"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/06/2019 at 12:22 • Filed to: None
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"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/06/2019 at 12:22 • Filed to: None | 1
| 10 |
Hey y’all, time once again for an OCD phone post from me! As part of Android P, Google added gesture controls to replace the traditional Android back/home/multitasking buttons. Except Google’s gestures are a mess. The video above is a great comparison of the different gesture controls from Google, OnePlus, and Motorola.
TL;DR: the Google and OnePlus gestures are kinda trash, and Motorola’s are the only ones that really make sense.
And now, an extended nitpicky rant on all the problems with Google’s gestures. Because unlike most other phones that let you choose between 3-button or gesture navigation, the Pixel 3 on up are all in on Google’s shitty gesture controls.
One of the main reasons for gesture controls is to increase the available screen real estate, but Google’s gestures gain you back zero new screen real estate. The area on the screen for Google’s gesture controls is the exact same height
as the old 3-button nav.
There’s NO BACK GESTURE . It’s still a damn button, but it’s now a teensy < icon that you have to squint to see.
Google got the idea that people want to access their app drawer all the time and not only from the home screen, which is a nice thought, but the way they’ve implemented it is all messed up. B oth the app drawer AND the multitasking screens are accessed by slightly different swipe-up gestures, and inevitably you mess up which type of swipe- up you’re supposed to do for the app drawer or your recent apps, and end up with a bunch of double up-swipes trying to get into one or the other of these things.
BUT... there are other multitasking features that involve swiping right on the home button. If you swipe right and let go, that flips you back to your most recent other app you were in. This is a the same as the double tap on the multitasking button in the 3-button setup.
If you swipe right and hold your finger down, you can then slide the home button side to side to move between different open apps. Except, this is a complete duplicate of just swiping up on the home button and then flicking the app cards themselves left or right. Why have 2 different ways to do the same damn thing, Google?
If you install a custom launcher, this sorta kinda fixes and also breaks Google’s UI. Custom launchers remove the app drawer from the recent apps screen. Which means that if you swipe up on the home button, you get only your recent apps and no app drawer. To go to your app drawer you have to go to your home screen and then do whatever your launcher of choice does for accessing the app drawer.
I like Nova Launcher which has a setting for swiping up anywhere on the home screen to bring up the app drawer. This way, you only need to remember to swipe up on the home button for your multitasking view, or swipe up anywhere else on the home screen for the app drawer. It’s still two different goddamn up-swipes but they’re at least distinct enough to avoid constantly activating your app drawer when you wanted your recent apps, or vice versa.
On my Essential PH-1, I have the option to choose between 3-button nav or Google’s gestures. Even with Nova launcher, whenever I try the gestures, I basically manage to use the phone fine, but inevitably switch back to the 3-button nav as it’s way more intuitive.
I suppose with a Pixel I could live with the gestures, but they’re just goddamn irritating. Google should give up on the mess they’ve created and simplify things like Motorola. Hell, just straight up steal Motorola’s gestures and be done with it.
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> Textured Soy Protein
06/06/2019 at 12:34 |
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That is really shitty!
I have a LG V30 and an iPhone 8 as my work phone. I haate the iPhone’s (limited ) gestures, I can’t imagine every owning a new Pixel.
I used to be a Google fanboy back when they were making Nexuses (Nexii? ) but its going downhill these days it seems....
Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero
> Textured Soy Protein
06/06/2019 at 12:58 |
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ive been using the 2 button control for my pixel 2 and i love it. id never go back to three buttons but at the same time i tried using the total gesture control and couldnt get the hang of it. im sure with more time i would have but for now ill stick with the two buttons
TechJunky
> Textured Soy Protein
06/06/2019 at 13:17 |
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I've had a Pixel 3XL since last November, and love the Google gestures now. It took a little bit (maybe a week or two) to familiarize myself with them, but after learning it, I find it easy to use. The quick switch between two apps is very handy, the partial swipe to show 5 suggested apps is great (it changes depending on where you are in your phone and what app you're using, but it almost always has what I'm looking for), and muscle memory has set in so I can load the quick 5 app drawer or the entire app drawer without many mistakes.
