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AirPods Pro 2: All controls and gestures, explained
Getting a pair of AirPods Pro 2 and don't know where to start? Let us help you control these tiny but powerful buds with gestures!
The AirPods Pro 2 may not look too different from the original AirPods Pro, but this new pair brings enough improvements — better audio, active noise cancellation, and slightly longer battery life — that they're destined to be a huge hit.
Latest Tap, Tap update brings Android 12 'Columbus' gesture code implementation, Material You theming, and more
XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899's Tap, Tap app has now been updated with Material You design and Android 12 support. Read on to know more!
Google brought a really cool feature named "Quick Tap" to certain Pixel smartphones with the Android 12 update. Once activated, Quick Tap lets you double-tap on the back of your phone to trigger Google Assistant, take a screenshot, play or pause media, or open an app of your choice. Google originally started working on this gesture mechanism under the code-name "Columbus" back in the Android 11 Developer Preview days, but decided to shelve it till Android 12. A third-party open-source reimplementation of this feature has been available for a while, though, in the form of the Tap, Tap app by XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899. The app has now reached the first stable milestone, bringing along a new UI, a whole lot of new features, and many bug fixes.
Good Lock's Task Changer now supports Google's swipe gestures
The updated Task Changer in Good Lock's Home Up module now supports Google's swipe navigation gestures. Check the post for a step-by-step guide to enable it.
Samsung rolled out Good Lock 2021 earlier this year for devices running One UI 3.0 based on Android 11. The updated customization suite initially came with a couple of updated modules, which featured a few new changes and improvements. Over the last few weeks, Samsung has updated several more modules to work with the latest Good Lock release. However, Samsung didn't update the popular Task Changer module for One UI 3.0 and above.
Tap, Tap lets you do a triple tap gesture on the back of your Android phone
Tap, Tap, the app that brings iOS 14-esque back tap gestures to any Android device, gets first beta build with Triple Tap gestures support.
Back in February, we detailed a hidden feature in the Pixel's SystemUI app called "Columbus" — a new gesture mechanism created by Google that utilizes sensor data from the gyroscope and the accelerometer to detect taps on the back of select Pixel phones. Google was working on making it possible to perform actions like launching the Google Assistant or taking screenshots using this unique feature, but the company removed these gestures in Android 11 beta builds. XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899 then decided to reuse the under-the-hood machine learning code and TensorFlow models to create an app called "Tap, Tap" that enables the double back tap gesture on any Android device. You don't need to be rooted to use the nifty little app, and it even has the capability to integrate with Tasker for greater customizability.
Google confirms overscan is gone in Android 11, crippling third-party gesture apps
Google has confirmed that overscan is not present in Android 11. This change will cripple third-party navigation gesture apps and others.
Gesture navigation has become a staple feature on most smartphones these days. Earlier in the years, there was some debate centered around who did navigation gestures the best, but Google made that discussion redundant when they mandated the inclusion of Android 10's navigation gestures while relegating OEM solutions as optional extras. Then there are apps like XDA's own Navigation Gestures, which introduces several options like an iPhone X-style gesture and the ability to hide the original navigation bar. However, a recent change in Android 11 will soon cripple third-party gesture apps like ours, as the new OS version removes overscan, the very method we used to hide the pill.
How to bring back OnePlus' full screen gestures on the OnePlus 5/5T following OxygenOS 10 (Android 10) update
Now you can restore the old style full screen gestures on your OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T running Android 10-based OxygenOS 10. Read on!
OnePlus recently rolled out the stable Android 10 update for 2017's OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T in the form of OxygenOS 10 after a brief beta testing phase. Apart from introducing features like Game Space, the company also brings in a revised gesture mechanism. Many OnePlus 5/5T users are not exactly happy to discover that the original OnePlus full-screen gesture implementation goes missing after the OxygenOS 10 update. Worry not, as XDA Senior Member Pierre02 has already discovered a simple trick to restore the good old gestures on both the OnePlus 5 and 5T.
YouTube adds a swipe down gesture to exit fullscreen videos
The YouTube app on Android now has a new swipe gesture that lets you swipe down anywhere in the fullscreen view to quickly exit to the video page.
