Lollipop 5 overview / recent apps in landscape listed top to bottom? Put apps list down low to keyboard height like KitKat 4 cover flow recent apps I'm not on Lollipop yet.

I just tried the Lollipop 5 carousel recent apps switcher (overview?) in a store with the Nexus 9, and once I had few apps open, some of the apps were covered, and in the top and back.

I use a Nexus 10 that is placed on a surface, and I think that I would have to keep lifting my palm to reach the thumbnails at the back and top.

The KitKat 4 recent apps (cover flow?) are at the same height of the top row buttons of the stock Android keyboard, and are thus easily reachable.

Perhaps the Lollipop recent apps view that I saw that had the apps out of keyboard-level reach was only for portrait view?



But then I found this site with a picture of the Lollipop recent apps in landscape view:



https://sarriest.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/lollipop-sweet-or-not-sweet/

I can access 6 apps in KitKat 4 recent apps, and they’re all at keyboard level.

I am concerned that even in landscape view, the recent apps in Lollipop 5 will be listed top to bottom, and there will be less apps at keyboard level.



I see another article that has this picture of a grid view of the running apps.



http://www.phonearena.com/news/HTC-One-M8-with-Lollipop-vs-One-M8-with-KitKat-UI-comparison_id65309

I initially thought that you had 2 choices in Lollipop: grid and carousel.

It looks like having the choice of 2 options might just be for the HTC SenseUI.



Is the carousel recent/running apps switcher the only available option for Lollipop 5?

Are 3rd party apps allowed to let you choose a grid view, cover flow view, etc.?

I'm seeing mention of recent apps modifications with Cyanogenmod, Paranoid Android, Xposed, etc..

Does that mean that mean that you might need to root to change the recent apps layout?

Thanks.
That's correct. That's the only available layout in stock Lollipop. Any alternative Recents layouts would require rooting and/or custom ROMs. The alternative layout you're seeing is HTC's custom layout. OEMs are free to alter it in any way they choose, and many do.