Ever since Android 9 Pie’s launch again in 2018, I have been furious concerning the adjustments Google made to Android’s current apps UI. Generally often known as Overview, the inventory Android UI that shows recently-opened apps is likely one of the most ineffective, worst-designed items of UI that Google has ever created.
However the Pixel Fold (opens in new tab) appears to be altering this for the higher, taking cues from Samsung’s Good Lock (opens in new tab) — one of many causes I’ve most well-liked utilizing Samsung telephones for years — permitting customers to decide on between a number of apps with a single faucet when multitasking. No scrolling required!
However does this signify a bigger shift to Android, or is it simply Pixel Fold-specific? We have seen groups at Google tweaking and redesigning UIs lots these days — the new Google Dwelling app (opens in new tab) is a wonderful instance of this — so I am definitely hoping it means greater than only one product will get improved.
What makes overview so unhealthy?
All of the greatest Android telephones (opens in new tab) help Google’s glorious gestural navigation bar launched in Android 10. It was a monumental improve from the “capsule” launched in, shock, shock, Android 9 Pie. More often than not once I’m multitasking on a telephone just like the Pixel 7a (opens in new tab) I will simply swipe left or proper on the underside bar till I discover what I would like.
However, typically, I need to return additional than the final 3-4 apps. That is what Overview was created for or, not less than, what it as soon as was created for.
As a person, I might anticipate to open up Overview — completed by swiping up on the bar and holding for a second — so as to navigate again to an app that I just lately opened. The complete function of this UI is to maintain me from going again to my residence display screen and discovering the app I would like once more.
Besides, all I see once I open Overview is the app I at present have open.
Actually? You are significantly telling me that somebody at Google’s AOSP group thought a UI constructed for multitasking ought to present the present working app first?
Not solely that, however it’s the solely app you possibly can see on the display screen because of some ridiculously outsized thumbnails. It’s a must to scroll to the left to see the following app and, even then, you possibly can’t see additional again than one app at a time.
That is a wholly ineffective and ridiculous UI for multitasking. It accomplishes not one of the objectives it is imagined to be created for and utterly fails its sole function.
To make issues worse, the parents at Android UI design have solely doubled down on this terrible design through the years, taking away the AI-powered urged apps icons on the backside and changing them with buttons to take screenshots or copy textual content.
Newsflash: once I’m multitasking, I am not seeking to take a screenshot. I am seeking to change between apps as shortly as attainable.
Plus, to open up a couple of app at a time, you must click on on the little icon on the prime of every app’s thumbnail view and faucet the break up display screen button. Why cannot I simply drag the thumbnail of the app to the highest or backside of the display screen?
This complete UI is terrible.
If I carry out the identical gesture on an iPhone, I am offered with a considerably similar-looking display screen that differentiates itself in a single very, essential means: I can see a couple of app at a time.
Sure, it nonetheless makes use of a horizontal-scrolling carousel on a really vertical show — as soon as once more, a colossal waste of house — however I can not less than predict how far I’ve to swipe to get to the place I would like within the multitasking carousel. Good luck doing that on most Android telephones.
Samsung fastened this a very long time in the past because of Good Lock and I have not ceased applauding their efforts ever since. I simply want it had been accessible with out having to obtain one other app.
How the Pixel Fold is fixing it
The Pixel Fold is lastly fixing Android multitasking for good, and it isn’t simply doing it by addressing most of my important complaints with Overview over the previous 5 years. It is going one step past that, as properly.
Let’s start by visiting the Overview display screen utilizing the very same gestures I simply used on a Pixel 7a and an iPhone 14.
Do you see what simply occurred there? Not solely does the multitasking carousel present a couple of app at a time, however a brand-new taskbar seems on the backside of the display screen — extra on that in a bit. Let’s deal with Overview, first.
Whereas the energetic app nonetheless reveals most prominently in the midst of the display screen — I am nonetheless asking Google why it thinks this makes any sense in any respect — a fast swipe to the left helps you to change between as many as six completely different apps at a time. That is extraordinarily just like how I configure Good Lock to run on Samsung telephones and it makes multitasking a lot faster and simpler, irrespective of the display screen dimension or facet ratio.
As a bonus, the duty switcher now reveals the app pairs you have made, so you possibly can simply swipe between a number of apps at a time when working apps in break up display screen.
However, wait! There’s extra!
Because of the work Google and Samsung put into Android 12L, there is a new taskbar that seems on the backside of the show when swiping up — or when opening Overview, as you beforehand noticed.
The taskbar acts as a technique to shortly use split-screen mode and run a couple of app at a time. Samsung first launched this with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 (opens in new tab) final Fall and I could not consider how a lot simpler it was to split-screen apps due to it.
This works precisely because it ought to and precisely as I anticipate it to.
Not solely that however dragging content material from one app to a different now seems to work as anticipated, as properly. These aren’t essentially new ideas for Android telephones from producers like Samsung however they’re issues which can be new to Android as a base working system.
All I can say is lastly. Thanks for listening, Google, and I hope you resolve that these varieties of fantastic multitasking options make sense for the remainder of the Android ecosystem as a complete, too.
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