Google announced some big changes coming to Android P, most notably the new swipe gestures. Taking a similar page from Apple’s iPhone X, every Android device (on Android P) will soon be able to experience the new navigation gestures across the operating system.
There’s just one slight hiccup. If you download the beta, which is available on nine different Android smartphones right now, the swipe gestures are not automatically enabled. Everything will look the same unless you go into the menu and activate the feature.
That is unless you want to stick to the trio of back, home and overview buttons for the time being. On that note, it is much appreciated that Google kept the option available to users who don’t want to try out the new gestures. Those who do, keep on reading.
The process is super easy; here’s how you do it:
- Go to Settings
- Go to System
- Go to Gestures
- Turn on Swipe up on Home button
When enabling the swipe up home button, the circular home button will turn into the new pill-shaped home button. The back button will also remain, disappearing only for certain occasions, and the overview button will be gone for good as a new swipe up gesture replaces it.
Now that you have the new gestures for Android P turned on, feel free to play around with the new interactions. They’re quite odd and it takes a minute to get used to them. Handling Android without the trio of buttons at the bottom is definitely weird, but once you get familiar with the layout, it becomes pretty seamless.