Over the last couple of months, Google has released a couple of design changes for the YouTube app on Android. These include a test to show channel previews in the comments section, a new Explore tab to help users find new videos, new filters in the subscription feed, a UI update to move the comments section below the video description. Now, according to a recent report from Android Police, YouTube has added a new gesture to help users quickly exit a fullscreen video.
Samsung's One UI 2.5 update will enable Google's gesture navigation in third-party launchers
Samsung's One UI 2.5 update, coming later this year, will fix the incompatibility of gesture navigation in third party launchers.
After facing perpetual criticism for its sluggish TouchWiz UI, Samsung made the long-overdue update to its user interface in late 2018 with One UI. Samsung's One UI based on Android 9 Pie was designed to ease single-handed usage. But, one of the key features to support one-hand usage was omitted by Samsung and that was support for navigation gestures. To be fair, Samsung did not fully ignore gestures but instead used a very puerile version in which users had to swipe upwards from the bottom of the display instead of tapping on the navigation buttons to engage them. One UI v2.0 is now rolling out to several devices and in it, Samsung has added support for Android 10's navigation gestures but without third-party launchers support. Fortunately for users, the support is expected to come in the next few months with One UI 2.5.
Latest Action Launcher beta adds support for Android 10 gesture navigation
Latest Action Launcher beta brings support for Android 10 gesture navigation, live wallpaper support in Quicktheme, and more.
Google introduced its own take on navigation gestures with Android 10 to replace Android Pie's awful two-button navigation system. However, the new navigation gestures had their own set of issues. One of the most annoying things about the gestures was the lack of third-party launcher support. Due to this, users had to rely on the navigation buttons if they wanted to use a third-party launcher on their device. Several launcher developers raised their voice against the shoddy implementation and Google released a fix earlier this year in October. Sadly, the fix only worked on the Pixel 4 series at first. With the Android security patches for December 2019, Google finally rolled out navigation support with third-party launcher for older Pixel devices. Now, the latest beta update for Action Launcher brings native Android 10 gesture navigation support to the app.Action Launcher's Chris Lacy recently took to Twitter to announce the rollout of Action Launcher public beta v45 which comes with support for Android 10's gesture navigation, live wallpaper support in Quicktheme, and more.
Navigation Gestures 1.20.16 released with even more bug fixes and features
We're back with another Navigation Gestures update. Just like with the release of 1.18.4, the focus here is primarily on stability.
It's been less than a month (barely) and we're back with another Navigation Gestures update. Just like with the release of 1.18.4, the focus here is primarily on stability and performance. That doesn't mean there aren't new features, though. We've spent a while making sure this release is as stable as we can get it (as you can tell by the high patch-version number).
Latest Android 10 release brings gesture support to third-party launchers, already live on the Pixel 4
The latest update for Android 10, which is already live on the Pixel 4, brings navigation gesture support to third-party launchers.
With Android Pie, Google introduced the two-button navigation system. To be absolutely frank, it was quite bad. In contrast, the full-screen navigation gestures from manufacturers like Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, and other Chinese manufacturers were significantly better. In an attempt to rectify this issue, Google rolled out its own take on navigation gestures with Android 10. However, this new navigation system had its own problems. One of the most annoying things about the new navigation system was the lack of third-party launcher support. Now, with the latest release of Android 10, Google seems to have finally addressed that issue.
Navigation Gestures 1.18.4 released to stable with new features and bug fixes
While there are a couple of new options, most of the changes since the last Navigation Gestures stable release are to improve performance and stability.
It's been a while since the last stable update of Navigation Gestures (1.15.10), and even longer since we've posted about an update. We're here to change that. This post marks the release of Navigation Gestures 1.18.4 to stable. You might be wondering: what happened to 1.16 and 1.17? Well, we can assure you we know how to count. You may not have seen these versions on the stable channel, but we've been hard at work releasing betas.
Google defends Android Q's controversial gesture navigation
In a detailed post, Google is defending their decision to adopt Android Q's navigation gestures as the standard for Android. Read on to know more!
