I prefer buttons because there’s less risk of accidentally highjacking the gestures used by mobile screen-reader users to navigate.

Also buttons theoretically tell you what they do before they do it (when they’re not just abstract icons). Gesture relies on cognitive load, which forces me to remember an action mapping. Which I do not. Especially since covid. Or i have to abandon my task to search for documentation, which is worse because it reduces the odds I’ll compete the thing I was trying to do.

I prefer gestures, it feels more natural and there is a bigger margin for error, as in I can swipe from anywhere along the bottom to go home or anywhere along the sides to go back. The one downside for me is the left back gesture conflicting with drawer navigation, but apps seem to be moving away from that anyway

I like gestures not only because they are faster and feel more natural but mainly because the vertical space you gain in the screen.

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With how Liftoff has been doing gesture navigation updates, I’m about to suggest they make it all optional because I keep closing shit or going places I am not intending to when just trying to zoom in on a picture or something.

The ONLY time I prefer gestures to buttons is on the desktop. I use mouse gestures. Which also require holding a button down while moving the mouse, so even then I’m still technically using a button.

If this was still the days of small, reasonably size, phones, I’d agree with you. But I can’t comfortably reach the bottom of my phone while performing normal interactions so gesture control is far more ergonomic for me

Objectively? You’re just used to them. I like the extra screen real estate and they’re much easier on my hands

Devastated over two button nav being killed off. I love having a back button but I like the swipe to switch apps and to go home.

I have a magisk mod that puts it back in but it’s now extremely broken thanks to Google and it doesn’t seem to work on new installs. Stopped working properly around May '23 update. P7 Pro

That’s one hell of a controversial opinion.

I personally prefer gestures. I find them quicker (you don’t have to move your fingers as much to do anything, especially back gesture) and more intuitive (like swiping on the navigation pill or whatever it’s called to quickly switch apps, much better than double clicking recents button). Gestures also integrate nicely with the rest of os (like swiping from backspace to erase whole words in gboard).

One thing I hate and I can’t understand how that’s not fixed in stock AOSP is opening left side menus (those hamburger ones) with gestures enabled. Half of the time instead of opening the menu it will just go back, even if sensitivity on left edge is set to minimum.

This is something that custom roms address nicely as most of the time setting sensitivity to minimum would actually disable gestures in this area (take note Google). If this is something that’s bugging anyone, you can disable gestures on left edge over adb (without root) with: adb shell settings put secure back_gesture_inset_scale_left 0 or with: su -c "settings put secure back_gesture_inset_scale_left 0" if you have root access (for more info look here).

I disagree, with the way I hold my phone one handed it’s much more comfortable and natural to use gestures than stretching my thumb all the way to the bottom of the screen (although this is also due to how large screens have become, 3 button was much more manageable with smaller phones)

I do feel like 3 button navigation is as comfortable and as fast as gesture is when using two hands

The 3 button navigation is simpler, much faster than gestures and less prone to input errors than gessure navigation.

I was constantly backing out of my app when all I wanted to do was turn a page. Therefore I went back to the three buttons. The gestures are nifty, but I was always running into problems with the gesture happening when I didn’t want it to.

My tech averse spouse finally wanted a smartphone and I knew he would not understand gestures as he is very literal. So there was a double bonus: the buttons are a lot better for him.

I could not disagree more. Gestures are so much more intuitive, easier to access, and faster. The three button nav bar feels like stone age technology to me now.

Switching between apps might be bit slower, however going back is much faster and is more used. So I find it faster overall. And feels much easier after the initial learning part.

I don’t think you know what objectively means. You meant to use the word subjectively.

Strong disagree. Gestures are so much quicker and just generally more natural feeling.