ISSUE 50 • ANDROID ADVISOR 53GOOGLE I/O 2018- differs from Apple’s in meaningful ways. The early
beta suggests that the experience will actually improve
on Android’s speed and intuition. Here are four
reasons why we’re looking forward to it on the Pixel
and other Android P phones.
- It’s optional
The biggest difference between the gesture navigation
in iOS 11 and Android P is that Google is letting you
switch it on and off. Head over to the new Gestures
menu in Settings and you’ll find a Swipe up on Home
Button toggle that will enable the new system,
elongating the home button and removing the square
tasks button. Don’t like it? Just switch it off to go back
to the old nav bar. - The home button is also a scroll bar
On the iPhone X, the navigation bar is little more
than a line at the button of the screen that Apple
calls a “home indicator”. But on Android it’s still a
virtual button. That means you can still long-press
it to bring up Google Assistant, but it also has a new
trick: scrolling. Swipe to the left or right on the new
home button, and you’ll instantly be taken to the
app carousel, where you can scroll to select an app.
It’s super-easy and actually makes it quicker to jump
back and forth between apps. - You can grab text in the app switcher
When you swipe up to enter the app switcher on
Android P, you’re not just looking at visual snapshots
of the apps you recently used – they are actually