Sparked by Apple’s endeavors with the iPhone X, Google took the wraps off its own version of navigation gestures with Android Pie. However, unlike OnePlus and Apple’s implementations, Google kept the bottom nav bar to accommodate a pill-shaped button in the center and a dedicated back button on the left, effectively doing away with the overview button.
A lot of people were quick to bash Google’s decision to keep the nav bar and the back button. However, Google stubbornly stuck to its guns and released the Pixel 3 phones without the option to revert back to the classic back, home and overview buttons, which was quite controversial. While that seems to suggest confidence, the latest leaked build of Android Q seems to suggest otherwise.
New animations
While this might be considered a slight overhaul, Google seems to have stuck with the navigation bar yet again. So if you were hoping Google will finally make the transition to fullscreen gestures, don’t get your hopes up just yet. However, there seems to be a major change in the animations when navigating through the apps, particularly when switching to the last used app. The animation now is more seamless and akin to that of the iPhone X family, which is a welcome change indeed. Furthermore, swiping the pill to the right will navigate you through all your recently opened apps in order and not only the last two of them. This seems like a drastic change in the way how Google’s navigation gestures work, making it even nearer to the baseline set by Apple.
No back button
Speaking of drastic changes, Google finally decided to remove the dedicated back button in its latest experimental overhaul. There is no doubt that this was highly anticipated by most, if not all, of the tech-enthusiasts. Instead, you have to swipe the pill to the left side to go back.
While it feels more natural this way, I wonder whether it will clash with Google’s brand new seamless app switching. If swiping the pill to the right will switch between all the recently opened apps in order, then why wouldn’t Google make swiping the pill to the left switch between the apps in reverse? That seems more intuitive in my opinion.
Other than that, there seems to be not that much changed. You still have to swipe up twice to access your apps drawer, or one tall swipe if you fancy doing some thumb gymnastics and/or shuffling your hand. You still have to swipe to the end of your Recent Apps list to clear them all if you want. Of course, there is no guarantee that we will see these changes in Android Q—this is barely in the prototype phase. You can view XDA’s hands-on video with the new gestures on a Pixel 3 XL running a leaked Android Q build above.
Source: XDA-Developers
