While we wait for Android 14 to arrive on our devices by opening our mouths with the developer versions that you can now download, the reality is that we did not appreciate the major changes at the interface level, but There is a novelty that I’m looking forward to for what it can bring to the experience: gesture navigation.
Google introduced the gesture navigation system with Android 9 Pie in 2018, although it got it a bit halfway through as it kept the back and home buttons, essentially adding gestures for certain tasks . One year later, immersion in gesture navigation was already definitive with Android 10.
Revert, a pending issue in Android
Although gesture navigation is generally intuitive, in my opinion the return was still missing something. And it is that if multitasking or returning to the main screen feels complete thanks to animations and movement, from Android 10 to Android 13, the reverse is perceived as something more uncertain. In fact, sometimes you don’t know how far it will take you. And it’s not always where you wanted to go (because you rarely want to go back to the main screen).
Regularly using Android and iPhone, the comparison is inevitable. Especially since with each new version of Android, there are fewer and fewer differences with iOS. Because iOS offers pretty much the same home and multitasking gestures as Android, but it lacks a back-to-home screen gesture. However, In-app transitions are more intuitive on iOS than Android: For example, in most iOS applicati ons, it is possible to swipe from the left edge of the screen to go to the immediately previous screen.
In practice, this resolution allows us to move forward without fear, knowing that we can go back if we are not where we wanted, which translates into a more pleasant and therefore more intuitive experience. But the Android ecosystem took note and with Android 14 it found its own way with “Animations for Predictive Return Actions”, which you can also try if you have a Google Pixel with Android 13 and developer options enabled.
How Android 14’s Predictive Return Action Works
This new gesture lets you see which step you’ll take next. Visually, when you slide your finger across the screen, the animation reveals the screen you are moving towards. The gesture is accompanied by a haptic response to complete the experience. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, there is a video on these lines to make it clearer. As you see, you can swipe back and forth to confirm the step or stay where you are.
As a consequence, we will avoid unwanted application closures due to uncertain rollback. Simply put, if what you’re previewing isn’t where you want it, you just can’t preview it. As a result, the experience is finally more intuitive, pleasant and satisfying for users.
The system provides instant feedback based on your movements, to it is not something immediate and gives a greater sense of controlby executing the command when there are dances gesture. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s my favorite from what I’ve seen of Android 14.
To tell the truth, in practice normally as soon as we see the slightest bit where we are going to go, we slide everything to confirm the action, so the animation may seem a more dispensable. But not everyone behaves the same.
Although in the second Developer Preview of Android 14 you can already try this gesture in some applications, The idea is that it reaches Android 14 in general and also in third-party applicationsalthough Google has requested with this second version that the development teams implement it in their respective software.
And it is that until now some applications have resorted to adding an additional confirmation step to avoid accidental exits (or entries). But one thing is theory and another is practice: when Android 14 is official, it will be normal that not all apps support this navigation from the start… something that happens even with Google’s own apps.
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