The Android 12/13 UI really grinds my gears. Excessive amounts of whitespace, and the notification shade has become “kiddified” - Turning off wifi/mobile data now takes 2 taps, the icons are all ridiculously big and takes up so much screen space, etc.
I personally don’t like phones that are excessively big, because I use it a lot on my commutes. Screen real estate is valuable to me, and while whitespace has its uses, I think Android 12/13 went too far - it might work better on a tablet, but it sucks on a phone. I was really tempted by the Pixel, but ended up getting a Samsung partially because of this (One UI doesn’t have the same bloated-whitespace look).
Am I the only one? Surely Google did user testing… didn’t they?
You can switch back to 3 and 2 button navigation in the settings if you want. I use the 3 button navigation. I use all three buttons.
I think it’s their way of admitting gestures is stupid. Gestures makes it unclear where the OS UI ends and where the app UI begins. A completely shit idea.
What version of Android are you on? Android 12 or below? It was removed entirely in Android 13. It can be “patched back in” on a custom ROM, but doing so breaks the recents screen due to incompatible changes made to the system launcher (which handles the recents screen for… some reason).
Or maybe you have a Samsung or other phone that has their own 2 button implementation. But as far as I’m aware, it’s gone from AOSP as of Android 13 :(
Pixel 7.
I’m running the public beta, which is in 14 right now, but it was still a feature in the general public release of 13. Literally the first thing I did when I got my new phone was switch back to three button navigation.
In my case I can’t use 2 button navigation, which I’m pretty sure is because I have accessibility features turned on, but I would have to double check.
Anyway for me the way to switch is:
Settings→System→Navigation→3-Button Navigation