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REVERT!! 10->9
- Thread starter jtgd2
- Start date
Settings > System > Gestures > System navigation.
Choose what you prefer.
If you set a third party launcher as default it won't let you choose the new gestures (because rather than map the new gestures onto the old functions they've managed to link the home gesture to their launcher - Google employ a lot of smart people, but they clearly kept them away from the UI team...).
jtgd2
Lurker
What I prefer is the way it used to be, but I don't see that option. Now I've reverted to the old 3 button design which seems clunky compared to the slick 9 design.There is no way to switch between apps as I did before. Yes I use Nova launcher and they broke that as well, it does at times go to the stock launcher, and I can't configure that how I want anyway. They seem to want to shove a lot of crap down our throats without any options. How do I get rid og that stupid Google search box? How do I get rid of those icons I never put there?
Seriously, I think I'd be happier going back to Android 9. I didn't see anything new in 10 that I would miss. Is there a way?
And seriously I think I won't be buying another Android phone.
What do you mean by "the way it used to be"? I'm using the way it was in android 9, which is what they call 2 button navigation. And I'm also using Nova and don't get any interference from the stock launcher (which is crap, but has always been crap, and one good thing about android is that when the manufacturer installs crap you can always find an alternative).
You might be able to install an older Android 9 binary - I've not looked into how to do this on a pixel, but it's likely to involve a reset, either when flashing or because you have to unlock the bootloader. But I don't understand why you can't run it just as you did android 9, because that's what I'm doing.
(I do prefer the more granular permission control that 10 gives, and apart from one app, which hasn't been updated since 2011, no longer working I've not had any problems. So I don't feel any need to revert).
You might be able to install an older Android 9 binary - I've not looked into how to do this on a pixel, but it's likely to involve a reset, either when flashing or because you have to unlock the bootloader. But I don't understand why you can't run it just as you did android 9, because that's what I'm doing.
(I do prefer the more granular permission control that 10 gives, and apart from one app, which hasn't been updated since 2011, no longer working I've not had any problems. So I don't feel any need to revert).
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Just for clarity, was your device running 9 and then upgraded to 10, or was 10 the original OS on the device?
GameTheory
Android Expert
Android 10 was released yesterday for the Pixel devices since they're first in line, so I believe he updated to it.
I didn't see where the OP said he had a Pixel; I saw @Hadron's reference to it, but didn't know how he knew that.
Okay, and someone feel free to correct me, but why can't he just do a factory reset? Then quickly disable auto-update? As I see it, that puts the device back to its original state, including its Android version, right?
GameTheory
Android Expert
Android 10 was released yesterday for Pixel devices so there wouldn't be devices on the market with it pre-installed just yet.I didn't see where the OP said he had a Pixel; I saw @Hadron's reference to it, but didn't know how he knew that.
The factory reset would just reset the data, not the android version.
I've been reading about people using 10 for awhile, having upgraded to it, so I guess I jumped to the conclusion that by now there must be brand-new devices with it installed.
So it's not a true factory reset.
D
Deleted User
Guest
I got my note 10+ with Android 9 to be honest they actually update you to the latest version when you first get the phone
GameTheory
Android Expert
Yes, you've been able to use android 10 for a while now if you participated in the Beta program. As for the official release, that was yesterday.
It's just a factory reset for the android version you are on. You're just clearing it of data and settings. It's always been this way.So it's not a true factory reset.
A true factory reset would restore it to its original, shipped-from-the-factory condition. You'd be able to look at its specs page on its manufacturer's site, compare that to your 'factory reset'-ed device and see identical specs.
On Google's support page, the relevant article is called "Reset your Android device to factory settings." 'Factory settings' to me means exactly what its name says!
Does anyone know why they use incorrect and misleading terminology for this?
GameTheory
Android Expert
Honestly it's not a big deal. It's also not ideal to upgrade to a new version and decide later on to factory reset for whatever reason and get thrown back to an old version (I'd be pissed if that were to happen). You're factory resetting android OS as oppose to the device which for most folks is more convenient.
It's not common for folks to want to downgrade to an older OS across any platform, be it mobile or desktop. Most just want to reset the actual "current OS to a factory state".
Now in the event that you do want to factory reset the device, each OEM has their own way of doing it. LG has their flash tool, Samsung has Odin, and Pixels/Motos have fastboot etc etc.
As aside:
It's usually best to wait for official OS releases rather than install betas. This gives time for bugs to be fixed and features to mature. Would avoid folks wanting to downgrade.
jtgd2
Lurker
Yes, I have a Pixel 3a. It came with Android 9.
It used to be that with 2 button navigation that I could drag the Home button right and the running apps would show and let me continue to drag left/right to select through all apps. Toggling to the previous app was a simple short swipe right in the Home button. If I swiped up in the area to the right of the Home button it would show that list of apps and they would remain and I could swipe left/right to choose or swipe up the close the app. I liked that interface. It worked well.
In Android 10, for 2 button it says "To switch apps swipe up on the Home button. To see all apps swipe up again." Not quite accurate. When I set that, swiping up on the Home button is the same as swiping up on the right area as in 9. It simply puts you into that all apps shown mode and you then have to swipe left/right to find the app. It no long has that convenient ability to scroll through all the apps with the drag right on the Home button. If you drag up and then left/right, and then drag back down to select, you can barely get to one adjacent app, but not able to see all of them. Dragging right on the Home button does absolutely nothing now.
