Based on a new report by XDA Developers, Android 11 may include special gesture navigation sensitivity options. This information got extracted from Android 11 Developer Preview 1 which arrived quite recently.
We’ve already found out a lot of details about Android 11 thanks to DP1. Well, the newest piece of info has something to do with gestures. Google already added an option to tweak the sensitivity of navigation gestures in Android 10, but it seems like Android 11 could arrive with more options.
Android 11 may offer special gesture navigation sensitivity options
In Android 11, you’ll be able to change the sensitivity for the left and right back gestures individually. You won’t be able to spot this option if you dig through settings, but try searching for ‘Left edge’ in Settings.
Once you start messing with the slider, you will be able to see a blue overlay on the left or right edge. Being able to tweak this on an individual basis, for each side, will be quite useful.
Do note that this option will be available for Google’s navigation gestures only. Android OEMs tend to tweak Google’s implementation, so you may find something completely different if you don’t get a Pixel.
This does not confirm that such options will be available in Android 11 either. The option is here, in Android 11 DP1, but Google may opt to remove it by the time stable Android 11 build comes around, we’ll see.
Why is Google adding such an option? Well, on one hand, it’s for convenience. On the other, it may have something to do with the conflict between side panels, and navigation gestures.
Navigation gestures sensitivity options will not resolve that conflict for Google, but that option will at least offer some options to users.
Many apps still have a left side panel
As many of you probably already know, many apps still have a left side panel option. Meaning that you can swipe from the left edge towards the middle in order to call upon a side panel. Google has been promoting and using such design as well, up until it released navigation gestures in their current form.
You can now swipe from either the left or right side in Google’s navigation gestures to go back. That conflicts with the left panel, of course, as you can use the whole left side to do a back gesture.
Now, if Google offers an option to disable swiping from the left to initiate a back gesture, that would be extremely useful, and solve this problem for the company. Or at least if the company offers a way to disable such swipe for the upper portion of the display.
OnePlus did something like that in its own gesture navigation, in order to avoid this conflict, so it would be nice to see it in Android 11 as well. We’ll see what will Google do in the final build of Android 11.