Use Android P’s New App Switching Gesture: Swipe Right on Home

by Cameron Summerson on

Android P offers a new (optional) navigation system: gestures. The traditional Back-Home-Recents button pattern has been replaced with a  single pill-shaped button—so how to do you quickly switch between the two most recently running apps?

While double-tapping the Recents button has long been one of the more useful gestures in modern versions of Android, the new gesture is lighting fast. Here’s the skinny.

Note: You’ll need the new gesture feature enabled in Android P for this to work. You can find it in Settings > System > Gestures.

The gesture itself is ultra simple: quickly swipe right on the home button to bring up the previously-used app. Then do it again to switch back. It’s so simple, so intuitive, and so fast. In other words: it’s so good. Here it is in action, because visuals rock:

Look at that hotness.

Cameron Summerson is a die-hard Android fan, Chicago Bulls fanatic, metalhead, and cyclist. When he's not pounding keys here at HTG, you can find him spending time with his wife and kids, spinning legs on the bike, chugging away on the 6-string, or being disappointed in the Bulls.