I think there's a setting to bring back the buttons, if you want that.
Settings -> System -> Gestures -> System navigation
this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
62 points (100.0% liked)
Android
407 readers
1 users here now
The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: !android@lemdro.id
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Rules
-
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
-
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
-
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
-
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
-
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
-
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
-
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
-
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
-
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
-
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
- !askandroid@lemdro.id
- !androidmemes@lemdro.id
- !techkit@lemdro.id
- !google@lemdro.id
- !nothing@lemdro.id
- !googlepixel@lemdro.id
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
- !sony@lemdro.id
- !samsung@lemdro.id
- !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
- !oneplus@lemdro.id
- !motorola@lemdro.id
- !meta@lemdro.id
- !apple@lemdro.id
- !microsoft@lemdro.id
- !chatgpt@lemdro.id
- !bing@lemdro.id
- !reddit@lemdro.id
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Oh my God, thank you. I hate the gestures. I'm constantly going back when I'm just trying to scroll or turn pages
Definitely try gestures.
Being able to "go back" from a gentle swipe at any height is a blessing for the small hand. The rest of options are really, really intuitive.
Unless you have some mobility issues, you'll never come back after a week.
i've no mobility issues, but i can't stand that back gesture. it interferes with the ability to open drawers; and i can't spam it quickly to get out of a "deep" page in an app
gestures do have pros (for instance, the ability to hold and scroll through recents) but the back gesture just seems straight up worse to me
it interferes with the ability to open drawers
It's funny, but I tried looking around the old Material Design guidelines and I haven't come across any mention of swiping to open a drawer. I know it was on Android Developers, but it appears that from the point of view of the design team, it wasn't really "officially" recommended?
Regardless, Discord, IMO, offers a better implementation for side sheets, as the metaphor isn't that you drag something from beyond the screen into view, you just drag the view itself to the side and that reveals the side sheet. And it works in the middle of the screen so it doesn't interfere with the system gestures
Itβs funny, but I tried looking around the old Material Design guidelines and I havenβt come across any mention of swiping to open a drawer. I know it was on Android Developers, but it appears that from the point of view of the design team, it wasnβt really βofficiallyβ recommended?
~~i found this: https://web.archive.org/web/20140110123608/developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation-drawer.html (alternative link in case archive.org is down) - i presume they removed it from the old spec when they introduced the gesture navigation, so people don't use it because it interferes with the gestures?~~
wait never mind i misread this paragraph. i presume it wasn't in the design spec as a) it's an interaction behaviour, not a visual design behaviour, and b) it was also a thing in holo design (& older[?]), so they didn't consider it part of the "material design spec"?
Regardless, Discord, IMO, offers a better implementation for side sheets, as the metaphor isnβt that you drag something from beyond the screen into view, you just drag the view itself to the side and that reveals the side sheet. And it works in the middle of the screen so it doesnβt interfere with the system gestures
it's not a bad idea if you're working around gestures, but it means you can't have something where you swipe between tabs when not from the edge, and get the drawer when from the edge
or, for example, swiping to reply/forward in a messaging app, or upvote/downvote on a lemmy client
(also, subjectively, it's kind of a bit ugly)
i presume it wasn't in the design spec as a) it's an interaction behaviour, not a visual design behaviour, and b) it was also a thing in holo design (& older[?]), so they didn't consider it part of the "material design spec"?
Yesn't. Material Design 1 and 2 guidelines have a bunch of sections regarding interaction, way more than M3 (although M3 guidelines aren't "finished" yet), but they lack a section regarding that gesture in particular.
Like, M1 guidelines mention swiping on content to swap tabs, heck, you can even find the same on the current Material Design 3 guidelines
I think it was a conscious design decision from the Material Design team to not use that gesture in particular? Because it isn't due to conflict with other components, in the tab guidelines they call attention to be careful when the content itself is swipeable.
it's not a bad idea if you're working around gestures, but it means you can't have something where you swipe between tabs when not from the edge, and get the drawer when from the edge
or, for example, swiping to reply/forward in a messaging app, or upvote/downvote on a lemmy client
(also, subjectively, it's kind of a bit ugly)
I mean, you already can't have certain gestures with other gestures. Like you can't (or shouldn't) have swipe on a card to upvote at the same time you have swipe content to change tabs. I'd argue this restriction is better for the user because with discord's implementation it is very clear what the trigger area is, because the entire view is the trigger area.
load more comments
(11 replies)
You just made me try it out, it's... Interesting. Hard to get used to, but I like the extra screen space.
Pretty sure you can still enable 3 button navigation in settings. I still use it
I had that for about half an hour, but I wouldn't want to switch back. Gestures all the time
Took me awhile to get used to gesture, but can't go back now. The only thing that still bothers me is the old UX of the slide out side menus was clearly overlooked with gesture navigation and is really awkward.
I'll never forget the day I realized my reddit app (Relay for Reddit) had a drawer that pulled out by just sliding your finger to the right from anywhere on the screen. As long as you didn't slide from the left edge, it pulled the drawer out. Why we don't make that the default is beyond me.
I'm so used to gestures I can barely use a phone with button navigation. When I have to help my parents/grandparents with their smartphones I take longer just because they use buttons lol.
Also the 3 button navigation is not gone afaik. All OEMs I've used have it buried in the settings somewhere.
initially I didn't like the gesture controls but they really are better than having buttons wasting space and burning in the screen
Is burn-in really an issue? I've never noticed it on any of my OLED devices
maybe not these days
Can't agree. I thought they sucked. I gave it two weeks but it just felt worse to me.
