Over the years, Google has quietly added a bunch of gestures to make it easier and faster to use Android (and you can even create your own gestures). Some are on-screen gestures (many of which are not obvious), but some are unique ways to interact with the buttons on your phone.
Whether you want to quickly toggle between two apps like you do on a PC with Alt+Tab, or you want to launch Gemini from any screen, or open the camera before you even take your phone out of your pocket, there are a lot of gestures you can employ to make using Android faster. Here are some of my favorites.
My old Android was laggy until I toggled this setting
I thought I needed a new phone—this tweak saved it.
Two finger swipe jumps directly to Quick Settings
Get to your toggles quickly
Android’s Quick Settings are amazing, and you can even put app shortcuts in there to avoid using your app tray. This useful part of your notification panel gives you instant access to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi settings, plus a wide range of toggles like blue light filter, screencast tools, quick access to your wallet, and so much more.
But you might have noticed that you have to swipe twice on your notification panel to reveal these Quick Settings. But did you know you can jump directly to Quick Settings if you expand the notification shade with two fingers? It’s a tiny tweak that saves a lot of time.
Tap and hold any quick tile to see full settings
No more digging through settings to connect to Wi-Fi networks or a Bluetooth device
It’s nice to have quick access to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings right in the notification shade, but these Quick Settings for connectivity are just on/off toggles.
If you press and hold any of these connectivity tiles, you’ll be taken directly to the corresponding full settings page—ideal if you want to pick a Wi-Fi network or connect to a particular Bluetooth device. This will open the full settings page to allow you to do so.
Instantly swipe between apps
Like ALT+TAB but better
Since the introduction of gesture-based navigation, which brought the “pill” to the bottom of Android screens anywhere, you’re able to instantly switch between open apps by sliding your finger horizontally along the pill, which is an incredible way to multitask if you need to quickly between two or more apps.
Certainly, to be able to do this, you must have gesture navigation turned on. If you don’t, just go to Settings > Display & Touch > Navigation Mode > Gesture Navigation. Alternatively, just search your Android settings for “navigation” and you’ll go directly to the right place.
Get to Gemini from any screen
Just tap and hold the power button
Gemini has gotten so much more useful lately, and you can bring it up from any app or any screen, which lets you ask it questions via voice. Another cool aspect of Gemini is that it can “see” what you have on your screen at any given time, so you can ask questions about what you’re looking at, whether it’s text or an image or even a product you want to find out how to buy.
To bring up Gemini from any screen, just tap and hold the power button.
Another cool aspect of Gemini is that it can “see” what you have on your screen at any given time, so you can ask questions about what you’re looking at
Open the camera by double pressing power button
Even when the screen is off
This is not a new gesture, but I literally use it every day to instantly open the camera from any app or screen, or even while the screen is off and the phone is in your pocket—you can have the camera launched and ready to take a photo just by “feeling for” the power button in your pocket.
To do this, just double tap the power button to bring up the camera. If, for some reason, this doesn’t work, you can manually set it up by going to Settings > System > Gestures > Double Press Power Button > On, Camera.
Explore more gestures
Here’s how to see them all
Whether you have a Pixel or Samsung Galaxy, or any other Android, you can find the full list of gestures in the Settings menu. If you can’t find it, just search your Settings for “gestures” — or if you’re on a Samsung, go to Settings > Advanced Features > Motions and Gestures. On a Pixel, go to Settings > System > Gestures.
From here, you can enable other useful gestures like “Flip to SHH” which silences your phone when a call comes in by just turning your phone over, or the highly useful “palm swipe to capture” on Galaxy devices, which is possibly the most easy way to take a screenshot versus using the volume and power button–you just swipe your hand across the screen, and you instantly get a screenshot.
Another one to look at is the lift-to-check-phone, which you actually might want to leave off because it keeps the accelerometer in a ready state to detect movement on the phone so you can turn on the screen by lifting it. I like keeping this on, but it does take a slight battery hit (in case you never use it).
- SoC
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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
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6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x