First of all for those who do not know what soft keys are, some devices do not have any hardware buttons below the screen but have on-screen virtual buttons. These soft keys were first introduced in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices.

Some users prefer soft keys where some do not. So here is a guide to enable soft keys and disable actual hardware buttons on devices running on Android 4.0 or higher.

Warning: Before moving any further you should know that there is a risk to brick your device and your device may enter into bootloop. We won’t be held responsible for any damage caused to your device.

Pre-requirements:

• Root access on your android device. Check out how to root your android device.
• File manager on your device like X-plore or ES File Explorer or Root Explorer through which you can access your root memory.
• The device must be charged at least upto 70%.

Enable Soft keys

• Open the file manager
• Navigate to /system in the root folder
• Take a backup of the file build.prop for safety just in case something goes wrong
• Open build.prop in a text editor
• Add the following at the end

qemu.hw.mainkeys=0‎

• Save the file
• Reboot your device

Disable the Soft keys

If you wish to disable the soft keys that you enabled on your android device follow this procedure on the next page.