Android Q May Change the Back Button To a Gesture (theverge.com) 130
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.
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.
Physical buttons (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm glad my device has physical buttons. Hopeful!y there is a way to disable this on other devices.
Re: Physical buttons (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
Re: (Score:1)
Will somebody please make a phone with a physical keyboard again?!?!?!? I miss my physical keyboards.
Gestures are non-inclusive.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Gestures are non-inclusive.
Well, I dunno, I think this gesture [buzzle.com] pretty much sums up everything I need to say about Google's constant fscking with the Android UI.
Force quit (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
That said, Android has sta
Re: (Score:2)
I'm glad I could brighten your life. Hopefully, you can find other things to bring joy to your day, like the car you drive, or not owning a TV, or something.
Re: (Score:2)
This is fine, but I hope they somehow retain long-hold-on-back-button = force quit (enabled in developer options). I love this feature.
They'll keep it. This is just the Google Hype/Hate cycle warming up.
1. Google announces that they're developing a new feature in $product.
2. The "tech" media ignore the actual press release and use Buzzfeedian headlines like "OMG WAFFLEBOTTOM GOOGLE WILL TAEK ALL YOUR THINGS".
3. The Twiterarti start twatling "Holy TESTICLEBALLS I am Angry at Google doing a thing I'm not even sure what they're doing but I"M AGRNY. Even though I"M a shameless APPLE FANBOY (bless his Steveness) IM selling ALL MY ANDROID T
Buttons (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Buttons (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not easier, they just want more minor annoyances to detract from larger grievances
Re: (Score:1)
Because gestures!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
A swipe is easier because it uses the touch display that's already needed. It doesn't cost anything, it doesn't take any room, it can't break unless the display itself breaks.
A physical button adds complexity, adds cost, adds manufacturing time, adds a potential failure point and takes a lot more room than a swipe gesture (which takes no room at all).
Re: (Score:3)
takes a lot more room than a swipe gesture (which takes no room at all)
This is wrong. I need my whole screen to make a gesture. The software button is a lot smaller than that.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't really, just a small space at the bottom of the screen. I wouldn't say that it takes less space, but it probably takes no more real space.
The advantage to gestures is that they're a lot easier to use on the huge phones that have been foisted on us, regardless of hand size. There's no reaching for anything if you're holding your phone from the bottom already.
The (significant) disadvantage is that they're an extra thing to learn, and they're not discoverable. There is very little about the bar acros
Re: (Score:2)
I call that "functionality through obscurity".
Re: (Score:1)
Everytime you hand the phone to someone, the app exits. Showing stuff becomes harder.
Re: (Score:1)
I had an HP Pre3, the last iteration of WebOS on a phone. It had no buttons, just a gesture zone in the bottom. Nothing I have seen since ever came close to the versatility of the controls available through a "Gesture zone". (It combined more than 5 button functions)
Indeed, it was completely undiscoverable, I had to watch a tutorial video to learn to use the phone. But the gestures have stuck with me.
The main issue I have with buttons in the bottom of a smart phone is how easy it is to miss the button, and
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I couldn't agree more. WebOS had a brilliant UI. BB10 as well. It only takes a couple of minutes to learn the gestures, then they're second nature. I still find myself trying BB10 gestures on Android phones.
Both of those UIs were years ahead of the competition. It's a real shame we haven't seen iOS or Android "steal" them.
Re: (Score:1)
It also potentially interferes with apps you may be running. Either the gesture is going to have to be overly complex as to be cumbersome, or it's likely to interfere with many games such as fruit ninja.
Re: (Score:3)
That's great- except they went to virtual buttons a long time ago. THere's no advantage in a swipe over an onscreen virtual button.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd guess the answer is "screen space". There's an argument to be made that this could increase space for apps.
I'm not really sure I buy that argument, as I use a phone with two physical buttons, and am used to that. Would have to use it for a while, I guess.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
They can shove the screen space argument up their collective asses until the remove a lot of the extra padding, margins, and whitespace from their apps first.
Who is "they"?
You know the people who build the operating system UI aren't the same people who write apps, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of that extra padding and whitespace is useful guidance in its own right, from a UI perspective. It makes things easier to read and delineate and manipulate. We're working on fundamentally space-limited devices, so crowding the UI doesn't make any more sense.
