Earlier today, a redditor claimed to have received the Android Q Beta 5 update early. At the time, a few details in the apparent leak gave us pause, but the folks at 9to5Google have seemingly confirmed that the update was legit, and a new “Back Sensitivity” setting related to Android Q’s fully gestural navigation system was discovered. It could have something to do with the gesture-related tweaks that Google revealed yesterday.
Left: System navigation settings, note the new cog icon, which takes you to… Right: The new “Back Sensitivity” setting.
It can be a bit difficult to see the details in question from the screenshots above, given the placement and transparency of the watermarks, but the new setting appears via a cog icon to the right of the “Gesture navigation” setting, which also appears to have been renamed from “Fully gestural navigation” in Beta 4.
The new Back Sensitivity option has four settings of on a slider from low to high. It isn’t entirely clear what this sensitivity setting controls without being able to see and feel it in action for ourselves, but the disclaimer that it “may conflict with app gestures along the edges of the screen” could mean that it relates to how long you have to hold or pull for the “peek” gesture described yesterday for sliding menus. Previously, the back button seriously interfered with their use, and at I/O Google expressed an interest in pushing developers away from using them.
Left: Build number/Android version in Settings. Right: Note the August 5, 2019 security update level.
The build number is also a bit curious, as its “QP1A” prefix is a bit different from the “QPPX” prefixed used in all previous Android Q releases (where X is the beta number). It’s also running August 5th’s security patches.
The original release schedule pegged Beta 5 as a “release candidate,” which could mean there aren’t too many more changes to see on top of Beta 4, and since this leak appears to be an internal release, there’s even a question if this build includes everything that we’ll see in the real Beta 5. Either way, we’ll know more by the time Beta 5 officially lands, which should be in the coming weeks.
- Source:
- 9to5Google