I find gesture based navigation (in the OS, not the app) to be pretty awful. My phone is therefore set to use 3 button navigation.
Mostly this works okay in Connect, but every once in a while I find something inaccessible - possibly even not visible - because the 3 buttons cover the interface elements.
A recent example I encountered was trying to export / import settings when switching between phones. I found how to do so in Connect settings, but had difficulty completing the process because both the “export” and “import” buttons were behind my system buttons and not very visible. I had to change my OS settings to even be able to access them after I found them.
Even more recently, which is to say today, I was trying to navigate through a video (which seems an iffy process anyway) and was unable to do so because the progress bar was, again, under my system buttons.
That’s fun; you may be correct. I use gestures, so I would have never noticed.
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to say this without sounding obnoxious, but haven’t thought of one, so hopefully you won’t think too poorly of me for this response …
… I genuinely don’t understand how one can want to use gestures over basically any other method of interacting with the OS.
I don’t think I’m in the minority regarding this, so hopefully the devs see this post and make an adjustment.
No worries, friend!
I used the three button system for a few years, but I think my phone got too big to comfortably reach the correct button every time. Right now, the Back button in Connect is more than two inches farther than my thumb can reach without having to juggle the phone. The swipe up home, swipe arc to “alt+tab”, and swipe from edge to go back were easy transitions for me. I have used mouse gestures in my browsers for decades, and with limited plugin success in other apps/desktops. I prefer a swipe keyboard on mobile.
The buttons feel old-fashioned to me now, and when I see people use them I assume they aren’t aware that they have a choice. I do use a third party launcher (Nova, but prevented from updating since they got bought) because I hated and therefore only briefly used the google launcher. Maybe my gestures are better/different than stock. I don’t recall.
I can swipe up or down on app shortcuts to open different apps or open menus or pull down the notifications. I can swipe on open space in different directions to open different settings menus. Nova lets me search, map, share, print, call, message, and more with a variety of configurable gestures.
It’s been very comfortable for me!
To each their own - I’m glad you found what works for you. I use Lawnchair now but last time I tried gestures it was on Nova, so probably we would have had the same gestures.
Hope you have a great day!