Navigation buttons or gesture navigation

Morty2264

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Great thread idea - thank you for posting! I've tried gestures but I'm just not that great at using them. I prefer the button navigation, for sure!
 

ssj100

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Surprised so many people using gestures, especially in this "fast paced" era! I'm pretty certain navigation buttons cuts down at least 0.1-0.5 seconds of time for every "gesture" made. It adds up hehe!
 

mustang7757

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Surprised so many people using gestures, especially in this "fast paced" era! I'm pretty certain navigation buttons cuts down at least 0.1-0.5 seconds of time for every "gesture" made. It adds up hehe!
Never tested which is quicker, but I like the full screen without space at the bottom of the screen
 

ssj100

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Never tested which is quicker, but I like the full screen without space at the bottom of the screen

Fair enough. However, the "slowdown" is definitely more obvious when one cuts down (or entirely removes) stuff like transition animations etc, and want to navigate through their phone with "near instant" feedback.
 

mustang7757

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Fair enough. However, the "slowdown" is definitely more obvious when one cuts down (or entirely removes) stuff like transition animations etc, and want to navigate through their phone with "near instant" feedback.
Won't argue that , it's been some time since I last used buttons , be like training all over again lol .

With Google gestures , the back key is swiping either edge if the screen, while my thumb is right by the edge I wouldn't have to try go to the bottom and tap , then for when I go home home screen it would be one swipe up from bottom of screen , but it's a personal preference .
 

ssj100

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Won't argue that , it's been some time since I last used buttons , be like training all over again lol .

With Google gestures , the back key is swiping either edge if the screen, while my thumb is right by the edge I wouldn't have to try go to the bottom and tap , then for when I go home home screen it would be one swipe up from bottom of screen , but it's a personal preference .

Ah right, you're using third party software, which sounds like it gives some other advantages over default. More power to you! However, I try to minimise third party apps (if you're familiar with "Windows security" and its history, you'll know what I mean) as a principle and apply it universally. However, android is certainly a different beast to Windows, so all good. Definitely personal preference.
 

mustang7757

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Ah right, you're using third party software, which sounds like it gives some other advantages over default. More power to you! However, I try to minimise third party apps (if you're familiar with "Windows security" and its history, you'll know what I mean) as a principle and apply it universally. However, android is certainly a different beast to Windows, so all good. Definitely personal preference.
Actually for Samsung , you have a choice of Google gestures, Samsung gestures, buttons to choose from as default under settings>display>navigation bar no 3rd party software or tweaks.
 

bhatech

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Ah right, you're using third party software, which sounds like it gives some other advantages over default. More power to you! However, I try to minimise third party apps (if you're familiar with "Windows security" and its history, you'll know what I mean) as a principle and apply it universally. However, android is certainly a different beast to Windows, so all good. Definitely personal preference.
Actually for Samsung , you have a choice of Google gestures, Samsung gestures, buttons to choose from as default under settings>display>navigation bar no 3rd party software or tweaks.
Was about to reply as well that there isn't any third party tweaks here. It's native Android gestures available on every Android phone.

Swipe anywhere on the side edges to go back, and swipe up from bottom to go to home. Even multi tasking switching between apps is faster or easier with gestures when you can just slide at the bottom to switch between apps.

I'm not going to argue which is faster or slower since it's not that much of a difference. It comes down to personal preference, once you get used to gestures it's pretty natural and fast.
 

mustang7757

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Was about to reply as well that there isn't any third party tweaks here. It's native Android gestures available on every Android phone.

Swipe anywhere on the side edges to go back, and swipe up from bottom to go to home. Even multi tasking switching between apps is faster or easier with gestures when you can just slide at the bottom to switch between apps.

I'm not going to argue which is faster or slower since it's not that much of a difference. It comes down to personal preference, once you get used to gestures it's pretty natural and fast.
Agree
 

ssj100

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Right, thanks for the clarification. My confusion was due to not being aware one type was "Google" and another type was "Samsung". I'm aware of the two different types of gestures.

Yes indeed, personal preference is key, and there's no doubt gestures allows for the "full screen" experience. However, there's no doubt in my mind that buttons is faster (at least in many ways) particularly when there's little to no animation transitions etc. It's demonstrably easy to prove and observe with the following scenario (somewhat exaggerated to make the point clearer):
-say you want to issue the "back" command ten times.
-with buttons, you can press the relevant button ten times very rapidly with less "kinetic energy" output, and probably ends up saving at least 1-2 seconds of time.
-with gestures, you'd need to make the swiping movement ten times, and conversely, would use more kinetic energy and increased time.

Happy to stand corrected and try gestures again if I'm missing something about gestures though. I'm all about speed!
 

mustang7757

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Right, thanks for the clarification. My confusion was due to not being aware one type was "Google" and another type was "Samsung". I'm aware of the two different types of gestures.

Yes indeed, personal preference is key, and there's no doubt gestures allows for the "full screen" experience. However, there's no doubt in my mind that buttons is faster (at least in many ways) particularly when there's little to no animation transitions etc. It's demonstrably easy to prove and observe with the following scenario (somewhat exaggerated to make the point clearer):
-say you want to issue the "back" command ten times.
-with buttons, you can press the relevant button ten times very rapidly with less "kinetic energy" output, and probably ends up saving at least 1-2 seconds of time.
-with gestures, you'd need to make the swiping movement ten times, and conversely, would use more kinetic energy and increased time.

Happy to stand corrected and try gestures again if I'm missing something about gestures though. I'm all about speed!
Im sure some scenarios the 3 button can be faster , for larger devices and one hand mode I can see gestures have the advantage , can come down how fast one can move between gestures and buttons also but it feels more fluid going through the UI with gestures , I know some people who could swipe type faster then typing on andriod keyboard not me thats for sure lol, but it really does come down to personal preference like we have all mentioned.
 

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