It looks like we have new leaks on more changes about Android P UI and UX. It appears that Google will be changing our beloved navigation bar around and introducing gestures. No longer will we have three icons at the bottom, but rather only a back button and the home button. We will then use gestures on the home button to access our multitasking menu — similar to what a particular competitor does.
Leaked from Google itself, we were shown some of these new changes about a week ago. The most notable difference likely being the new pill design for the home button. To counter the removal of the multitasking button, you will now have to swipe up on the pill home button to access the menu. After that, notice that the vertical array that background apps used to be in are now in a horizontal orientation. They perform as expected, swipe left and right to cycle through, swipe up to quit, and tap to select.
That seems to be the only gesture added to the new OS update. The home button is still a simple button, so no swipe to get home. The back button, although unchanged in basic functionality, does seem to now be contextually-based. This change means that you shouldn’t see it when there isn’t a previous page to go to, such as on the home screen.
These changes should be present in the final version of Android P coming later this year, but we may also get them in future beta builds of the software. Personally, I like the move towards a gesture-based OS. It makes our phones seem more modern. How do you all feel about these upcoming changes? Should we bring back WebOS?
