Huawei has just promised that some Huawei and HONOR-branded phones will get Android Q soon after Google’s Pixel phones do. The company made this promise via its “EMUI” (Emotion UI) Weibo (Chinese social network) page, which is the name of the company’s Android skin.
The company said that after Google releases a final build of Android Q, a number of its devices will get Android Q-based EMUI software. The company basically said that the next EMUI update for its phones will carry Android Q, though not all of its phones, as already mentioned, as Huawei did list the devices it is referring to.
The following phones will get Android Q soon after Google’s Pixel phones do: the Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 X, Mate 20 RS Porsche Edition, P30, P30 Pro, and two HONOR-branded phones, the View20, and Magic2.
This actually suggests that Huawei is already working hard on developing Android Q-based EMUI build, so that it is ready to push it out when the time comes. That is easily possible as Google is constantly releasing beta builds for Android Q, which Huawei and other OEMs can use to develop their own Android Q-based builds.
Google had actually introduced Android Q Beta 3 build during this year’s Google I/O. That build of Android Q did bring a number of new features and changes compared to the previous one. Google has announced that a system-wide dark mode will be a part of Android Q, and it is available in that build. On top of that, the company also introduced its brand new navigation gestures.
Android 9 Pie-based EMUI comes with its own navigation gestures, but Google’s may become available as well, as the company is requesting that OEMs utilize it, considering that will be the new default navigation for the platform as a whole.
Google’s navigation gestures do resemble Xiaomi’s implementation in MIUI, and they’re also somewhat similar to what Apple included in iOS for its X-series devices. These new navigation gestures replace Android 9 Pie’s “pill navigation”, and it seems like most people agree that this is a way better solution than the half-baked implementation Google came up with for Android 9 Pie.
Instead of a rather thick pill on the bottom of the display, and a bar that takes up too much space, Google included a really thin line. If you swipe up, you will go to the home screen, if you swipe up and pause, you will open a multitasking / overview screen.
Swiping left or right on that line will allow you to quickly switch between your running applications, while the back button has been replaced by gestures as well. You can either swipe from the left or right side of the display in order to go back. It remains to be seen if Huawei will implement this into EMUI, but chances are it will, along with its own navigation gestures, of course. Regular on-screen buttons will probably be a part of the package as well, as they are in Android 9 Pie-based EMUI 9, and some people still prefer such navigation.