Over the last few weeks, several early builds of Android Q Beta 5 have turned up, revealing some of the upcoming gestures in the next round of preview software.
The lastest reveal, spotted by XDA Developers, is a new gesture to open the notification panel. The next Q beta reportedly includes the gesture in the Pixel Launcher, which lets users swipe down on any section of the home screen to open the notifications.
The ‘swipe anywhere’ gesture isn’t exactly new, however. Many third-party launchers, like Nova Launcher, offer similar functionality, and XDA says the feature was present in the AOSP launcher included in the early Q build that leaked in January.
Currently, if you don’t use a custom launcher that supports the feature, you have to reach to the top of the screen and swipe down from there to open notifications. If you’ve got a Pixel device, you can also use the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner to open the notification panel.
Further, the gesture reportedly tracks your finger and follows its movement, unlike third-party implementations which wait until you finish the swipe to start opening the panel.
Additionally, third-party developers may be able to leverage Google’s implementations to add or improve their own swipe gesture in their launcher.
Recently, leaks revealed tweaks Google made to improve gesture navigation in Android Q, as well as a new gesture to activate Assistant.
Google is expected to roll out Android Q Beta 5 soon.
Source: XDA Developers Via: Android Police
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