Google will soon be taking wraps off its Android Q operating system at its developer conference that is scheduled for May this year. However, various leaks and reports about the upcoming operating system’s features have surfaced online.
According to reports, there will be new gesture controls coming with Android Q along with a system wide dark mode. With the upcoming Android Q, we might lose one or all of the three major buttons from Android – the back button.
In the testing phase of Android Q, Google is testing to replace the back button with a gesture. The technology giant is also planning to improve the fluidity of the last app transition so that it works more smoothly than before. We already saw some new gesture features in Google’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL where the users saw the pill at the bottom of the screen that acted on gestures. Like when we swipe the pill up from the home screen, all apps menu opens up. But now with the upcoming iteration of Android, the users can swipe the pill left to go back.
The swipe left feature is not limited to home screen but also to all the apps functions of the phone. It might also be possible that Google might go the Apple iOS way and remove all the three buttons Android has, and go completely ‘one-buttoned’ like Apple. If Android decides to go that way then it will have to make new gesture controls for the apps and the buttons and revamp the Android OS completely.
Some of the gestures we might see in Android Q are:
- Long press pill to launch Google Assistant
- Tap pill to go to Home
- Short swipe the pill to left to open horizontal recent app
- Long swipe the pill to open the App drawer
- Slide pill to the left to go Back
- Quick slide the pill to right to Open last app
- Slide the pill to right to Scroll through recent app
In the upcoming Google I/O 2019 we might get to see more of the gesture controls of Android Q. Android loyalists might not like the idea of removing the three keys of Android but it might be the next stage in the development and evolution for the operating system. Some smartphone companies are also coming up with their own gesture controls for their own OS and they too might get added to Android Q. While some may love to see the back button getting replaced with a gesture, some may take a while to get used to it.
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