this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Wanted to see how everyone in the community felt about the using the android navigation bar buttons vs using gesture control.

I've used the navigation buttons since they released on android and just recently started trying to use the gesture based navigation. It's been a little difficult for me to adapt to it so far, but curious what others experience has been.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I started using gestures, and haven't been able to transition away since.

Both have their pros and cons.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's especially hilarious when, as a Pixel owner, I try to help my spouse with their iPhone, and I immediately get confused/frustrated when swiping on her phone does nothing.

[–] L3s 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Same here! My wife gets annoyed, scrolling on my phone and accidentally hitting the "back" gesture. So I guess it goes both ways

[–] Deftdrummer 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use the nav bar. Never got used to gestures and don't need them.

[–] ghostBones 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm interested in using gestures but I'm on a tablet 98% of the time. I even use a tablet for phone calls and SMS. Gestures feel too much like exercise on a bigger screen.

[–] Deftdrummer 2 points 1 year ago

Yes same for me on my Chromebook. Like... no

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

I still prefer the navigation buttons. I just can't get used to gesture controls

[–] IndisposedShakerCup 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Gestures solely for the edge swipe to go back. It just makes sense and I can never go back. Plus one-handing big phones with the nav bar is tough

[–] ATShields934 10 points 1 year ago

This 100% gestures just feel more fluid for me at this point.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The back gesture is fine until it takes me out of an app. I hate that. Sometimes I trigger it unintentionally because I’m trying to swipe in an app but the system picks it up instead.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

This stopped happening for me once I lowered the back gesture sensitivity all the way. It was a little tedious at first trying to grab the very edge of my screen, but I got used to it pretty quickly

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

A navigation bar is so simple, so direct, with little room for error.

It was actually painful and annoying for me to try navigating with gestures after updating Android, to the point where I simply disabled them because someone had the right idea to make them default.

Yet, for me this was peak ->

I want physical buttons back.

[–] Lord_Logjam 11 points 1 year ago

I'm so used to gesture control now that I struggle to go back when I need to sort out my mum's phone for her.

[–] 20watts 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be honest with you, I was a die hard 3 button fan, and an anti-gesture person (cause iOS vibes). After sometime, it was like the best way to navigate! Can't go back to 3 buttons ever again. It feels so slow, and choppy.

P.S. If your apps has swipe to left to do X, you should change them for a better experience.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I keep running into issues with apps with swipe actions. I don't want to delete or archive an email if I'm just trying to use the back swipe function!

[–] 20watts 2 points 1 year ago

I do get it sometimes 😆, but I can't stop using it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Nav bar, gestures are just awkward. Faster to tap than to swipe.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Have been using gesture control since android 10 came out.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I started using Pie controls with Paranoid Android back in 2015 and never gave them up. It's great for muscle memory

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Me too! I actually miss Pie controls sometimes. I know 3rd party apps can replicate it but it just not the same. Maybe it was because of the time period.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Here's the app I use FWIW: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ivianuu.pie

I went through a lot of different apps before settling on this one. It's a perfect recreation (+ way more customization) and works flawlessly. The app is 100% worth the pricetag if you want Pie controls on stock.

[–] jjnjjlr 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for this. I've been looking for a worth while replacement for a while.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I never got on with gestures, the effort of swiping is not worth the additional 5% screen size for me.

Although I will add that the pill navigation with a separate back button that Android 8 or so introduced was by far my favorite back then and I would love to have that back

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Gestures because on-screen buttons just suck for full screen apps. Buttons only work if they're always in the same place and always available. Why the hell would I want them to be hidden? Give me my hardware buttons back please.

Gestures are only half-way usable because I patch the android framework to ignore apps' requests to change orientation (fuck that) and the pill to be much smaller but even then landscape is pretty meh with it taking way too much movement to change apps and the pill requiring quite a lot of vertical space that is already very limited.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I much prefer gestures

[–] phamanhvu01 8 points 1 year ago

Gesture, it's a lot more elegant than navbars UI wise.

[–] sizzling 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really dislike gestures as I'll accidentally trigger them all the time. I just want physical buttons back. They're far superior for me. Sadly it is not a common opinion so I'll just have to deal with whatever is popular.

[–] BeardedSingleMalt 3 points 1 year ago

When I got my P7P i had to switch back to the bar immediately and I was "navigating" out of games/apps with the gesture.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Used to be a bar person, but at some point it broke on the custom ROM im running for a few updates so i switched. Been using gestures ever since. I like them maybe a lil less because phones are too big, but it feels faster

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

but at some point it broke on the custom ROM

The life of custom ROM users 😅. I sympathize with you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I still use nav buttons. I really liked apps that had that left slide out drawer (something Google pushed for a while and then quietly abandoned) and I kept navigating elsewhere while trying to pull out the menu drawers, so I went to buttons.

My final cool app with a drawer, rif is fun, is no longer on my phone, so I guess I can switch to navigation gestures... But it would take a lot of getting used to and "what gesture goes where?" (Note that I am particularly bad at remembering this sort of stuff - I'm the type of person who keeps a screenshot of a keybinding map on my second monitor while playing games.)

[–] Hildegarde 4 points 1 year ago

Gesture navigation is good enough for me to use, but bad enough to be infuriating.

Its better than the navigation buttons, because non-tactile buttons are bad generally. Gesture navigation lets you navigate basic system interactions without looking at the screen, but its badly implimrnted. A horizontal swipe often accidentally becomes a back.

A physical set of navigation buttons would be best, but gestures is a solid second place, C tier navigation system.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I like gesture controls on my Pixel. It took me a bit to adjust, too, but now I can't go back. My biggest gripe is that swiping from the right side of the screen will go back or exit an app instead of letting me go forward (thinking of Chrome specifically). Also, it can be hard to crop images because the gesture area conflicts with the edge of a lot of images.

edit: typo

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Once I got used to gesture controls in android 10 I never looked back. It was hard to adapt but now it's muscle memory.

[–] mwong56 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Gestures but swipe to right to go back disabled through adb so I can still swipe for drawers

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I noticed that I can open drawers pretty reliably if I first swipe up or down right on the edge and then start pulling out the drawer, worked pretty good especially for Boost as it had drawers on both screen edges

[–] Yttra 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure the intended gesture is just to hold the edge of the screen where the drawer is for a second, then drag. Works alright for me, anyway...

[–] lazycouchpotato 2 points 1 year ago

I wasn't aware of this. It works surprisingly well. Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Default on grapheneOS , took a bit to get used to but sooo much better and effective

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I have a Pixel 7 now. Use gestures. Sometimes when I'm on the iPad I'd want them there too.

[–] MargotRobbie 3 points 1 year ago

Gestures for me, although I don't mind using the navbar.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use edge gestures for gesturing but I keep the 3 button on the screen just in case. I like both.

[–] to_urcite_ty_kokos 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you own a recent Samsung device, definitely try One Hand Operations app - takes gesture navigation to a whole another level. One of my favourite apps.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I have and use both. But for gestures I use the one hand operation from Samsung.

[–] lazycouchpotato 2 points 1 year ago

I prefer navigation bar, but I tolerate gesture controls due to the ease of swiping between apps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

3-button nav bar all the way. gesture navigation just feels so ambiguous and inexact compared to discrete buttons. I never understood why google decided to copy that stupid anti-feature from ios when they already had a superior system that worked (and still works) perfectly well.

[–] atrielienz 2 points 1 year ago

I'm the weirdo who misses the hybrid two button layout. It has some gestures and some nav bar and once I got used to it I did like it. The new gestures nav throws me off something terrible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I just use gestures.

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