Old Android closed Apps by pressing the X. Just like windows.
New Android you dismissa Apps by swiping upwards.
It’s driving me crazy. I want to scroll up in a App. Guess what that does? Closes the damn App!!!
I was in the middle of a Tech chat session on Consumer Cellular’s web site. I reached to scroll up the chat window and closed Chrome!!! I had to frantically reopen Chrome, sign back in, and restart the chat. Thankfully the connection hadn’t closed. There’s a long queue for chat.
The tech was walking me through configuring a APN for 5G on my new phone. I got everything almost entered, and went to the chat to confirm some settings. I reached to scroll up my APN settings and closed the damn thing! I had to completey reenter all those fields.
Swiping up to close is the stupidist, most ignorant feature imaginable.
On my phone, swiping up doesn’t close anything unless I’m in the app switcher menu.
In settings, I selected to retain my 3 buttons rather than use gestures. I also use Nova Launcher, so swiping up on the home screen isn’t what I do to open the app drawer.
I think I’m in the App switcher. The < or square button on the bottom right?
You see all the open apps.
I sometimes reach to scroll the app before maximimizing it. Old android would wiggle the window. That reminds me to open it.
It’s going to take awhile to force myself to stop and think before trying to scroll up. Especially when I have multiple Apps open and I’m bouncing back and forth looking at information in all of them. I’m reaching and scrolling quickly.
I sure wish there was an option to press X to close Apps. It’s been that way since Win 3.1 came out in 1993.
On mine, which is a Pixel running Android 11, I can disable it with these steps:
Go to Settings →
Go to Accessibility →
Go to System navigation →
Select 3-button navigation
From that same screen you can also tap the gear on “Gesture navigation” to adjust the sensitivity.
I use the gesture stuff, but I’m not sure I like it. My problem is stuff like “to go back, swipe in from the left” and “to expose the menu, swipe in from the left.” Great, how do I expose the menu without going back? Learn how to swipe in just the right way and at the right place to do one thing but not the other. \
Wow, gestures like that don’t make much sense. It might make sense in app switcher if they’ve switched it where the apps scroll horizontally. But apps proper have their own uses for the swipe gesture, and you don’t need the OS trying to take over.
I presume this is a Samsung thing, not a Google thing. I’ve noticed that my phone came with some app from Samsung than had these extra gestures. I’ve disabled all but “shake to turn on flashlight”, which is useful and nearly impossible to do by accident.
I have a Pixel, which is pure Android, no extra flavoring added. In the app switcher – the square button the way I have it set up – you swipe up to close an app. But it’s been that way for a while, I think.
My first modern phone was a Palm Pre, and it had “cards” and you could swipe up to remove them. So I was happy when that returned. I’ve never tried to scroll up within an app while looking at the “deck of cards”.
But I have the three buttons for most basic stuff.
You don’t need to “close” apps, and in fact your memory is optimized better if you don’t do that. If you need to get out of an app just press the home button.