Android's new multitasking is awful and should be changed

I have been using the Google Pixel 3 XL since its launch two weeks ago and I totally agree with the conclusion of our review that the Pixel 3 offers the best Android experience for the moment. But there is one aspect of this Android experience that I can not stand, and no, it's not the gigantic hack. This is the new appalling multitasking system, which is mandatory for this year's Pixel generation, giving up the option of the old trio of Android buttons, as was the case with the Pixel 2 on the same Android 9. Pie operating system.

On its surface, Google's new approach to switching from one application to the other looks a lot like the one introduced by Apple with the iPhone X. It relies on slippage and shares two of the same Fundamental gestures: A slide up at the bottom of the screen opens the multitasking view, while slips on the lower navigation bar to switch between applications. Like my colleague Dan Seifert, who argues that everyone should copy the gestures of the iPhone X, I think the implementation of this approach by Apple is beautiful (in its animations) and quickly becomes a second nature once you understand the basics. Google, on the other hand, is filled with internal contradictions and painful annoyances.

Google's first big sin with the implementation of these new gestures in the Android interface is that the company refused to get rid of an old fundamental old. The application drawer, the place where you store all the apps you do not need on your home screen, has long been accessible by sweeping from the bottom of the screen. screen. (At least in the Android style of Google.) Now, this same scan is the way to switch to multitasking, which is fine – I do not fear the change – but Google thought it wise to always have a scan to the top to access the application drawer, just a lot longer and horribly unnatural. With a phone the size of the Pixel 3 XL, it is legitimate to scan in full screen.

When I want to access my applications, more often than not, I can not finish this long awkward scan. , go into the multitasking menu, then I make another quick shot to access the applications. This may seem minor, but it actually decreases the speed with which I can access my least used applications. Even if I powered these applications with half a dozen home screens or folders, it would take even more time than the previous system of Google, which consisted of scanning and select immediately the desired application. Where once there was fluidity and speed, Google now introduces frustration.

Photo of James Bareham / The Verge

The simplest aspect of Apple's iPhone X / XS navigation is the way you can slide across the bar of tasks down to switch between applications. Google has a drunk version. First, it lacks the fluid animation of the Apple system. In Android Pie, the application window narrows, it slides to the right, and then the application previously used zooms in. This animation is shocking, this last application seeming to bounce you back.

Apple's navigation also allows the user to swipe left and right between applications, while Google just toggles between the most recently used application and the current application. To go back further, you do not do more scans, you have to place your finger to the right of the navigation bar that appears and works a little like a scroll bar in desktop operating systems. The problem is that I can never judge the appropriate shelf life to access the desired application. With the iPhone, I know that the fifth most recently used application is five thumbs up, I can do it without looking or paying attention to the phone. With the Pixel 3, I have to choose very carefully the right moment to let the phone slip while the phone switches between my recently used applications. It feels like trying to walk on an ice rink.

Put aside comparisons with the gestural interface of Apple, which is still not the cup everyone's favorite. UI tea. What about Google's existing multitasking system in previous Android iterations? There was a dedicated software button to access the multitasking, so no sliding conflict with the application drawer, and I could double press this button to switch to my last used application. It was fast, but more specifically, it was easy to turn into an unconscious habit. The new Google system is not natural or natural.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Another unwanted change in Google's latest multitasking view is that you only see your current application, with only vertical bursts from the two neighboring applications. In previous versions of Android, you had a stack of vertical applications, which allowed you to press to access older applications faster. Samsung always does, and when I get the Galaxy Note 9 with Android 8.1, I have the impression of having had an interface upgrade when changing the 39; application.

In summary, Google has reduced the usability and information density of its multitasking without gaining much from anything. Even if you believe, as Google does, that the trio of Android software buttons should disappear to simplify the experience and leave more space on the screen for other uses, this is not the case. Was not really the case with the iteration introduced in Android 9 Pie. There is still as much space on the screen by the Home and Home buttons as in the past with the previous three buttons.

I do not think Google's new multitasking system is an irreparable disaster, but I do not think so either. worthy of being the one and only default option of the signature version of Android on the Pixel 3 of the company. Give us the old option, Google, while you fix the flaws of your new version.