Android 11 could bring this nifty new gesture feature to Google's Pixels
Google is seemingly testing a new double-tap gesture that utilizes the back of the device. XDA noticed this new feature when toying around with the very early developer preview of Android 11, and it seems that the feature functions like this: you double tap the back of the phone, and a predefined feature gets activated. Yes, we are talking about the physical back of the phone, and the curious bit here is that it seemingly works with cases on.
So far, you can map the double-tap gesture to any of the following features, but have in mind that they are probably subject to change:
- Dismiss timer
- Launch camera
- Launch Google Assistant
- Play/pause media
- Collapse status bar
- Silence incoming phone calls
- Snooze alarms
- Unpin notifications
This new gesture feature will complement the already diverse selection of gesture features that can be found on the Pixel lineup. For example, the Active Edge frame allows you to squeeze the phone and launch the assistant, whereas flicking the phone twice switches between the front and rear cameras when the camera app is open.
Here’s the double-tap feature pausing and playing a YouTube video: