Samsung's neat solution for those who dislike software navigation keys

Terminal updated: October 9th, 2018 at 13:46 UTC+01:00

Here'southward something interesting we discovered on the new Milky way A7. Samsung has implemented a corking characteristic for those who don't similar the software navigation keys taking up screen infinite on their smartphones. On the Galaxy A7, you can permanently hide the navigation bar and use gestures for accessing the home, back, and contempo apps deportment. The same feature will come to the Galaxy S9 with the Android Pie update.

Access software navigation keys without seeing them on-screen

On Samsung devices with Infinity displays, there'southward an option to add together a petty dot in the navigation bar and so double tap this dot to hide or show the navigation bar. Hiding the bar allows for more usable screen estate, and i can simply swipe upwards from the lesser of the device to admission the navigation bar when needed. On the Galaxy A7, though, you take a new option: Swiping upward from the lesser of the screen while the navigation bar is subconscious will instantly trigger the back, home, or recents fundamental actions.

You volition permanently see three small blobs at the bottom of the screen and you can swipe from each of these blobs for the respective actions. So, past default, a swipe up from the left hulk will bring up the recent apps screen, while a swipe upward from the rightmost hulk will accept you back. The middle blob, naturally, volition take you to the home screen. These blobs tin also exist disabled if you wish (by toggling the 'Gesture hints' selection). The only problem is that if you lot enable the primal gestures and hide the navigation bar, the navigation bar can just be brought back by taking a trip into the display settings.

Once more, if you don't like the navigation bar taking upwardly some part of the screen, these gestures are quite useful. With Android ix.0 Pie, they will (hopefully) be a part of all Galaxy devices with software navigation keys.

Update: This story has been edited to reflect the fact that these gestures are also available on the leaked Milky way S9 Android 9.0 Pie builds.