But you're right that it's still not a good argument. I *know* the screen space is limited. I'm coming into my phone experience expecting something different from my PC. I think they make large devices easier to use with one hand if you already kn
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think that's correct. You can prefer the virtual buttons of course but there are some pros and cons for the gestures too. I actually use a Windows 10 tablet so I might be the only one in this discussion who has actual experience with gestures.
A swipe from the left opens the task switcher thing, and a swipe from the right opens the notification/option panel (much like the androd drawer). Swiping from the top lets you tile multiple windows automatically. Bottom is for showing the navigation bar (the o
Re:Buttons (Score:4, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
Really, less wasted screen space isn't a pro, even a minor one that you don't prioritize? And I already mentioned they're less discoverable as the downside. But it takes 10 seconds to explain and then it's trivial to remember forever, so it's a minor one.
How do gestures require more effort? In fact I'd say they require less effort, you just make a small swiping motion right where you're holding the device instead of having to move the hand/finger to the bottom where the buttons are (sometimes, unless you'r
Re: (Score:2)
How do gestures require more effort?
Oooh, that's an easy one.
On the Nokia 8 the home button is the fingerprint scan button, like an iPhone I guess.
When the banking app asks you to verify your thumb print, half the time it works, half the time it goes to the home screen. Maybe more than half, so then it's a few guestures/presses to get back to the banking app, and try and work out if it wants a short, medium, or long press, and is the pressure the issue or is it just the length of contact? Nope, wrong guess, go around again, etc, ad nauseum.
Ov
Re: (Score:1)
But you're not saving any screenspace. All you're doing is not drawing *one* of buttons that come up when you swipe from the edge of the screen.
Re: (Score:3)
The display *will* break (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.
Re: (Score:2)
unmod, AC has valid point about vertical v hortizonal rotation axis
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A swipe isn't easier. Is the swipe right to left, left to right? Does it flip depending on RTL languages or not? Which direction is back again?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a huge fan of behaviors that are not discoverable, i.e. the only way you can activate it is if you know the secret trick, like a swipe. I've watched my mom do stuff like press harder on her phone screen because she doesn't realize that she has to use her actual fingertips and not her fake fingernails. I doubt she would ever figure out gestures, and I barely use them myself. Even I discover Android features that are activated by gestures that I never knew about.
Re: (Score:2)
My guess is it's an experiment to see if they can get rid of the on-screen buttons entirely. It will doubtless be an option, just like you can change the order of the current buttons or disable them on phones with hardware ones.
Like say you are watching a full screen video, at the moment you have to tap once to bring up the buttons and then again on the button. With a gesture you could just swipe where the button would be, similar to how iOS handles the home/switch gesture.
Re:Buttons (Score:4, Interesting)
A lot of phone UI changes are not about making phones easier to *use*, they're about making the phones easier to *sell*.
Consider wrap around screens -- do they actually *improve* the functionality of the phone in any way? Or do they exist just to make you say "ooh" the first time you hold it? Or ultra-thin phones -- is a 7mm phone any more convenient, or would you rather have a 10mm phone with 2x the battery?
The very earliest Android phones had a dedicated area with four buttons stenciled on it: back, menu, home, and search. Now there's other reasons they did it this way, but this happens to be the way a UI functionality purist would design the interface. The button row interface is (1) manifest (you see there's a widget there to frob and it gives you some hint of what it's about), and (2) stable (those common buttons are always in the exact same place).
Every change made accessing these functions since that day hasn't been to make the users' lives easier; it's been to impress them when they're shopping for phones. And it quite evidently works, so you can't really blame Google or the phone manufacturers. Consumers get excited by novelty. You'll never get better vendors until you get better consumers.
Re: (Score:2)
It takes a little getting used to, and I still perform the wrong action maybe 1 in 20 times (mostly a problem with short and long and extremely long tap not being different enough - the last one activates Google Assistant which I never use; wish I could adjust
Re: (Score:2)
Fuck gestures (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Especially "to the left" which always implies 'forward' to me... same way you typically flip the page of a book/magazine 'to the left' to go forward.
'Home' always implies 'back to the beginning'..ie keep hitting the back button on the browser and eventually get to the home page.
So why not have a gesture which implies the exact opposite of what it does...Brilliant!
The old flight simulator issue (Score:2)
Especially "to the left" which always implies 'forward' to me...
I agree with you, but I can see the thinking where they think you are pushing thing backwards.
It almost seems like they need a setting that most games have, "invert look" where anyone who set it would be able to swipe towards the right to go back.
