Google seems to have leaked a new feature coming to Android P, the next version of Android OS. There was an image found on the Android Developers blog which had an unrelated feature. Android P will come with a feature supporting gesture based navigation – which is about time.
The image posted by Google:
So, have you found something odd? Look at the navigation bar!
This is an image of navigation bar on a Pixel 2 running on Android O (or the current Android P beta).
So, where are the recent buttons? Why is the back button having old hollow design? Why is the home button squashed in a pill?
Is Google coming with gesture navigation in Android P?
Do you think Google’s Android Team is experimenting uselessly with tricky designs? Is Google drunk? All these signs point Google is coming with something new, may be that gesture navigation. At last, they are concerned for Android P. According to Stephan Hall, from 9to5Google, it is certainly (100%) gesture navigation. The back button appears temporarily and the recent button was removed. According to Ars, Android P has a new sliding animation while navigating within an app, which would move nicely with swiping gestures. It seems Google will make a disappearing back button and come with gestures which are available on iPhone X. May be Google wants Android users to get as many features as on the iPhone devices.
The evidence was removed then by Google by cropping the image to just show off the feature it actually meant to show off. We don’t know who uploaded the image, and nothing is wrong in it. So, let us hope for some great features in Android P. In response to the iPhone X, Google might be considering the move in stock Android. The gesture-based navigation allows you to shrink navigation bar and save some part on the screen. But, this does not appear to be in case of this particular image.
Still, the confusion continues whether this will be included in the final version of Android P or not. The traditional navigation bar on the android seems perfectly fine, but it does not prove to be a satisfactory reason for not coming with a gesture-based navigation. Number of android manufacturers have implemented navigation gestures for years, but Google might be planning to consider stock Android. Google I/O is coming up in a few weeks. So, it will not take too long to get this mystery resolved.
