I’ve spent the higher a part of a decade protecting tech, and if there’s one factor that I’ve realized, it’s {that a} smartphone is just as sensible because the person. In case you are utilizing your smartphone the best way it got here out of the field, you aren’t utilizing its full potential. Let’s take swipe gestures, for instance. Google launched system-wide navigation gestures with Android 10 in 2019, after Apple made them the default on iPhone X.
Persons are nonetheless navigating their Android units the onerous method, tapping by means of menus, stretching their thumbs to the restrict, and many others. You can be glad to know that Android has a number of hidden gestures that can assist you fly by means of your every day duties.
Associated
Navigate Your iPhone Sooner With These 8 Methods
These iPhone navigation tips make on a regular basis duties really feel easy.
Use this gesture and turn into a professional multitasker
The fast change
Historically, if you wish to change to a special app in your cellphone, you must swipe up, pause, and hunt by means of the current app playing cards to leap to that individual app. This course of takes time, particularly if you wish to change between the at the moment open app and one you opened some time again.
In actual fact, this course of can be cumbersome for switching between two lately opened apps. Fortunately, you don’t have to depend on this to modify between apps. You possibly can merely swipe left or proper alongside the very backside fringe of your display screen, proper above the gesture bar, to modify between apps.
The perfect half is that you should utilize the identical gesture to modify between tabs in Google Chrome too, in case you are nonetheless utilizing it over the feature-loaded Samsung Web. Nonetheless, as a substitute of the navigation bar, you must swipe over Chrome’s URL bar. A fast swipe bounces you forwards and backwards between apps with out lacking a beat, completely mimicking the Alt + Tab expertise of a Home windows PC.
Attain each nook of your cellphone
One-hand mode activated
As most fashionable telephones are pushing the 6-inch mark, even the 7-inch, reaching the highest of the display screen with one hand is like performing finger gymnastics. It’s important to stretch your finger to its restrict and, throughout the course of, modify the cellphone in your hand or use each fingers to achieve the nook. If one hand is occupied, reaching the highest of the show may imply you drop your cellphone at any time.
Fortunately, Google understood this subject, and there’s a particular one-handed mode that shrinks your cellphone display screen so you possibly can attain each nook with only one hand. To make use of this, merely swipe down on the navigation bar.
I attempted giving this a go on my Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely, solely to appreciate that on some telephones, you must first allow One-handed mode from the Settings menu for this gesture to work. As soon as enabled, you possibly can carry out the swipe-down gesture and take management of your cellphone.
Associated
9 Helpful Android Apps That’ll Make Your Telephone Smarter
Need a smarter cellphone? Exchange your default digicam, SMS, gallery, and different apps with these smarter alternate options.
There’s a free mouse to go together with your keyboard
Gboard’s hidden trackpad
Typos in textual content messages on our smartphones are one thing we undergo tons of of occasions a day. The worst is spending these further 10 seconds furiously tapping the display screen to get the cursor precisely between two particular letters. On a PC, that’s fairly straightforward, because of the mouse, however on a smartphone, you don’t have that liberty.
In case you use Gboard, you’ll be glad to know that it encompasses a built-in mouse that’s meant for precision duties precisely just like the above instance. It’s a superior method and top-of-the-line Gboard suggestions you possibly can study. All you must do is press and slide your finger left and proper throughout the Spacebar. The cursor strikes with pinpoint accuracy and turns the Spacebar right into a mini trackpad.
Open the Fast Settings panel in a single go
It simply takes a single swipe
Once you swipe down on the house display screen from the highest, it reveals you notifications. It’s important to swipe as soon as extra to view the Fast Settings panel (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Location, and many others.). There’s a straightforward solution to skip that double step to entry the Fast Settings panel.
You possibly can merely swipe down from the highest of the display screen with two fingers concurrently to disclose the totally expanded Fast Settings panel. Whereas it saves just some seconds, it’s a good solution to shortly entry the tiles. For example, turning on the airplane mode earlier than a flight or switching on the flashlight at the hours of darkness.
You may also entry Accessibility options by means of a secret gesture. It’s worthwhile to head over to Settings -> Accessibility -> Superior settings -> Accessibility button/gesture. Right here, you possibly can set any motion. For example, open the Magnifier by swiping up from the underside with two fingers.
Faucet the again to make your cellphone work
Your cellphone has a secret button
Fashionable telephones are nearly buttonless. Except for the ability button and quantity rockers, telephones hardly get that many buttons. What if somebody instructed you that, aside from the buttons that you simply see in your cellphone, there’s a hidden button on the again of the cellphone?
Whereas it isn’t a bodily button, there’s a function that unlocks a gesture that mimics a button. On Google Pixel telephones, it’s referred to as Fast Faucets, and on Samsung telephones, you must make use of the Good Lock module.
The perfect factor is that you must faucet twice or thrice to carry out sure actions. For example, you possibly can set the again faucet gesture to open the flashlight, management the music, open the notifications panel, and extra.
OS
Android
Developer
Good Lock Labs
Good Lock is a robust customization suite for Samsung Galaxy units, providing a set of modules and plugins that allow you to personalize nearly each facet of your cellphone. With Good Lock, you possibly can tweak the lock display screen, dwelling display screen, navigation bar, keyboard, notifications, and extra to match your type and workflow.
Utilizing your cellphone is simple
As soon as you understand about these hidden Android gestures, you’ll perceive how straightforward it’s to make use of a cellphone. Utilizing these gestures would possibly really feel a bit tough, and there could also be a studying curve. However inside just a few hours or days, you’ll get the hold of it. To make utilizing your gadget a lot simpler, there are a bunch of apps you can set up and switch useless area into one thing helpful, like turning the notch right into a button or controlling your cellphone with bodily actions.