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Textured Soy Protein
> TechJunky
06/06/2019 at 13:21 |
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The quick switch between apps was already there in the 3-button nav, with a double tap on the recent apps button.
For suggested apps, the search bar in the Nova launcher app drawer has tabs for frequent, recent, and new/updated apps...
t0ast
> Textured Soy Protein
06/06/2019 at 13:30 |
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Pixel 3 XL owner here. Overall, I still like the phone (and Google Fi), but I’d definitely agree the gesture navigation could have been done a lot better.
Back button: I’m fine with it. It’s familiar and it works. That said, I wouldn’t be opposed to a swipe control if it fit in well with the other gestures.
Up swipe app switch/drawer: I eventually got used to it, but I still don’t think it’s a good design. Even for someone with slightly large hands, a one-handed thumb swipe long enough to pull the app drawer up in one go is really awkward. This leads to me double-up-swiping most of the time. I would much prefer the video’s suggestion of prioritizing app drawer on the home screen and app switching inside apps. Having more than one area to swipe up from would also work.
Right swipe: I seldom ever use it. The quick swipe to go to the previous app is okay-ish (mostly on account of me not feeling a regular need for it), but it’s just downright awful once you go slow/far enough (intentionally or occasionally accidentally) to coax it into app switching slider mode. Swiping right to go left/backwards in your apps feels wrong, and it’s really easy to over/under-shoot the app you want. 100% agreed it’s a redundant waste of space.
AestheticsInMotion
> Textured Soy Protein
06/06/2019 at 15:39 |
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I really liked how Samsung implemented the 3-button nav.
The back, home, and recent apps buttons were all gone, giving you maximum screen real estate, but if you swiped up on the area that those buttons normally resided, you got the corrosponding response. Worked great.
An update a few months ago ruined that... It's still swipe up, but n ow there are tiny icons that don’t always dissappear in certain apps that are meant to be full screen. I guess they figured people needed the visual cue..?
See below
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Textured Soy Protein
> AestheticsInMotion
06/06/2019 at 17:14 |
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I think those might be so-called gesture hints that you can turn off?
One Samsung phone was enough for me. I can’t stand all their redundant crap. But I do give them credit for...
A) Being reasonably decent at security patches and usually getting to OS updates eventually.
B) Dat headphone jack tho
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AestheticsInMotion
> Textured Soy Protein
06/06/2019 at 17:39 |
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You are an angel. The bottom part of my screen is cracked with dead pixels, so I never saw the gesture hints button. Now it’s so much better!
As someone who’s firmly entrenched in 99% of Google’s software—both business and personal—I should probably try a pixel one of these days. I was actually considering Huewai after spending a few months with one of their laptops (spoiler alert: absolutely incredible with n o real competition) but uh.... Probably not happening now. *sigh*
What do you think the best budget smartphones on the market are? My mom is looking to finally join the smartphone world, with a $300 budget, max.
NojustNo
> AestheticsInMotion
06/06/2019 at 19:58 |
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My mom just got a Moto G Series phone that she really likes and are reasonably priced
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Textured Soy Protein
> AestheticsInMotion
06/07/2019 at 00:53 |
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I like Motorola, they have nice clean Android builds with a few useful additions and no extra crap , good carrier compatibility, and decent enough specs for the price.
For max budget of $300 I would get the Moto G7 4/64 GB for $270 . The only reasons not to get it are:
A) It’s going to be used on T-Mobile where there’s a lot of new Band 71 network because it’s missing this band, which is annoying because lots of other Moto phones support it.
B) You want to use Google Pay cuz it has no NFC chip.
C) You want frequent, prompt software updates. Because Motorola’s great at not screwing up Android but shitty at updating it.
To skip these problems and get a much nicer AMOLED screen but lose the headphone jack, the Z3 Play is down to $350 . That’s above the budget but it’s a nicer phone with an AMOLED screen, bit faster processor, band 71, NFC. You can use the dumb Moto Mods but those are dumb.
And then up from there it’s Pixel 3a at $400. I know you said max $300 but the Z3P and especially that 3a are a big step up.