Google hints at swipe-left gesture to go back in Android P

A development team said it was considering diverse ways to make navigation wholly gestural

Android P home button

A mail service on the Google Issue Tracker picked upwardly some steam earlier this week when it received annotate from the development team.

The mail suggested that Google add a swipe-to-go-dorsum gesture to Android P. Specifically, the post requested Google add the gesture to restore residue to the navigation bar.

Correct at present in Android P, the bar has a small pill button in the centre. It too has a contextual back button that shows up when users can get dorsum. The problem is the back button isn't symmetrical. When the back button pops up, in that location's cypher to residual information technology on the other side of the pill.

Furthermore, the pill can exist flicked to the right to flip through contempo apps. However, flicking left on the pill does cipher. Posters on the Upshot Tracker board appealed to Google to impale two birds with i stone — replace the dorsum push with a left-swipe gesture.

A comment from the development team said that the team was looking into options to be fully gestural. However, they need to balance that against app expectations and compatibility.

Another commenter replied, saying "that sounds like an extremely long-winded 'No.'" To me, information technology sounds more than like a perhaps.

Better gesture concepts

While at start I thought that swiping left on the pill to go back was counter-intuitive, this weblog mail service from writer Ollie Francis outlined a concept for using left-swipes that inverse my heed.

He based his concept on Android P. Francis observes apps as a series of layers. Borer something in an app creates a new layer. Swiping left on the pill pushes that layer abroad.

One example he used was the popular 'left tray' menu. Most apps feature i now. Users can swipe in from the left edge, pulling a tray out over the screen. Currently, tapping back slides the tray away. With Francis' concept in mind, swiping left on the pill would exist akin to pushing the drawer dorsum.

Francis as well outlined a manner to deal with the keyboard. Instead of the electric current system, which places the keyboard to a higher place the navigation bar, the concept moves the pill upwards above the keyboard. To hide the keyboard, users but swipe down on the pill to button the keyboard out of the way.

While I uncertainty Google will e'er attempt such a daring navigational change, I'd welcome it. It would be the epitome of Android gesture navigation.