At Google I/O 2019 the news broke that Google has taken a page out of Huawei’s book by adding ‘Swipe-to-go-back’ gestures to Android Q.
This means that Google is phasing the back button out of Android, and instead, users will have to pull in from the side of the device to go back.
Just like in Huawei’s EMUI 9, users can swipe in from either edge to go back a page. The action is different than the traditional back button, but it functions the same.
Using this action on Huawei’s devices works really smoothly since you can swipe from anywhere along either edge making it work for anyone no matter the size of their hand.
To be clear, this isn’t a perfect solution yet. With apps like Slack, where you swipe in from the left to access the conversation panel, this new function makes that swipe not work anymore. This isn’t a terrible issue, but it will take some getting used to.
Google tested out this feature in an earlier version of Android Q, but now it seems set to be the main way to navigate with Pixel devices.
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