- Android 14 introduced the Predictive Back Animations feature to improve user navigation experience.
- It shows a preview of the previous screen or app before completing a back-swipe gesture.
- This feature is currently available in system apps like Phone, Settings, and Clock, with expectations for a wider rollout.
- You need to turn on the Developer options to activate this feature.
- To enable Predictive Back Animations go to Settings -> System -> Developer options -> Predictive Back Animations.
- This feature works only when you enable the gesture navigation mode.
Google’s continuous improvement makes sure that Android users receive the best possible experience with their devices. With the release of Android 14 in October 2023, a new feature called Predictive Back Animations was added, which improves how we navigate apps and menus. This feature provides a preview of the next screen you’ll see before you finish a back gesture, making your interactions more natural and efficient. In this guide, we will discuss how to enable predictive back animations and make the most out of it in Android 14.
What are Predictive Back Animations?
Predictive back gestures or predictive back animations in Android 14 is a forward-thinking feature that aims to improve user interactions with their devices. When you turn on Predictive back animations, this feature shows a preview of the page or screen you’re about to navigate to before you swipe back.
It tries to remove the guessing from navigating, resulting in a smoother and more predictable user experience. Predictive back animations work when you use swipe gestures to navigate your phone. When you swipe back, you’ll see a glimpse of what’s coming next. This is especially useful because when you press back, it’s not always clear where you’ll end up. This feature eliminates the guessing.
Think about being able to see exactly where a back gesture on your phone will take you, either to the home screen, another page inside the app you’re now using, or back to a previous app. Predictive back gestures in Android 14 offer this promise. Google hopes that adding this feature would improve the speed of app navigation, making it as simple as flipping between the pages of a book.
Which apps support Predictive Back Animations?
Google started testing Predictive back animations in the development phases of Android 13 for about a year to make sure it works well. However, it is important to note that this feature work only when you enable gesture navigation from Settings -> System -> Navigation mode. It won’t work on the button navigation. Not all apps can currently show you these previews. The phone Settings, Clock, and Phone apps are among the limited number of pre-installed apps that have this feature.
However, Google understands that more apps need to include this functionality, so they’re giving app developers additional time to update their apps. By the time Android 15 is released in 2024, we should see this feature being used much more.
How to Enable Predictive Back Animations in Android 14
In Android 14, the predictive back gestures feature is disabled by default. To turn it on, you must enable the developer options in settings. After that, you can activate the predictive back gesture from the developer options. Here’s how to get everything set up:
1. Enable Developer Options
- Open Settings on your Android 14 device.
- Scroll down and open About phone.
- Find the Build number and tap on it 7 times in quick succession. You may need to enter your device’s lock screen password.
- A message will pop up saying, “You are now a developer!“
2. Access Developer Options
- Go back to the main Settings menu.
- Scroll down to System and open it.
- Look for Developer options and select it.
3. Enable Predictive Back Animations
- Inside Developer options, scroll until you find Predictive back animations.
- Toggle the switch to on and tap OK to enable the feature.
Conclusion
This is how you can turn on the Predictive back gestures feature on your Android 14 smartphone. Enjoy a more predictable and smooth navigation experience.
