If you are an Android user, you must be familiar with the navigation buttons – back, home, and recent – that sit at the bottom of your device. However, with Android 9.0 Pie that was released last year in August, Google introduced navigation gestures. On Android Pie, you don’t get the recent button. You only get a pill and a back button. But, it looks like Google will ditch this back button with the next version of Android – Android Q.
According to a report by XDA-Developers, Google will improve the current Android Pie navigation gestures on Android Q, and thus, this version of Android will not have a back button. You will only get a pill at the bottom that will let you perform different actions like going back, going to home screen, opening recent apps, and of course, switching between different apps.
To go back, you will have to swipe the pill from right to left. We don’t really know Google’s motive behind removing the back button, but we personally think that having a single pill at the bottom will make the UI look clutter-free.
In addition to this, Android Q will also come with smoother transition animations. You can check out the video attached above to get a better idea of these changes.
Having said that, do note that these changes are found in a leaked build of Android Q, so chances are we may get something different in the final product. In fact, we may also see Google scrapping these changes altogether.
The leaked build of Android Q has also revealed system-wide dark mode, app permissions revamp, and more. You can click here to know more about these features.
