Navigation buttons just not there ... Where are they?

[David Devoy]

I powered up a new android tablet and copied the apps and settings from the old to the new device. Everything is great, except there are no navigation buttons, "Home, Back and Minimise". They should surely be at the bottom of the screen. None, nothing, where are they, how do I find them? Can anybody help?.

 

[Deleted member 2157292]

You'll need to find in the Settings Menu (there may be a search bar there) how to change from Gesture control to home screen Navigation Buttons.

 

[David Devoy]

That makes sense, many thanks.

 

[ocnbrze]

What tablet do you have?

 

[David Devoy]

It is a Lenovo. It seems to default to, or I have accidentally set it to "gesture navigation". Not helpful in either event.

 

[Deleted member 2157292]

I think a lot of devices default to Gesture Navigation out of the box. I never liked it so my main phone I changed to the 3 button navigation where you can also reverse the side the Back button is on.

I do however have a budget Motorola for another number (Motorola are part of Lenovo now) and I use their in between two button system which works well.
You may have that also.
I'm not carrying the Moto right now.

 

[Hadron]

The "recent apps" gesture (swipe up and pause) is inherently slower than pressing a button or the single swipe of the Android 9 "pill", which may be the "inbetween" system of your Moto. That and the swipe from the side "back" gesture interfering with other UI elements are the reasons I don't use it.

Of course Google insist it's all their design based on their studies, but the fact that both the icon (the bar) and the gestures are identical to the ones Apple had introduced a year before screams "we want iPhone users to feel at home" (Apple doesn't have a system back gesture, but otherwise Google have made exactly the same choices).

 

[nickdalzell]

Actually, Apple has had a swipe back gesture before the gesture navigation became a thing in the iPhone X. Swiping from the left edge of the screen is 'back' on iOS 12+. Samsung has implemented something quite similar when they added navigation gestures, but it works from either edge of the screen, not just the left.

 

[David Devoy]

I found a YouTube video on getting the buttons back on a Pixel 4A phone. Tried following the same procedure on the Lenovo tablet but there is no "System Navigation" option in the gestures menu. The menu structure must be different.

Still no luck making the control buttons visible on the Lenovo tablet.

Can't find any search function in the settings.

 

[David Devoy]

Cracked it.

Found a search button in the "Settings" and after stumbling about in the dark for a while, finally found an option to switch to 3 button navigation.

Thanks for all the help provided above,

D.

 

[nickdalzell]

Enjoy it while you can! I wouldn't be one bit surprised if the option is GONE in an update or two, and everyone just cites that gestures are "ThE fUtUrE!"

Great for young folks to look cool to their peers and all, but for those of us suffering massive dexterity issues (like me having early onset arthritis in my early 20s) it's an accessbility nightmare.

 

[David Devoy]

Enjoy it while you can! I wouldn't be one bit surprised if the option is GONE in an update or two, and everyone just cites that gestures are "ThE fUtUrE!"

Great for young folks to look cool to their peers and all, but for those of us suffering massive dexterity issues (like me having early onset arthritis in my early 20s) it's an accessbility nightmare.

Actually, I was doing this for an elderly lady who had just got a new tablet and thought / shrieked "where have my buttons gone?" I could just about have got used to driving the thing without the navigation buttons, but it was clearly driving her up the wall.

Yeah, that though occurred to me too. Probably in the mindset of the corporate bosses to increase market share by being more "iPad like" and just gradually retire the original android functionality. There is no future in being a loyal customer in these days.

 

[nickdalzell]

"Appeal to the majority"

---especially whenever the majority are the consumerist Generation Z's who need a new phone every year and always assume newest is best. That's the kind of market it seems everyone's catering to. I've gotten the 'go back to your 8-tracks luddite' rhetoric often from those kiddies.

I remember quite well when quality would sell a product, today it's just whatever's new. Doesn't matter if it's a pile of crap, people will line up for it.

I've gotten tons of flack just because up until this September I was still using an HTC Thunderbolt. Now I'm on an AOSP-running flip phone, so the joke's on them. They wanted me to upgrade and I found an 'upgrade' that is more retro than an old smartphone. Plus, hey! I got USB Mass storage back! Sure makes it faster and easier to transfer more MP3s to it. I also don't have to bother with an impractically large screen anymore. I know the flip phone (ZTE Cymbal) is from 2017 and runs Android (very basic AOSP--truly vanilla here) but it feels like 2010's back. I sometimes have to look again on the outer part to know it's got a ZTE emblem instead of a Motorola 'M' because the design reminds me of an old V-series flip.