4Zones

4Zones is two things at once: a tiling window manager for Samsung DeX, and a shortcut engine for all of it. Every action can have a key. Put a workspace on your home screen and a gesture opens it, so a desk full of windows comes back one-handed, without touching 4Zones. KEYS • A key for each of the 34 layouts, each workspace, each link, each page. • Alt + Win + 1 to 4 snaps the window in front into zones 1 to 4; Ctrl + Win + 1 to 4 switches desktop; Ctrl + Win + = adds one. Every key can be changed. • Expert keys lets almost any key be a shortcut; Modifier keys on their own lets Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Win or Caps Lock work alone; a long press can be a second action. WITHOUT THE KEYBOARD • Put a workspace on your home screen from your launcher. Tapping it opens that workspace on your DeX desktop, just as the card does. • Gesture and macro apps reach 4Zones the same way: by pressing a shortcut key, or opening a workspace shortcut. Nothing else to turn on. • Or tap: open Windows and tap a zone. It flashes so you see where the window is going, then moves after a delay you set, one to ten seconds. TILING • 34 layouts in four families: columns, rows, mixed and freeform. Halves, thirds, quarters, wide centre, master and two, cascade, full screen. Snapping by key is instant. DESKTOPS • Switch, add, and step to next or previous, from keys of your own. See what is open on each, close one when done, or send every window to another at once. WORKSPACES • Save the apps on a desktop, and where each window sits, as a named workspace. Save again keeps it current. • A workspace holds the document, not just the app: a page opened from Links comes back as that page. • Restore into the current desktop or a new one, with a window limit if you want. Folders keep them tidy. • Export workspaces, layouts, keys and settings as one file and import elsewhere. LINKS • Web pages, apps' own links and app shortcuts, such as a conversation or a document, each in its own window. Share an address and it arrives ready. • Give any link a key, so it opens with one chord. PART OF THE 4 FAMILY • 4Dictate, a paid app, drives 4Zones by voice: switch desktops, snap windows, choose a layout. Turn on Let other apps run shortcuts, off by default; 4Zones obeys only apps it knows. • 4Home controls your own Home Assistant. With both installed, one key turns the lights on, runs a scene or sets the heating. 4Zones sends 4Home the link you chose, nothing else. • 4Tasks is on Play too. All at mr-biz.uk. SETUP, ONCE Moving other apps' windows is privileged, so 4Zones needs setup once. No root or computer. • 4Zones pairs with your device's own Wireless debugging, on the device, and uses it only to read and arrange your windows and desktops. Remove it any time in Settings > Developer options. After a reboot it finds the new address itself. • If you have Shizuku, 4Zones uses that instead. ACCESSIBILITY SERVICE 4Zones uses an Android accessibility service for one purpose: to receive its own keyboard shortcuts on a connected keyboard. It does not read the content of your screen or of any app, does not record your typing, and never performs a gesture, tap or swipe for you. Android lists it as able to perform gestures only because Samsung DeX otherwise stops delivering shortcuts on an external monitor; 4Zones never uses it. You are asked first, you can decline, and the app works without it. Turn it off any time in Settings > Accessibility. PRIVACY Nothing 4Zones reads or stores is sent anywhere by 4Zones. No account, no analytics, no advertising, no server. The only thing that leaves your device is a diagnostic report you have read and sent yourself. Policy: https://mr-biz.uk/4zones/privacy REQUIREMENTS Samsung DeX on Android 12 or later: a phone or tablet in desktop mode, with or without a monitor. Tiling and desktops are DeX features and need it. A keyboard for the shortcuts; tapping works without one. 4Zones is free. Manual: mr-biz.uk/4zones/manual. Questions: [email protected]

Links from my other apps can no longer be deleted by mistake. Those rows now offer Rename and Add to home screen only. Any you had deleted are back on the Links page; you will need to record their keys again. Restoring a workspace of several web pages no longer loses a window. The pages now open one at a time, so Samsung DeX does not minimise the first one to make room.