As smartphones have evolved over the years, the way we operate them have changed as well. The biggest change was when manufacturers stopped using hardware buttons and went all in with virtual software keys. Next came gestures.
Apple popularized the use of gestures when it ditched the iPhone's iconic round physical button, and soon everyone was making gesture navigation the main method of using a smartphone or tablet. Google introduced gestures with Android 9 and made numerous improvements over the next few Android versions.
Samsung smartphones feature gesture navigation as well. And Samsung doesn't just give you the stock Android gesture system. It also has its own gestures, which basically allow you to swipe up from the bottom of the screen where the recents, home, and back keys would be.
But, unlike devices from other manufactures, Samsung Galaxy devices to this day come with the good old virtual navigation keys enabled out of the box instead of gestures. And frankly, I for one am glad that is the case. Gestures are cool and all, but I've not really seen any true benefit to using them, and it seems to be one of those instances where companies change things just for the sake of change.
Navigation buttons are just fine, thank you very much
Seriously, think about your parents, or anyone who isn't proficient at using smartphones, then think about how so many folks around the world have been using Samsung phones for a long time and have never used an iPhone or other Android smartphones. For those people, going from hardware to software keys wasn't exactly a huge step, but going from virtual keys to gestures can be a difficult and inconvenient change.
I'm only in my mid-30s, but switching to gestures is not something even I want to do. Again, I see no benefit to doing so – I actually think they are detrimental to the user experience for me as they take away the ability to double tap the recents key to instantly switch between the current and last used app. Some folk say gestures are great because buttons take up too much space on-screen, but I don't see that as an issue because phone displays are pretty big nowadays.
But whatever the reasons might be, I've not seen anything to convince me, and it's nice to see Samsung is sticking with navigation buttons as the default. Not making gestures the primary method of navigation on its devices is one of the best examples of how Samsung doesn't always blindly copy from Apple (or follow everything it sees on stock Android), and it's a conviction I hope the Korean giant will stick to in the future.
However, don't let my opinion stop you from trying out gestures if you haven't already done so. To do so, open the Settings app on your phone, go into the Display menu, then tap Navigation bar, where you will see all the navigation methods and can switch between them.
