[ROOT] Restore KitKat’s “Recents” View on Lollipop

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Senior Moderator and Recognized Developer Chainfire is well known here on the XDA Forums for his outstanding work on SuperSu, CF.Lumen, StickMount, 500 Firepaper, and more. Today, he brings us an answer to another Android annoyance – Lollipop’s overly-inclusive Overview that has replaced the subdued Recent menu with a rolodex of every app and webpage ever opened by your device. The new Recently app from Chainfire restores Overview to its previous glory, and bolsters the feature with the ability to customize the number of “recent apps” on display.

The app is up on both Google Play and the forum thread, but may be pulled from the latter momentarily; both links are below.

Features

Age Limit – Hide apps that haven’t actively run within X hours/days.

– Hide apps that haven’t actively run within X hours/days. Entry Limit – Hide apps beyond a certain number of entries. Currently running apps are always displayed, regardless of this setting.

– Hide apps beyond a certain number of entries. Currently running apps are always displayed, regardless of this setting. Launch on Boot

Before you pull out your task killer pitchforks, Recently does not kill background apps – it simply hides them within the overview list. Better still, the app produces no wakelocks, and has virtually no impact on battery life.

Requirements

Android 5.0 or 5.1

Root access

Kernel with logging enabled

Download

As with all apps, be sure to read the full forum thread before posting bugs. The app is new, so much discussion will be had over the coming days and weeks; watch this space!

Do you like Lollipop’s Overview just the way it is? Would you rather have the full control of Chainfire’s Recently? Let us know in the comments!