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TL;DR
- Google is adding a long-awaited option to Pixel phones that lets users reverse the order of the three-button navigation bar.
- This feature allows users to switch to the “Recents, Home, Back” layout, which is the default on Samsung Galaxy phones.
- We discovered evidence for the new setting in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2, but the setting isn’t live yet.
For years, Samsung phones have defaulted to a three-button navigation layout where the back button is on the right and the recents button is on the left. In contrast, Google’s Pixel phones use gesture navigation out of the box but offer a three-button option with the traditional Android layout — where the back button is on the left. The problem is that there’s never been a way to flip the button order on Pixels. This poses a challenge for Samsung users switching to a Pixel, as they have to retrain their muscle memory or switch to gesture navigation. Fortunately, Google is finally adding an option to reverse the buttons in the navigation bar.
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Last month, we reported that Google is preparing to let users flip the navigation bar on Pixel phones. Although we previously spotted code for this feature, we didn’t know how Google would present it to users. Now, after digging through the recent Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 release, we’ve discovered new code that details how the option will work.
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