Three button navigation versus gestures

[J Dubbs]

I've always used button navigation, and mostly use a stylus for typing, so the gestures never seemed to offer much benefit for me. I also like to tap buttons vs sliding my fingers all over the screen, the buttons seem more direct and responsive, and the screen stays cleaner lol. Yes I'm a little ocd

 

[eric002]

I've always used button navigation, and mostly use a stylus for typing, so the gestures never seemed to offer much benefit for me. I also like to tap buttons vs sliding my fingers all over the screen, the buttons seem more direct and responsive, and the screen stays cleaner lol. Yes I'm a little ocd

ha, yessss I feel the same exact way! For some reason, I thought it was just me, but the OS does seem a bit more responsive, and they are much more direct vs swiping gestures. Yes, the screen stays quite a bit leaner. I'm a bit anal ocd as well, I understand what you're saying for sure!

 

[Deleted member 2609113]

Having a choice between two navigation methods is a brilliant feature. I prefer swiping on my Pixel 4a, my wife prefers the three button method on hers.
It's humourous when I have to help her with something on her phone I keep trying to swipe until I remember she has the buttons at the bottom...and those are right in front of me. Olde dog, new tricks in play.

 

[Grabber5.0]

I have tried many times to get used to gestures on Android, but I just can't. I have used webOS for so many years that any gestures that don't work the same way just don't work for me. I just hope they never take button navigation away as an option!

 

[eric002]

Having a choice between two navigation methods is a brilliant feature. I prefer swiping on my Pixel 4a, my wife prefers the three button method on hers.
It's humourous when I have to help her with something on her phone I keep trying to swipe until I remember she has the buttons at the bottom...and those are right in front of me. Olde dog, new tricks in play.

Yeah I hear you! Like I said, gesture navigations nice overall. But they can get a bit janky and not very responsive at other times. Three button navigation feel more direct, more responsive and faster on the phone. That’s just my take on it. But you’re right, having choices and options and android as well the operating system and what Google is all about.

 

[qphone]

Yeah using BlackBerry all the way back from the Pearl...BB10 and it's Hub, Peek and Flow (aka gestures) took some time which then became the norm.

Then when BB eventually went pure Android starting with 6, adjusting to 3 buttons took a bit of time getting used to it after close to 5 years of pure gesture based Blackberry 10 OS via QNX.

After moving over to Pixel 4a 5G from my last BB Android Key One.. Android 11 being gesture based brought me back to "OK, sweet, back to gestures"

If my experience with gestures the last 8 years was say 100% smoothness and effectiveness with BB10...

Then Android 11 is gettin' pretty close to say 80-90% of BB10's gesture smoothness, effectiveness and overall flow.

So looking forward to Android 12 gesture improvements/additions.

Out of the 6 Pixel 4a 5Gs that I bought for my family last November... Only 2 (my mom and my mother in law) I kept 3 button navigation since they both had issues trying to adjust back to gestures.

Trying to explain and demonstrate to both the gestures similarities to that of their older BB10 phones ... They didn't want to relearn and said to "please go back to 3 buttons" from Android 6/8 when they had their BlackBerry Android devices.

Gotta love choices.

3 buttons or gestures ?

For me and 3 others out of 6 family members...we have fully embraced gestures since that's what we had many, many years ago.

 

[eric002]

Yeah using BlackBerry all the way back from the Pearl...BB10 and it's Hub, Peek and Flow (aka gestures) took some time which then became the norm.

Then when BB eventually went pure Android starting with 6, adjusting to 3 buttons took a bit of time getting used to it after close to 5 years of pure gesture based Blackberry 10 OS via QNX.

After moving over to Pixel 4a 5G from my last BB Android Key One.. Android 11 being gesture based brought me back to "OK, sweet, back to gestures"

If my experience with gestures the last 8 years was say 100% smoothness and effectiveness with BB10...

Then Android 11 is gettin' pretty close to say 80-90% of BB10's gesture smoothness, effectiveness and overall flow.

So looking forward to Android 12 gesture improvements/additions.

Out of the 6 Pixel 4a 5Gs that I bought for my family last November... Only 2 (my mom and my mother in law) I kept 3 button navigation since they both had issues trying to adjust back to gestures.

Trying to explain and demonstrate to both the gestures similarities to that of their older BB10 phones ... They didn't want to relearn and said to "please go back to 3 buttons" from Android 6/8 when they had their BlackBerry Android devices.

Gotta love choices.

3 buttons or gestures ?

For me and 3 others out of 6 family members...we have fully embraced gestures since that's what we had many, many years ago.

Yeah I agree with you. Got to love having choices and options in life! I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying the gestures.

 

[Morty2264]

I immediately switched gestures off on my Pixel 5 and went back to three button navigation. Much simpler that way.

 

[eric002]

I immediately switched gestures off on my Pixel 5 and went back to three button navigation. Much simpler that way.

Oh really? I'm very surprised to hear you say that for sure! It is a bit simpler to use 3 button navigation vs gestures on the phone though. That's for sure. ??????

