Android Q: Everything you need to know about its new gesture navigation – CNET

When your phone updates to Android Q later this year, you’ll have a new option for navigating around. Instead of relying on Android’s tried and true three-button navigation, Android Q introduces a true gesture-based navigation method that gets rid of the back button you saw linger around in Android Pie.

Android’s new gesture navigation method is part of the Android Q beta, which means there’s always a chance Google could change how it works before the final release. If that happens, we will update this post.

Gesture navigation in Android Q is optional — for now at least — so you’ll have to purposely opt into using it. Here’s how to enable it, and then how to use all of the new gestures we can find right now, including how to master the new back gesture.

Enable gestures

The process will vary based on who makes your phone, but if you search the Settings app for “Gestures” you shouldn’t have any issue finding it. However, here’s how to enable gesture navigation on a Pixel 3 XL ($720 at Amazon):

1. Open the Settings app
2. Scroll to the bottom of the app and tap on System
3. Select Gestures
4. Tap on System Navigation
5. Select Fully gestural navigation

Your screen will flash, and a few seconds later the buttons that were just present along the bottom of your screen will be gone. In their place will be a single white line.

How to get to the home screen

A quick swipe up from the bottom of your phone’s screen will take you back to your home screen.

Get to the multitasking view

To view all open apps, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen but pause about a third of the way up the screen.

Quickly switch between apps

You can quickly switch between apps by swiping left over the small line at the bottom of the screen. After you start scrolling through open apps, you can swipe to the right in the same area to go back and forth between apps.

Access the app drawer

Accessing the app drawer is simple. From the home screen, just swipe up. It’s the same gesture you use to get back to the home screen from inside an app.

How do I go back?

The lack of a back button and the subsequent replacement Google is using as of Android Q beta 3 is the most shocking change to navigating your Android phone.

To go back, swipe from the left or right edge of the screen. It’s a quick gesture, and you’ll know when you did it right because an arrow shows up on the screen.

The problem is that a lot of apps use a slideout menu that’s accessed by swiping from the left edge of the screen. With the same gesture now used by Android as a back command, it’ll be interesting to see how Google and developers figure out the middle ground.

Force close apps

This hasn’t changed, but it’s worth mentioning again. When in multitasking view, swipe up on an app’s card — pushing it off the top of the screen —  to close out the app.