The latest developer preview of Android P comes with significant changes in the way the device is used. As in the iPhone X, Android P comes with gesture navigation, and Apple’s device will be the main source of inspiration for the new way of browsing Google’s mobile operating system.
However, Google’s Android team has been working on Android P without interruption in the new system for at least a year, said Dave Burke, Google’s vice president of engineering for Android, to CNET staff at the annual I / O conference of Google, which takes place this week.
The reasons why Android P comes with gesture navigation
The real reason why gesture navigation has reached the Android operating system has nothing to do with Apple, said Google, has all to do with these three standard navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen of Android smartphones – Back, Home and Menu.
Specifically, Google wants to delete the button that allows you to view all your open applications making it easy to see the applications with one touch. This square-like application button, for example in Pixel 2, a symbol difficult to describe, in the Galaxy S9 (since the home button of the Galaxy S9 is a square).
“Android has these three buttons at the bottom – Home, back and something else,” said Burke. “And it is, a little too much, a little too complicated. I think of it as entering a three-door room and it’s like “which door will I enter?”
In addition, the Android team thinks users should not go somewhere special to see their applications open. “We just did not want extra buttons, “ added Burke.
Google’s push to make Android simpler and easier to use has important implications for phone users around the world. According to IDC, about 85 percent of the world’s phones run the Android operating system, and the beta version of Android P will evolve to become the next full version of Android.
Future iPhones are expected to follow the gesture interface of iPhone X, so between Android and iPhone, phones that depend on gesture navigation will flood the market very soon.
