The gesture navigation bar has been modified in the most recent Android 13 Beta 3 update to be more noticeable with a larger, bolder pill to help it stand out. What do you think? It seems that this change has generated a lot of controversy.

If you weren’t aware of it or didn’t try the most recent preview build on your own device , you might have missed the fact that the gesture navigation bar in Android 13 Beta 3 has seen its first cosmetic update since it was first added with gestural navigation back in Android 10. It unmistakably resembles the iOS navbar.

It’s difficult for those of us who are well-versed in everything Android to conceive that someone wouldn’t comprehend what this UI component represents. For those who are unfamiliar with all the capabilities of their smartphone, a visual sign is usually helpful. This seems like a logical design upgrade for what feels like a typically unimportant portion of the Pixel Launcher, especially for people transferring across the device and mobile OS split.

This update has no impact whatsoever on the usability or accessibility of gesture navigation. It’s only a means of emphasizing the gesture bar. It might alter once more in a future Android 13 Beta build, which is common with these early public previews. Below, you can see how little the gesture navigation bar has changed from Android 12 and Android 13 Beta.

android 13 gesture navigation bar

On Pixel phones, the navigation bar cannot be hidden at all, according to some users. That is a valid complaint, in our opinion, and it would be fantastic if Google added a toggle in Android 13 or later to activate or disable the gesture navigation bar. We can understand why some people find this UI element a little annoying.

Currently, it appears that when Android 13 launches later this year, we’ll be seeing a wider gesture navigation bar. We’re curious to know if you adore it, detest it, or have no opinion at all. Use the survey found below to let us know.

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