Swap up/down buttons?

Channels Fire TV
#1

Not sure if this is the right forum for this request, but I'd love a way to swap the up and down buttons when watching a show on FireTV. Definitely not a bug, but a feature request

Right now:
Hitting the UP button brings up the timeline, which shows at the bottom of the screen.
Hitting the DOWN button brings up the Quick guide/options, which shows up at the top of the screen.

My brain has problems with remembering that for some reason, as I expect hitting the down would bring up the bar at the bottom of the screen and vice versa. Since there are a lot of other options that are customizable in the backend for the clients, I'd love to see that added as an option

Thanks!

#2

While I cannot help with your desire to change the buttons, perhaps offering a different explanation may help you to better remember.

Instead of thinking of it as pressing down at the bottom, think instead of pulling down from above, such as a window shade; one pulls down on the window shade to make it appear in the same manner as Down reveals the Quick Guide from above.

(I can't immediately think of a parallel for the timeline, other than remembering it is the opposite. I know in many Android apps pressing down during playback has the effect you are looking for, as additional controls/information are placed below the timeline. I believe that is one preferred implementation given in the Android TV documentation.

Interestingly, the DirecTV uses the buttons as Channels: Down will reveal the info dialog and audio/caption options from the top of the screen, while Up will pull up the recent channels from the bottom on the screen.

I think this behavior is mostly a carry-over from the AppleTV. There, the action is an actual swipe down/up, which mimics the pull paradigm rather than the press/push in Android.)

#3

That does help a little bit, I'm sure over time I will get more used to it. But thinking of it as a "swipe" may help with my OCD, that's a good explanation :slight_smile:

#4

These explanations are in fact why they are like that and there’s no plans to change it.