Re:Fuck gestures (Score:5, 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.
Stop Screwing with the Interface... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
There is much truth in this. One, if not The, lesson of working one place was Thou Shalt Not [Monkey] With The User Interface. Even if it seems sub-optimal, it's what is expected and changing it will result in ill-will at best. Any UI change must be thought over very carefully, and change made only if it is a HUGE win - as seen by the user.
Re: (Score:2)
Because people don't realize something changed unless the appearance changed.
I think I've read that in an interview of someone from Microsoft. He gave the Windows calculator as an example: when they started using rational numbers internally in order to avoid rounding errors, no one noticed, because the UI stayed the same.
I have a personal example of the opposite. We maintain an issue at work (a modified version of Mantis). Our last update was a massive improvement according to users. In fact, the only thing
Re: (Score:2)
If it' ain't broke, don't fix it.
The horse and cart weren't broken. Neither was the old mobile phone. Don't confuse "fixing" something with simple technological development, especially when your opinion is completely uninformed.
Re: (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.
Is this new? (Score:2)
I've been doing this on my Moto G5 Plus for almost two years. I think some of the other Moto models also work like this. Is Lenovo really that far ahead of other Android companies?
Obsessive minimalism is mental illness. (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
Re:Obsessive minimalism is mental illness. (Score:4, Insightful)
Clearly being a portable TV is their end goal, not a portable computing device.
Accessibility (Score:3)
What about accessibility issues? A button press is a lot less movement requirement than a swipe.
It's all about AMOLEDs (Score:3)
These days they're really pushing AMOLED screens. Which is a GODDAMN FUCKING RETARDED IDEA because those damn things are too susceptible to burn-in. And this is especially noticeable in the areas where there is a static image most of the time -- such as the on-screen buttons. So, by getting rid of those, they mitigate this problem a little. Of course, the correct solution would be to not use AMOLED screens.
Re: (Score:2)
My experience: three fairly old phones here - Note II, S5, Nexus 6 - all with noticeable burn-in and yellowing.
Re: (Score:2)
These days they're really pushing AMOLED screens. Which is a GODDAMN FUCKING RETARDED IDEA because those damn things are too susceptible to burn-in.
Errr no. Please stop repeating 5+ year old tropes. The last phone that suffered from burn in as a result of technological inadequacy rather than a poorly designed or made panel was the Galaxy S2. On AMOLED panels the problem has been largely solved many years ago. Even my 6 year old Galaxy S4 which I continue to use daily as a navigation device after retiring it from my main phone, which is on it's 5th battery thanks to constant use shows no sign of burn in.
Get with the current technology.
Re: (Score:2)
Got an S5 here that says otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
Congratulations on getting a dud. There's several million out there that work just fine.
Re: (Score:2)
Also got a Nexus 6... another dud?
The Back Button is Already Broken (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's an app design issue though - some apps see "back" when they're at their home/root screen and decide that the only place back from there is outside the app.
That's not what's happening. Say I open my text messaging app, and it takes me to my last conversation. I push the back button to go to the home screen and select a different conversation. However, it takes me to the OS home screen instead. If I reopen the app, and press the back button I get the the test message home screen.
Maybe it is an issue with the way some apps are written, but you misunderstood the issue.
Re: (Score:2)
BEcause you launched the app into a specific activity. Back doesn't mean go to home. It means finish() the current Activity and let the previous thing on the stack come up. Which if you launched it directly into the message activity is back to the OS or previous app.
Think of it this way- if you hit the notification for a message, read it, and hit back, do you expect to go to the list of messages? No you expect it to go back to where you were previously, usually another app. This is what's happening.
Re: (Score:2)
Think of it this way- if you hit the notification for a message, read it, and hit back, do you expect to go to the list of messages? No you expect it to go back to where you were previously, usually another app. This is what's happening. If you changed this, then notifications and similar flows would feel broken.
That scenario would be fine. However, that's not what's happening. When I open the app, it takes me to my last message. Perhaps that's the issue. It should take me to the home screen when I open the app. Since I want the home screen for the app, I hit the back button, for lack of a better option. In previous versions of Android, it took me to the app's home screen. In Oreo, it takes me to the OS home screen.
Basically, I can't figure out how to get to my list of text message conversations. It feels
Off-topic: Version identifiers (Score:2)
Why every software project these days need to be identified by both a version number and some cutesy name? What's wrong with just "Android 9"? No, it has to be Android 9 Pie. I get that people doing internal work on things might have code names for unreleased versions, but once it's released those aren't needed anymore.
