navigation gestures Archives - Galaxy S10 Guides

You have to use either Galaxy S10 navigation buttons or navigation gestures to navigate through different pages and apps on Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, and S10 5G.

If you just migrate to Galaxy S10 from a non-Samsung phone or a Samsung phone running Android Oreo or lower versions of Android, you may need to spend some time to get used to Galaxy S10 navigation gestures.

This Galaxy S10 how-to guide shows you how to use and customize the navigation buttons and navigation bar, and how to use use the Galaxy S10 navigation gestures.

How to use Galaxy S10 navigation buttons?

By default, Galaxy S10 (including Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e) uses a navigation bar with 3 navigation buttons: Back, Home. and Recents (overview) on the bottom part of the screen.

Please note Samsung moved to software navigation buttons since Galaxy S8. There are no hardware navigation buttons on Galaxy S10. The 3 hardware buttons (keys) on the Galaxy S10: Power button, Volume (up and down) button, and Bixby button as explained in Galaxy S10 layout.

By default, you will see the following Galaxy S10 navigation buttons in the navigation bar.

Galaxy S10 navigation buttons (navigation bar)

If you migrated from non-Samsung phones, you may find the button order is different from other phones. In stock Android, the Back button is on the left of the Home button and Recents (Overview) button to the right. Of course, you can change the navigation button order on Galaxy S10 to match other Android phones (read on).

The functions of the 3 Galaxy S10 navigation buttons are similar to those in other Android phones.

Home button

Galaxy S10 Home button accepts three touchscreen gestures: tap, long tap, and swipe to the right side

You can tap the Home button to back to the Galaxy S10 home screen regardless of what you are doing, or what app you are using.

If you are in the Galaxy S10 home screen already, tapping the Home button will bring you to the “home” of the home screen panels.

Please note, unlike the home button on Galaxy S8, S9, Note 8, or Note 9, the Galaxy S10 home button is not pressure-sensitive. On the Galaxy S10 always-on display (AOD), you can tap anywhere to wake the screen if you enable the tap to wake feature.

If you tap and hold (long tap) the Home button, by default, Google Assistant will start.

If you swipe to the right side from the Home button, you will switch to the most recent app (read on in the Galaxy S10 navigation gestures section).

Back button

The behavior of the Back button actually depends on the app you are using. In other words, the app developer can decide what happens when you tap the Back button when using the app.

For most apps, tapping the Back button brings you back to the previous screen of the app until you exit the app. Remember some apps don’t allow … Read the rest “How to use Galaxy S10 navigation buttons and navigation gestures?”

#1. The most disappointing and missing feature of Galaxy S10: Iris scanner is gone

Iris scanner was first introduced in the explosive Galaxy Note 7. Most owners did not get the chance to try it before the phone was recalled, and re-recalled.

Obviously, the iris scanner was improved dramatically in Galaxy S9. It is faster than all other unlocking methods including the fingerprint scanner because of the less-ideal location and smaller size of the fingerprint scanner. If you are using a case or cover for Galaxy S9 or S9, it is not easy to reach the fingerprint scanner.

When more and more owners realized and started to enjoy this unlock feature, Samsung removed it in Galaxy S10.

None of the 4 Galaxy S10 models has the iris scanner.

The reason given by Samsung is the lack of bezel space for the iris scanner.

But if they can punch a hole for the front-facing camera(s), why cannot punch another hole for iris scanner? Here is the Galaxy S1o layout.

#2. The most demanded but missing feature of Galaxy S10: freely remapping Bixby button (key)

Bixby is quite good if you compare it to Siri. But if you compare it to Google Assistant, which is shipped with all Android Pie phones, Bixby is far behind.

But Samsung pushed Bixby so hard that a dedicated hardware Bixby key was introduced in Galaxy S8 and S8+, and all subsequent Galaxy phones get the button below the volume keys.

The most annoying part is that you cannot remap the button for other more useful features. e..g. Launching the camera or using it as a camera shutter button, if you have no intention to use Bixby, or have no intention to use the Bixby button.

In Galaxy S8 and S9, you can disable the Bixby key by letting it do nothing when pressed. If you turn off Bixby Voice in Bixby settings, the long press gesture of the Bixby key will also be deactivated and do nothing.

But in Android Pie update for Galaxy S9, S8, Note 9, and Note 8, Samsung does not allow you to disable Bixby button. You have to choose a single press or double press to launch Bixby. You cannot assign “do nothing” to either of the gesture. Even worse, the long press gesture will always launch Bixby Voice directly. And you cannot turn off Bixby Voice!