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Android Q May Change the Back Button To a Gesture (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Android's back button might be going away entirely, replaced with a quick swipe to the left from the home button. From a report: XDA Developers has been digging into a leaked, early set of code from the next version of Android, codenamed Q, and the latest discovery from those forays is this potential demise of the back button, as well as a quicker app-changing animation when you swipe to the right. The way that gestures and buttons work in Android 9 Pie (the current iteration, at least if you're lucky enough to own a phone that runs it) is a little bit split. Google's Pixel has just a home "pill" and then a back button appears only when it's needed.

Here's a quick video XDA made showing the gesture system Google is experimenting with in Android Q. It is, as anybody could have predicted, a little messy. For something as core to a phone as "going home" or "going back," the fact that different phones have different methods could be a problem.

12 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Physical buttons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm glad my device has physical buttons. Hopeful!y there is a way to disable this on other devices.

    1. Re: Physical buttons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Google developers cannot read so they have no idea there were home and back buttons and they invented a gesture. No thanks

  2. Force quit by ichthus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is fine, but I hope they somehow retain long-hold-on-back-button = force quit (enabled in developer options). I love this feature.

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    sig: sauer
  3. Buttons by fluffernutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is a swipe easier than a button? Why can't people understand buttons??

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Buttons by AuMatar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, there aren't any pros for gestures. They're less discoverable, require more effort, and they don't work in fullscreen apps like you claim- they are in fact far more likely to interfere in apps at any size because swiping is a very common operation. This is just a horrible idea from start to finish.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  4. Fuck gestures by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gestures have to be the most opaque way to interact with anything.

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    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    1. Re:Fuck gestures by GuB-42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I found the "fuck gesture" to be a very clear way of interacting with people.
      For example, if you meet some UI designers from Google, it can be used to show how much you appreciate their work.

  5. Stop Screwing with the Interface... by sqorbit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it' ain't broke, don't fix it. Seriously though, why do developers (yes I'm talking to you too GNOME) feel the need to constantly change UI's? If something is working and working well for the users why change for the sake of having something "new". It's purely to add things to a feature list. People - If it ain't broke don't fix it. Engineers - If it' ain't broke we haven't added enough features.

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    Sent from my TARDIS
    1. Re:Stop Screwing with the Interface... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the studies were right they wouldn't have to change anything, yet here we are. Sounds like the studies keep drawing different conclusions.

      I'm glad I don't have to keep re-learning how to open my fridge or running the faucet or using a bar of soap.

  6. Obsessive minimalism is mental illness. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It stems from the same "philosophy" as Zen buddhism, whose point is to reach "nirvana", where you havd completed abolishing your own existence "from this universe". Where all joy and purpose is done away with, in favor of the ultimate goal of doing away with the frightening overwhelming reality.

    That this is harmful, is obvious to everyone.
    Like in this case, like nearly all K.I.S.S. / " simplicity" / minimalism cases, where the new version is *more* cumbersome than the old version.

    Yes, I want life to not be hard too. But I do not want to lose power and actually having a life in the process!

    1. Re:Obsessive minimalism is mental illness. by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you look at it from the perspective that all these phones and tablets are 'consumption devices'. Well, they want to make it more and more like a TV, such that you don't really have much control to skip content or advertisements. You can pick a channel (app) and now just watch your entertainment and whatever ads they want to show you.

      Clearly being a portable TV is their end goal, not a portable computing device.

  7. The display *will* break by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because you will flip your phone out of your hand and onto the ground when trying to perform such a gesture with your thumb positioned so low on the screen.

    Scrolling up and down is fine but gesturing left and right can get wobbly, especially on larger phones.