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Google Maps now delivers turn-by-turn navigation on Wear OS without a phone connection
Wear OS 3 users can now navigate without their phones as long as they use Google Maps and a compatible LTE smartwatch.
It's been a little over a year since the launch of Wear OS 3 on Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4. Since that time, we've seen a number of Wear OS 3 smartwatches arrive to market, most notably Google's own Pixel Watch. While Wear OS 3 was seen a number of improvements since its launch with a variety of updates, perhaps its most significant one has now arrived, allowing users to receive turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps without the use of a connected smartphone.
Gaia GPS brings its off-road navigation app to Android Auto
Gaia GPS is now available on Android Auto. Read on to learn more about the new features and download the app right away.
While Google Maps and Waze are great navigation apps for day-to-day use, they're not particularly useful if you plan on going off-road. This is where the Gaia GPS app comes in. The app focuses on off-road and backcountry navigation, helping users navigate places where Google Maps and Waze wouldn't be of much use. While the app has been available on the Play Store for quite a while now, it has recently received Android Auto support. If you're an off-roading enthusiast, you should definitely check it out by following the Play Store link below.
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.
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.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 will support India's NavIC in a future update
As per a recent statement from Qualcomm, its flagship Snapdragon 865 chip will soon receive support for India's NavIC navigation system.
Back in October last year, American chipmaker Qualcomm announced support for India's NavIC Satellite Navigation system in select chipsets. Then, earlier this year in January, the company officially announced the new Snapdragon 720G, Snapdragon 662, and Snapdragon 460 SoCs, with support for the Indian satellite navigation system. However, it's flagship Snapdragon 865 chip still doesn't support the Indian navigation system. Thankfully though, that's set to change soon as per a recent announcement from Qualcomm.
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.
Qualcomm announces support for India’s NavIC Satellite Navigation System
In a bid to improve location services in the region, Qualcomm has officially announced support for India's NavIC satelitte system.
In a bid to improve location services in the region, Qualcomm has officially announced support for India's Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) in select chipsets across the company's upcoming portfolio. This initiative, which was undertaken in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will make use of India's NavIC constellation of 7 satellites to enhance the geolocation capabilities of mobile, automotive, and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in the region. The collaboration successfully conducted its first-ever NavIC demonstration using the Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platform on September 19 and is scheduled to showcase the solution again at the ongoing India Mobile World Congress.
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.
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.
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.
Google Maps Go for Android Go gets proper turn-by-turn navigation
While it has limitations, Android Go is being improved upon every day. Google Maps Go is an example of this, as you can now use turn by turn navigation.
Android Go is Google's lightweight version of their smartphone operating system. It has a number of under the hood optimizations which makes it the perfect software to run on lower-end hardware. Aimed at developing regions, it can be an effective way of getting basic processing capabilities to everyone across the world. While some of its applications have limitations, it's being improved upon every day. Google Maps Go is an example of this, as you couldn't use turn by turn navigation. Google has fixed this... sorta.
Navigation Gestures update brings OnePlus 6-style gestures to any Android device
The Navigation Gestures app by XDA has been updated with customizable, OnePlus 6/OnePlus 5T-style gestures. Other new features have been included as well!
Gesture navigation has become a staple feature on most flagship smartphones these days, with much debate centered around who does it the best. Android P brings native gesture control to all supported devices like the Google Pixel and Google Pixel 2, Xiaomi offers full-screen gestures on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro and devices running MIUI 10, Motorola's Moto Z3 Play has an Apple iPhone X-style pill bar, and lastly, there's OnePlus with their take on navigation gestures on the OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 6. If you want to ditch the software navigation bar and use gesture navigation, we at XDA came up with an app that helps you do just that. Our first release of the app brought iPhone X-style navigation which we later expanded on with more customization and actions. Now, the latest release brings a feature many of you have been asking for: OnePlus-style gestures.
Navigation Gestures updated with better Nav Bar hiding, App Launch action, Android P compatibility, & more
Navigation Gestures by XDA brings iPhone X style gesture control to any Android device. We've been hard at work and our latest update brings a lot!
We launched our Navigation Gestures app a little over 3 weeks ago, and since our last update, we've been hard at work to address the overwhelming amount of feedback we've received. Our app, which was originally designed to be a simple gesture control app based on the Apple iPhone X's gestures, has since gained a lot of customization features. We're not stopping there, either, as a future update will allow users to create gesture navigation controls in the vein of the OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 6. If you're tired of all the screen real-estate that your boring software navigation buttons take up, then you should give our latest app update a try. It's totally free for all of the basic actions and settings!
Navigation Gestures updated with pill customization and many bug fixes
We recently released Navigation Gestures by XDA, the first app that brings iPhone X style gesture control to all Android devices with the added benefit of hiding the navigation bar without root! We have been hard at work, and our recent release has a lot of goodies. Check it out!
Android P's new gesture control interface has a lot of fans, but also a ton of critics. Google's take on gesture navigation is just another implementation on a trend first popularized by webOS way back in the day, but more recently brought into the public view thanks to the Apple iPhone X. OnePlus soon followed suit with the OnePlus 5T and the OnePlus 6, and other OEMs like Xiaomi with the Redmi Note 5 Pro and Mi Mix 2S also now have gesture controls. We thought we would jump in and offer our own take on gestures with the Navigation Gestures app—a gesture navigation app that was the first on the Play Store to completely hide the stock navigation bar and replace it with our pill bar. Now, we are ready to release a major update to the app that brings a ton of features and bug fixes that you've all been asking for.
Navigation Gestures by XDA brings iPhone X-style gesture controls to Android devices
Do you want to try out the cool gesture control from the iPhone X, Android P, or OnePlus 6? The Navigation Gestures app by XDA brings navigation gesture control to any Android device!
Navigation gestures are all the rage these days. Everyone has them: Apple, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Huawei, and now Google in Android P. Everyone does them differently, too. We thought we would offer our own take on gesture navigation with the Navigation Gestures app, built in-house at XDA. The app brings customizable gesture control to any Android device for those users who are looking to get into gesture navigation or are looking for an alternative to existing options. Unlike other, similar apps on the Play Store, though, our app can do something that no other app can: completely hide the stock software navigation bar, lending to a truly full-screen experience which is especially nice on phones with tall displays.
How to Hide the Navigation Bar in EMUI 5.0 [No Root]
A tutorial on how to hide the navigation bar in EMUI 5.0 without needing root access. A useful trick for any users of large Huawei phones.
What was once considered a niche category is now practically the mainstream, as bigger screen phones continue to storm the smartphone market.