Google won't remove gesture bar from Pixel Launcher home screen on Android 12, says it's intended behavior

Android 10 introduced proper gestures to the world of Android for the first time.

Sure, we had Android skins from several OEMs with their own implementations of gestures, but it was only with Android 10 that the mode of navigation actually grew popular.

The Android 10 version of gesture navigation introduced the subtle new gestures bar, which wasn’t too different from the one found on iOS, with the exception of one behavioral difference.

You see, both iOS and the 2-button navigation mode from Android Pie have fairly consistent gesture bars that stay even on the home screen.

Android 10’s gesture pill, on the other hand, isn’t so static and in fact disappears when returning to the home screen.

But when Android 11 came into existence, it changed this behavior by not only making the gesture bar visible on the home screen, but also on the lock screen.

This change hasn’t gone down well with several users though who are calling for the return of the Android 10 gesture bar behavior with the upcoming Android 12 update.

A feature request was recently opened up in the Android Developer Preview/Beta Issue tracker titled “Remove the gesture bar from the home screen of the Pixel Launcher.”

The justification for the removal is pretty reasonable too. Firstly, it isn’t too visually pleasing, as per the creator of the issue along with the 100+ people who have starred the issue and seem to agree.

And secondly, there is a risk of a burn-in on OLED displays.

Sadly, the Google product and engineering teams have rejected the request and have marked its status as “Won’t Fix (Intended behavior).”

Once again, thank you for submitting the feature request. After following up with our product and engineering teams, the feature request will not be considered at this time.
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Well, at least this clears the fact that the persistent gesture bar on the Pixel Launcher home screen isn’t really a bug but has been designed so deliberately.

Also clear is that the gesture bar is likely to stay on both the lock screen and home screen with the upcoming Android 12 update, just the way it does on Android 11.

So what now? Not much to do really other than getting used to the gesture bar on the Pixel Launcher home screen. After all, it does provide a more consistent experience.

For now, you are free to go through our dedicated Google Pixel Android 12 bug tracker for further coverage on matters like these.

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