With an almost universal acceptability of the Google-owned mobile operating system, it has come a long way from first making its way into smartphones almost a decade ago. Android has seen numerous improvements since its inception which have led to its current day customisable avatar and the recent release of Android Nougat. There are a few gestures which although are useful, they aren’t talked about much and users largely remain unaware about them. Here we are going to throw light on five such gestures integrated with Android which will help you increase productivity and use your device better too.
One Finger Zoom In
We’re all accustomed to the pinch-in zooming action using two fingers but not a lot of us know that your Android-powered smartphone can even zoom into things using a single finger. Zooming in using a single finger can be useful in many cases. For instance, if you’re driving and need to take a closer look at the map but can not take your hands of the wheel, single-finger zoom in comes to the rescue.
Split Screen Shortcut (Nougat)
Out of the many new amazing features that Android Nougat has brought to smartphones, one of them is the ease to use multiple apps at once using the split screen feature. The feature, however, comes with its own sets of drawbacks — arranging the apps as you want them to be seems to be the issue here. The solution? Enable the System UI tuner and activate the shortcut to use the split screen view. This will facilitate choosing an app from recently opened apps to display in the split screen view.
Drag and Drop Text Gesture
Although this feature isn’t supported by all apps yet, its integration in Android is a welcome change. The drag and drop text feature is especially useful when you’re working in split screen mode and wish to copy a chunk of text from one window to the other. This feature makes it easier as now all you got to do is select the text and drag and drop it to the other window. The feature makes it quicker to copy text from a window to the other but will be most helpful as an increased number of apps add support for it.
Gboard Gestures
You just wrote a lengthy paragraph on your relatively-small screened Android device but you seem to have made some egregious errors, which need instant rectification. The only issue seems to be that you can not bring the cursor to the desired point where you wish to make an edit. Well, Gboard is here for the rescue. You can swipe on the spacebar to move the cursor in the desired direction and this is much more easier than pointing at the screen using your fingers — which more than often will land you up not in the place you intend to. Another useful feature on Gboard is the select and delete feature using the backspace key. So instead of tapping on the backspace, you can also hold the backspace key and swipe left in order to select text and as soon as you lift your finger, the highlighted text is deleted.
Swipe Gestures on Chrome
Google Chrome is the default browser for Android which has also been loaded with gesture features that users usually remain unaware of. To shift from one tab to the other on Chrome you can either select on the number of open tabs on the top right or just swipe right or left on the address bar to shift from one tab to the other. Swiping down on the address bar also opens the list of all the tabs you’ve opened. If you’re looking for third party apps which could facilitate more gestures on your Android device then head here. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