Android Q's public release is just around the corner and when that happens we're going to see a lot of feedback from end-users who will be trying out the gesture navigation for the first time. The gesture navigation system is the biggest change to the UX in recent times, as they fundamentally alter how users would be navigating across the OS. Users will now need to swipe in from the left/right edge to navigate back, swipe up from the bottom edge to jump to the home screen, and swipe in from the bottom corners to trigger a virtual assistant. So far, these gestures have invited a lot of praise as well as criticism from users, essentially dividing the community based on user preference. In a new post on the Android Developers Blog, Google is defending the gesture navigation on Android Q and is attempting to explain the rationale behind the various decisions involved.
OnePlus 7 Pro's latest HydrogenOS beta adds a new back button gesture
HydrogenOS beta on the OnePlus 7 Pro has a new gesture that allows you to go back by swiping from the side of the screen, similar to Android Q.
Following the recent launch of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus has been busying themselves issuing software updates that are fixing the various bugs that come with a new release. While some of these are being pushed straight to OxygenOS - OnePlus' Android flavor - the more experimental changes are sent to HydrogenOS.
UbikiTouch helps you automate actions in other Android apps
UbikiTouch is a gesture and automation application that lets users define custom controls using action triggers throughout the OS.
When it comes to the numerous OEM version of Android, gestures (and gesture navigation) play a huge role in defining how users interact with the interface. With Android Pie introducing the pill-style home button on the navigation bar (which now is fuelled with gesture navigation), it can safely be said that there has been an opening in the third-party applications’ market for apps based off gesture navigation (including our own).
Navigation Gestures 1.11.7 adds Anchored Pill, pill fade, crash handler, and more
It's been a while since the last stable update of Navigation Gestures, but we've been busy. Here's the full list of changes in v1.11.7 .
Another day, another update.
MIUI 10.2.1 adds a Google Assistant gesture shortcut for Xiaomi devices
MIUI 10.2.1 now comes with an option to quickly trigger Google Assistant while utilizing fullscreen navigation gestures on Xiaomi devices. Read on!
Xiaomi's MIUI UX "skin" sees frequent updates from the Chinese company, to the point that it becomes difficult to keep up with what is new on the large number of devices that it supports. Xiaomi tends to add and also remove features from the base Android version, so there often is a sense of dissonance between how an Android device works and how a MIUI device works. Coupled with the fact that the same MIUI version can sport different Android base versions depending on the device, what you end up with is a UX skin that is difficult to keep up with.
Navigation Gestures updated with Activity Launching, a Tasker plugin, Performance Improvements, and more
Navigation Gestures 1.4 includes several new toggles, Launch Activities, Tasker plugins, improved immersive/fullscreen detection, and more.
Our Navigation Gestures app has been available for a little over 6 months now. We've updated the app several times since launch with new and handy features. It's been a while since our last big update, but it's finally here with version 1.4. This update includes several new toggles, Launch Activities, Tasker plugins, improved immersive/fullscreen detection, and the usual fixes.
Download OnePlus 6T launcher with new gesture for OnePlus 6
You can download the OnePlus 6T Launcher for your OnePlus 6, and it enables a brand new gesture that many have been asking for for ages.
The just-launched OnePlus 6T doesn't just aim to be an improvement hardware wise over its predecessor, but it aims to bring in software improvements too. While we're sure that we'll see these changes trickle down to the OnePlus 6, it may take a while. Rather than wait, we have the updated OnePlus Launcher and Live Wallpaper APKs from the OnePlus 6T that you can install on your OnePlus 6. There aren't any new features in the launcher per se, but installing it on the OnePlus 6 will enable a new navigation gesture that debuts on the OnePlus 6T.
Future Android Pie update may make pressing back in recent apps return to the last app
The back button in Android Pie on Recent apps always takes you to the home screen. Not the most recent app, which is what you would expect to happen.
Android Pie (Android 9) finally finished baking this week. The official release made its way to the Pixel devices and a couple of others. One of the most prominent new features is the gesture navigation. The traditional Back, Home, and Recents buttons can be replaced with a gesture pill (the Back button is still there). To go along with this, the Recent apps screen has been completely redesigned. Some users have noticed an odd action with this updated UI.