of a much larger investigation we are doing with a lot of studies and is deep to our hearts as well. I have nothing concrete to share at the moment though.


Thank you all!

Hi Omri,

Is there somewhere public where these decisions are being discussed? It was
very hard for me to find any information about why these changes were made.

Can you go into more detail about the decisions that were made?
Specifically:

* What problems were solved by removing the side-shelf and shelf hiding? You
list a few competing goals in the issue description but there aren't any
references to other issue tracker issues.

* What about these problems was so serious that the decision was made to
remove the functionality entirely instead of making it optional?

* In the case of the side-shelf, you list ergonomics and feature
integration as problems. Ergonomics sounds like a user choice, and feature
integration is quite vague.

Thanks in advance.

I have an Acer Chromebook 11 -- just got it. I downloaded the Pandora app. I can not control the stop and start arrow because it falls below the black bar at the bottom of the screen. I am not computer savvy. Will this fix address my problem? 

#102, yes if you auto-hide the shelf it will hide and should expose the arrows.

Omri nice job on auto-hide shelf in tablet mode on CrOs 70!

Archiving/Closing this out.  

This issue has been a long standing forum for discussing a wide range of issues related to the Shelf.  

We will review the comments in this issue and file individual bugs as needed.