Android 14 has been a reality since last October, when the Mountain View company released the stable version for their mobile phones, the Google Pixel. Then, in December, the first Pixel Feature Drop landed, and it’s already deep into development for the second quarterly update scheduled for March, Android 14 QPR2.
Even before the latest version arrived, when Android 14 was only in closed beta, an interesting feature was discovered that would improve functionality. navigation gestures. This was the predictive “rollback” gesture, which, as we will see below, did not happen in the expected way, although, curiously, it did in some applications.
Android 14 predictive gesture has not been implemented in the system
The demonstration of this new function showed its usefulness: when performing the “back” gesture, that is to say by sliding from one side towards the screen, it would be displayed an animation which shows the screen we return to.
For you to understand better… Have you ever encountered an app that requires a second confirmation when you try to close it? The developers decide to implement this to avoid unwanted closes, but this animation would solve this problem. Which, on the other hand, also gives us information when interacting with our Android mobile.
From there, Google started developing it and, as they say, it was spotted in the beta versions of Android 14. However, for months, owners of a Google Pixel – as well as other models of manufacturers being updated – benefit from the latest news. iteration of the Google operating system, and there is no trace of her.
Or so we thought, because at the most unexpected moment, he arrived. And in the most unexpected way possible: in an application from the American giant, that is to say in one of the “Google Apps”.
Here is the predictive gesture, although not fully integrated
It’s not that Google apps are a strange place to implement a feature that Google itself is developing, but obviously This is not the way we expected to see things.. Anyway, that’s how it happened, and so far (as far as we’ve noticed) you can see it in action in Google Calendar.
In fact, if we access an event or task that we have in our personal calendar, we will observe how by making the back gesture the events file is minimized, showing the general view of the calendar behind. It has no more mystery than that, moreover with a very attractive animationalthough the truth is that it loses its usefulness when implemented in this way.
Because? In addition to letting us know which part we are going to return to, what is interesting is that it is completely integrated into the system, in order to check which application we are returning to. It is nevertheless curious that it reaches Google Calendar (we remember seeing it in another application, but it seems that it has disappeared with the latest updates) and not others with a little more complexity .
We assume, as usual, Google will gradually add it to the rest of the applications. Additionally, it doesn’t seem like a simple experience, especially since it gave developers the option to add this predictive animation. Here you can see how to do it if you are an Android developer.
You can force the predictive gesture from the developer options
Now, if you liked it or know that you will benefit from it, we are going to tell you some good news: you can force its activation. To do this, we will follow these simple steps:
- Go to Settings > About phone > Android version. Tap “Build Number” repeatedly until Developer Options is enabled.
- Then enter them into Settings > System > Developer Options.
- Use the search engine and type: “predictive”. Then tap on the “Animations for predictive feedback actions” option and enable it.
- Ready! Now they will appear throughout the operating system, being more useful.
It is worth mentioning, however, that, as we say, they will be present every time we make the return gesture, even if doesn’t seem to work with third party apps. We will surely have to wait for Google and the developers of the most popular applications to adapt the software to this functionality, which will undoubtedly complement the most used form of navigation currently: gestures.
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