It's possible to adjust it so you have three little buttons but you can also use gestures from those buttons. Not the sides. I used to use that setup for a long time but know I'm just using the regular gestures for now. By the way I'm on a Samsung Galaxy S20.
I really wanted to like gestures. I used them for over a year.
Even after all that, switching back bottom navigation immediately felt right.
I used a phone without gestures the other day and had such a hard time with it, it was crazy how unintuitive the buttons felt in comparison to the gestures!
The simple fact is, neither is actually all that intuitive, they're learned, but gestures definitely get to be very convenient and a much quicker form of navigation.
I would definitely not want to go back.
It's funny, if you swap gestures with buttons in your post, I'd agree 100% lol
@Vlhacs Yeah, like I said, we call things intuitive without realizing that nothing in this is intuitive at all, it's all learned behavior.
For me now, swiping at the edges of the screen makes complete sense and needing to go to a certain place at the bottom of the phone to go back was weird because "why would I go to the bottom of the screen to go backwards, that doesn't make sense", but it was definitely a learning curve to get to this point!
With all that said, hell, there are still times I really miss the old trackball and full keyboard from the OG G1 (the dedicated hardware button for the camera was nice too, but double tap power isn't terrible). I wouldn't want to give up screen space for the trackball, but damn if it didn't really help with fine navigation and using the phone in the cold!
Different strokes for different folks, I'm just glad we've got options so we can all be (mostly) happy with how things work!
load more comments
(1 replies)
Nah, I love gestures. It's so quick to go back just by swiping left or right.
Fuck gestures! And people, can't you understand other people like buttons instead of gestures? If you don't have an answer to what OP asked, why bother to "give advice"?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Nah, I jumped to gestures the first chance I did. 3 button navigation is old school, and on large screen devices, it's not good. Gestures have a larger surface area for activation and require less precise input to active. I also use one-handed mode+ of samsung, so I have the entire 3 sides of the screen to activate as desired. They are just that much intuitive and convenient for me.
gesture navigation is fine for me. but i more want stacking recent tasks back
I prefer gestures. But if you like buttons just go to settings and turn them on.
I switched to "drag up" nav bar as soon as OLED and burn-in became a thing. So technically I was already "gesturing" before gestures were integrated :3
Once proper gestures came in, after the initial learning period, I never looked back!
Try gestures. They get easy after a time. Pro tip: to open hamburger menus tap and hold left edge of screen for 0.5s and pull it out to the right. Works every time and no accidental back swipes.
load more comments
(2 replies)
For me it's the opposite now. My boyfriend still uses the 3 bottom buttons and I am so used to gestures by now that whenever I use his phone I am always a little thrown off. To me it just feels more intuitive to swipe rather than to go to the bottom of the screen to tap a button.
Itβs trying to feel like Apple after iPhone X, but I feel it misses the mark.
The swipe gestures on iOS are swiping elements, but on Android itβs triggering an action, and things like swiping from the right/trailing edge going back feels wrong to me.
I sometimes miss the back button on iOS, itβs a good button.
I very quickly got used to the gesture controls, and now appreciate the extra screen space.
I love the gestures themselves. I hate that they "try" to follow device orientation.
It's a guesswork if the screen is rotated or if the media itself is just so. Also i've had multiple cases where the gesturebar is on the portrait bottom but the gestures are on the landscape.
Oneplus did it correct when they had their own gestures. The gestures were always on the same spot regardless of the device orientation. You always knew where they were. Also i think they worked in fullscreen apps without first swiping the gesture bar out.
edit: just wanted to add that i'm on android 12, i don't know if they are less finicky now.
I really miss the 2 button navigation bar. using the pill to switch between apps felt intuitive. however I don't think I could go back after using gestures.
Just changed back to buttons thanks to a comment on this post. I had been using gestures since I got my new Pixel mid-July (since my carrier stopped supporting the 3a and gave me a 6a for $50). Never got used to it, constantly kept accidentally swiping to go back while doing other things.
This isn't quite as good as the 3a, which had buttons for back and home, but swipe up for the app switcher, but it's definitely better than 100% gestures
Gestures are great and intuitive, definitely give it a bit more time before changing back imo!
It's just too easy to accidentally swipe back. A massive massive flaw in my opinion. The amount of times I catch my self entering a screen scrolling vertically and then accidentally exiting only to lose my place when I return.
Having said that the speed of doing actions has increased for me. It's just the accuracy has decreased at the same time.
I tried to like gestures it for a few days but had issues so I went back to 3 button
Past two phones I've had (Galaxy Z fold 3 and OnePlus 7 Pro) I've had the option for gestures or buttons.
I always pick gestures, I get more screen real estate and the gestures feel good and intuitive.
If you don't like them, change it, that's the benefit of Android, you can do what you want.
load more comments
(3 replies)
You can still use the 3 button layout but I really wouldn't recommend it. Gestures are quicker and easier.
I prefer gestures but I don't like them - it's too easy to swipe out of an App when you're actually trying to do something else like pull out a side menu or switch along a carousel, or interact with something (e.g. swiping mail away). I tried to reduce the sensitivity of the gestures and then they became too useless.
Unfortunately a lot of apps still aren't designed with gestures in mind (mainly side swipes) and need optimising. Hopefully this will improve over time. I'm guessing carousels in particular are now no long practical in Android.
You're looking for settings --> navigation bar
I'm glad my phone and the ROMs I've used have had the option to switch between the two
view more: next βΊ