I’m stubborn and that means it’s hard for me to get used to changes. This happened to me when iPhone moved from the reliable and classic Home button to gestures and also when those three buttons at the bottom of Android were modernized to gestures. Appreciate more screen for content at the cost of memorizing gestures to invoke actions.
These days, anyone with an Android phone has internalized gestures like go back, swipe down to access quick settings and notifications, swipe up to return to the home screen, or swipe up and hold to see what applications we have open. These are the basic gestures on Android, but There are many others depending on the manufacturer and certain gestures make the difference.
I couldn’t live without these gestures on my Android phone
The previous ones are jack, knight and king and of course I learned them, but my recommendation is always that if you use gesture navigation, take a few minutes to see what you can do and if they are useful to you because in my case , There are gestures on Android that were a before and after. Where can we see this? In your mobile settings, in the ‘System’ > ‘Gestures’ section.
- Mute when turning. I tend to get a lot of notifications throughout the day, which can be annoying sometimes. But I can’t just forget because I might miss important messages and calls, so I enabled this option which activates Do Not Disturb mode by turning the phone over.
- Swipe with two fingers up and down to see the full quick settings panel. I mentioned above that with a simple swipe from the top we get to notifications and part of the control panel, something that everyone usually uses. However, by making this gesture with two fingers we bring up the quick settings menu completely.
- Screenshots using two or three fingers. Depending on the brand, you just need to slide two or three fingers across the screen to take a screenshot. In the case of the Google Pixel, another option is to double tap on the back and select to take a screenshot.
- Turn on the flashlight by pressing the back twice or shaking. In the case of the Google Pixel, for example, these two quick keys on the back can also be used to turn on the flashlight and for me this is the key, because sometimes I need light quickly and without worrying about looking the screen. Motorola mobile phones have a very interesting shaking gesture, imitating a sort of karate kick in the air.
- Zoom into Google Maps by double-tapping and dragging. When using your phone with one hand, pinching the screen to zoom is not an option. If we also take into account the popularity of Google Maps, we have a very practical gesture for everyday life. Just do a double tap but instead of lifting your finger after the second, you slide to enlarge or reduce the map.
However, and as I warned at the beginning, depending on the brand and the layer you have, you can find peculiarities and surprises as pleasant as those of Motorola, so better look at this section carefully. However, there are also applications to create our own gestures.
Cover | Ricardo Aguilar
By | The Spanish
In Xataka Android | Which navigation is better on Android: three-button setup vs gestures, comparison with pros and cons
