How To Get iPhone X-like Gestures On Any Android Smartphone Right Now?
With the release of iPhone X last year, even the people who remain glued to their iPhones had to spend some time getting used to the new flagship. The reason, Apple killed the Home button and added swipe gestures as a replacement. For instance, you can swipe halfway up from the bottom of the screen and hold to display the app switcher.
Android users can already get the much talked about iPhone X notch on their Android devices. Now, they can also try iPhone X gestures on Android smartphone. Here are a couple of Android gesture apps that can allow them to do so.
How to get iPhone X Gestures On Android Smartphone?
Gesture Control – Next level navigation
Gesture Control is a lightweight Android app that runs on Android 4.1 (and above). It provides a variety of iPhone X-like gestures which can be used to go the Home screen, go back, open recent apps, open notifications shade, open quick settings, etc.
The default set of gestures include:
Swipe Up: Home.
Swipe Left: Back
Swipe Right: Notifications
Swipe Up and Hold: Recent apps
Swipe Left and hold: Split screen
Swipe Right and hold: Android Quick Settings
Swipe Halfway Up: No default
Swipe Halfway Up and hold: No default
There are some more gestures supported by Gesture Control app, but they can be enabled after upgrading to the Pro/donation version. These include double tap, long tap, and double tap & hold.
These iPhone X gestures on Android phones can be handy for the users whose hands aren’t big enough to operate smartphones with gigantic screens. An advantage is that the gestures can be configured as per the users’ need. I like the right swipe gesture which opens the Notifications, reducing the effort of my finger which has to go all the way to the top edge of the screen.
Almost all of the gestures work in the sensor area around the black horizontal line (indicator) which itself is customizable. Users can increase the height of the indicator, change its distance from the bottom edge of the screen, and make sure it auto-adjusts when the keyboard pops-up, change color, make it transparent, etc.
The width and the horizontal position of the line can also be changed, but it requires the Pro version which also enables the ability to launch other apps.
Gesture Control has many great features, but it’s hard for an app to be all good. Android users having a virtual navigation bar might face some inconvenience as the app doesn’t hide it. However, on the ‘Tips’ screen, it promotes another app which can do so if the device is rooted.
All In One Gestures
All In One Gestures works on smartphones running Android 4.4 and above. This app can also shower some iPhone X gestures on an Android phone, but it doesn’t confine the user’s finger to the bottom edge of the screen. In terms of features, it offers way more than Gesture Control. But, at the same time, it would take a while to get used to it.
There the three categories of gestures offered by the app. You can customize the physical keys of the device to open apps, shortcuts, and navigate to different screens. For instance, you can set the volume up button to open the music player when you long press it.
The app offers many swipe gestures which work along the edges and corners of the devices. Similar to the case of physical buttons, each swipe gesture can be configured to open apps and navigate. In total, you can add 12 swipeable hotspots (by tapping the three dots on the top right corner) which will also add diagonal swipe gestures.
Under the Status Bar tab, you can find the option to add gestures to the status bar (notification bar) and navigation bar. For instance, you can open apps by double tapping the status bar. An inconvenience here is the highly responsive Notifications shade also shows up for a moment.
One thing that many users would find useful is that they can enable or disable specific gesture categories instead of disabling all of them at once. A Pro version of the app is available, but it only removes advertisements, as the app doesn’t cut down features. However, some of the gestures require root access on the Android device.