 

[spARTacus]

I realized I hated buttons ever since I got a Blackberry Playbook (my first intro to gestures). It was the main motivation for ditching my iPhone4 for a Blackberry Z10, because the iPhone home button (among other things) was then driving me mad. When I had no BlackBerry option for my Playbook replacement, I reluctantly had to deal with the three Android buttons on my Samsung Tab7. Luckily, two of them were soft buttons. Over time, I got used to using gestures (swipe left or swipe right) over the two soft buttons. As Android has improved the gestures over time, it has all started to become more natural for me on Android. I agree with an earlier post that in modern Android it is now quite close to how BlackBerry10 used to be now. With my A21 (Z10 replacement), I will rarely if ever switch to the three button method. I agree with the earlier post about it being nice in Android to now have the choice for switching between modes.

 

[Grabber5.0]

I wanted to like gestures, but I hate the way they made them work. I was spoiled by the best implementation (webOS) and anything else just doesn't feel right. My biggest gripe is that you have to hold way too long to go into card mode (app list), so switching apps takes much longer. Since webOS didn't have a home screen with app icons, they didn't have to come up with two gestures for home vs card view. I thought BB10 has a good compromise, though it takes a little getting used to.

Edit: haha I forgot I already posted basically the same thing the first of April. I think I expanded it slightly this time.

 

[mustang7757]

I wanted to like gestures, but I hate the way they made them work. I was spoiled by the best implementation (webOS) and anything else just doesn't feel right. My biggest gripe is that you have to hold way too long to go into card mode (app list), so switching apps takes much longer. Since webOS didn't have a home screen with app icons, they didn't have to come up with two gestures for home vs card view. I thought BB10 has a good compromise, though it takes a little getting used to.

Edit: haha I forgot I already posted basically the same thing the first of April. I think I expanded it slightly this time.

Nova , double tap to bring recent used apps , the Google back gesture is great don't have to shift thumb at bottom of the screen just quick swipe at the edges

 

[spARTacus]

Nova , double tap to bring recent used apps , the Google back gesture is great don't have to shift thumb at bottom of the screen just quick swipe at the edges

Nova works well on my older and current tablet for gestures, but I don't feel I need it at all on my A21 running Android11, because they have simply incorporated enough gestures now directly into Android.

 

[mustang7757]

Nova works well on my older and current tablet for gestures, but I don't feel I need it at all on my A21 running Android11, because they have simply incorporated enough gestures now directly into Android.

Definitely , Samsung gesture, google gestures.
I don't use Nova just for that reason alone.

 

[Morty2264]

Oh really? I'm very surprised to hear you say that for sure! It is a bit simpler to use 3 button navigation vs gestures on the phone though. That's for sure. ������

I did try using gestures for a while on my S10. While my phone had a cleaner look and things were smooth, I still couldn't get used to it, even after a week or more of using it. But I can definitely see the appeal!

 

[eric002]

I did try using gestures for a while on my S10. While my phone had a cleaner look and things were smooth, I still couldn't get used to it, even after a week or more of using it. But I can definitely see the appeal!

Every since Android 11, I've used gestures. They're OK. A couple of the gestures just don't make sense to me though unfortunately...mostly the multitasking/overview mode. Maybe that's just me, but still. Just like you, I can understand why people like the immersive experience that gestures do provide, I just don't think it is necessarily for me.

 

[Grabber5.0]

Nova , double tap to bring recent used apps , the Google back gesture is great don't have to shift thumb at bottom of the screen just quick swipe at the edges

That's helpful, though unsurprisingly it only works from the home screen. It will come in handy there whenever I am on the home screen. I have been playing around with the swipe up feature and the problem I was experiencing seems to be isolated, so it's working a bit better. Still irritating that I can't do a webOS style "back gesture" by sliding left from the gesture indicator. I know they can differentiate it from the larger next/previous app switching gesture if Palm and HP could do it.

 

[Grabber5.0]

Every since Android 11, I've used gestures. They're OK. A couple of the gestures just don't make sense to me though unfortunately...mostly the multitasking/overview mode. Maybe that's just me, but still. Just like you, I can understand why people like the immersive experience that gestures do provide, I just don't think it is necessarily for me.

It's not just you. I'll try to leave it on for a while again. I do wish the back gesture couldn't be done from anywhere along the edge of the screen, because I often accidentally trigger it trying to swipe left on something on the screen like a photo to move to the next photo.

 

[mustang7757]

That's helpful, though unsurprisingly it only works from the home screen. It will come in handy there whenever I am on the home screen. I have been playing around with the swipe up feature and the problem I was experiencing seems to be isolated, so it's working a bit better. Still irritating that I can't do a webOS style "back gesture" by sliding left from the gesture indicator. I know they can differentiate it from the larger next/previous app switching gesture if Palm and HP could do it.

Yeah I keep each home page empty at the bottom to allow this

 

[Morty2264]

Every since Android 11, I've used gestures. They're OK. A couple of the gestures just don't make sense to me though unfortunately...mostly the multitasking/overview mode. Maybe that's just me, but still. Just like you, I can understand why people like the immersive experience that gestures do provide, I just don't think it is necessarily for me.

Exactly! I can definitely understand why some would like to use the gestures - but they do not suit my needs for the time being.