But since we've already crossed that threshold let us go one step further. To differentiate possible versions of Android 9 Pie I suggest episodes of Seinfeld.
"It doesn't work in Android 9
Re: (Score:2)
The benefits I see are it makes them easier to remember and more distinct, so people know just because an app works on "Marshmallow" doesn't mean it will for sure work on "Lollipop".
Re: (Score:2)
Just because an app works on version 6 doesn't mean it will work on version 5. That's easier / faster to comprehend (for me, at least) than Marshmallow and Lollipop, but then again I've been told I'm a bit weird.
I'm just perplexed why people feel compelled say both the version number and the name, as the two are (basically) redundant.
It's also interesting that when I normally question things like this (things that I find very odd, like calling a "daughter board" a "shield" in the arduino world, even though
Re: (Score:2)
There's also the issue that some versions weren't full major versions so it's easier to say "Kitkat" than "Android 4.4.0".
LineageOS renumbers the releases so "Pie" is LineageOS 16. That seems to clear it up a bit more, but I can see why they'd want the sub-versions in the main version.
Because non-techies like names more than numbers. (Score:2)
That's why. The core audience for phones is the average trifling consumer, not techies.
Too bad not enough techies are willing to buy Linux phones for development to pay off. Android is broken by design and Google likes it that way.
No!!! Don't take my button! (Score:2)
It works fine and has been one of the best reasons to get an Android over an iPhone X.
ORLY (Score:1)
Counterintuitive (Score:2)
The "back" gesture (dragging the pill from the center to the left) for use within an app to go back is counter intuitive. Gestures should represent the physical motion matching the virtual motion. For example, you swipe your finger downwards, and the image moves downwards (which is logically "up" as you are going back up to the top of the document). Since we are accustomed to a side to side flow where older items are on the left and newer is to the right (based on LTR reading, calendars, page orders in b
People will... (Score:2)
... get seriously pissed off if phone OS developers start making changes like this. At least that's my prediction. You develop a degree of muscle memory after using a phone for a while and it's an annoyance to have to adapt every time a phone developer gets a crazy idea that'll get rolled out without any idea of disruptive it is to the end users. Just because it's "new" and "innovative". What's next? Making Dvorak the default keyboard?
Xiaomi MIUI 10 Gestures (Score:2)
I have got addicted to Xiaomi MIUI 10 gestures. I think they really got something right in their implementation. Drawn in the lower half of screen: full swipe left/right equals back button press, swipe up equals home, swipe up and stay in the middle brings up the recents menu, drawn in upper half of screen swipe left/right triggers app action. I hope these gestures become a standard so there are available on all handsets.
Windows Phone interface (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Um, so how does that relate to the current topic? I'm genuinely curious -- what does Windows Phone use for a back button? I haven't touched a windows os on a phone since Windows Mobile 6, and that one tried to have a start button and walking menus on a phone. Horrible experience.
But as bad as that was, it wasn't the reason I got rid of the phone. The last straw (of many) was when the audio driver would die, sometimes silently, and sometimes helpfully with a little popup "the audio driver has caused a pr
Just keep the OPTION open (Score:2)
Do both (Score:2)
At least for now, do both. Allow the new gesture but keep the button. Let us get used to the gesture and explore how individual manufacturers will screw it up. If the gesture becomes popular, then and only then remove the back button.
Switched from Apple to Android 8 years ago (Score:2)
I did this SPECIFICALLY because I was so impressed with the consistency of the back button location, the fact I could access context menus consistently with the settings / context / right click button.
. They've gone on to ruin the options / context consistency, for a multi task button.
They have removed my home button.
They're (generally) copying Apple with the headphone jack.
Now the back button? UI / UX designers peaked about ten years ago. Now they just break stuff to keep working and "innovating"
So so so
Moto G (Score:2)
>"Android's back button might be going away entirely, replaced with a quick swipe to the left from the home button."
I have already been doing this on my Moto G5 for a very long time. You can change the fingerprint thing to be a back button by swiping to the left and home by tapping it. This removes the on-screen buttons that rob space. It seems to work relatively well. But it is NOT intuitive for someone like my Mom....
Zaphod (Score:2)
Immediately thought of this scene from one of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books:
"A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you h
Re: (Score:2)