Why would they put in a nice method like that and then just throw it away, and not even give the option to keep it if you want?? They could have just left that drag-right functionality in there, since it hasn't been replaced. They seem committed to just making things worse.
Newly added is a long press on Home brings up Google Assistant. I have no interest in that and with some digging was able to disable it, though it still shows the polka dots and long-press can't be assigned to something useful.
EDIT: Actually I notice that dragging up from the bottom of the screen always lets you switch apps, from the bottom left, right, or center. There is nothing special about dragging the Home button up at all. Swiping up-right-down from the left, or up-left-down from the right lets you move one app to the left or right. I still think the old interface was better.
It used to be that with 2 button navigation that I could drag the Home button right and the running apps would show and let me continue to drag left/right to select through all apps. Toggling to the previous app was a simple short swipe right in the Home button. If I swiped up in the area to the right of the Home button it would show that list of apps and they would remain and I could swipe left/right to choose or swipe up the close the app. I liked that interface. It worked well.
In Android 10, for 2 button it says "To switch apps swipe up on the Home button. To see all apps swipe up again." Not quite accurate. When I set that, swiping up on the Home button is the same as swiping up on the right area as in 9. It simply puts you into that all apps shown mode and you then have to swipe left/right to find the app. It no long has that convenient ability to scroll through all the apps with the drag right on the Home button. If you drag up and then left/right, and then drag back down to select, you can barely get to one adjacent app, but not able to see all of them. Dragging right on the Home button does absolutely nothing now.
Why would they put in a nice method like that and then just throw it away, and not even give the option to keep it if you want?? They could have just left that drag-right functionality in there, since it hasn't been replaced. They seem committed to just making things worse.
Newly added is a long press on Home brings up Google Assistant. I have no interest in that and with some digging was able to disable it, though it still shows the polka dots and long-press can't be assigned to something useful.
EDIT: Actually I notice that dragging up from the bottom of the screen always lets you switch apps, from the bottom left, right, or center. There is nothing special about dragging the Home button up at all. Swiping up-right-down from the left, or up-left-down from the right lets you move one app to the left or right. I still think the old interface was better.
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This is why some of us refer to it as a factory data reset sometimes - because the term "factory reset" may imply more than it really is. A few years ago I'd point out that to reset the operating system (and system firmware) would require that the phone kept a complete set of images in the storage somewhere, and that few people who complained that their "16GB" phone only gave them 10GB would really want that reduced to 6GB just so that if they ever did a reset they'd then spend the rest of the day in a series of system updates.
But I've occasionally heard the term used for computers too, and would not expect them to revert to the original OS either. It's sloppy naming, but it's been that way from the start and I don't think it's unique to android (resetting an iPhone won't revert the OS) or even to phones.
This is interesting to me because it suggests that not only does your 3a behave differently from my 2 now, but it did with Android 9 too.
For me the one thing that has changed is that swiping left/right on the "pill" button is different. The difference is that I can no longer swipe right and hold and have it keep scrolling: swiping right moves me to the previous app, but holding doesn't scroll. And swiping left moves me to the next app (as long as I'm not currently on the last in the list), which may be new. But this is different from what you describe, as you say swiping right on it does nothing. I also hadn't noticed the change because I never used that gesture anyway (never remembered that it existed).
But what you say about swiping up to the right of the button is confusing to me: that's what swiping up on the button does, and what swiping up on the button did in android 9. I think the confusion there is that the swipe target is big enough that swiping up on the button or to the right of it both trigger the gesture (and still do in 10, at least in my Pixel 2). But for that one nothing has changed here.
The text about swiping up and then swiping again is wrong. It probably describes the Pixel launcher (Google seem to have trouble separating the launcher and the system this year!).
So for me the only thing that's changed is the loss of the "drag right and hold", which I never remembered anyway. And I might speculate that that lay behind its demise: Google justify their choices in their new gesture navigation based on studies of how people actually use the phones, so maybe people like me (who never used that) are more common than people like you and they thought it wasn't important? Just speculation - I'm sure their main focus was on the new gestures (which contain some major flaws), and anything else is just collateral damage.
That's also typical Google. The Pixel 2 has the "active edge" feature, but Google won't let you assign that to anything other than Assistant. They want you to use Assistant (maximises their data collection), and this is about what suits them, not you.
(I have the Google app disabled, so this is completely useless to me).
Ok, I think I know what happened to that "drag the button and hold" gesture. I just tried experimenting with the new gesture navigation (briefly, as it only works with the pixel launcher) and I see that swiping left/right in the gesture area does the same as doing so with the bottom button does now. So I reckon that they've just kept that gesture the same between the two modes rather than preserving the behaviour of the android 9 two-button method. It would be very Google to just focus on their new thing anyway.
The real problem I have with their new navigation, apart from linking it tightly to their own launcher, is that getting to the recent apps list is slow by design: if you have to swipe up and hold to get the app switcher rather than the drawer that is an inherently slow method. So it removes both speed and fluidity from the gesture. And this isn't just a matter of adjustment, it is inherently slow and awkward. Yet there are so many other ways they could have done this that would not have produced this problem. It's just dumb.
The real problem I have with their new navigation, apart from linking it tightly to their own launcher, is that getting to the recent apps list is slow by design: if you have to swipe up and hold to get the app switcher rather than the drawer that is an inherently slow method. So it removes both speed and fluidity from the gesture. And this isn't just a matter of adjustment, it is inherently slow and awkward. Yet there are so many other ways they could have done this that would not have produced this problem. It's just dumb.