Navigation gestures in Android 10 and beyond have been controversial from day one, and years after it started, Google continues to adapt the formula. In Android 12, navigation gestures now work instantly if you use a full-screen app.
This adaptation, noticed by the people at Android Police, allows the navigation gestures for the back and home to work with just one swipe instead of two. In Android 10 and Android 11, full-screen apps temporarily disable those swipes, which means you have to swipe twice; once to enable the gesture, and the second to perform it.
It especially does not work for all apps, but it is a valued change in the apps that do support it. Google Photos is perhaps the best example of this must work. When viewing photos in full screen, navigation gestures work just as normal, even if the navigation bar is hidden. YouTube, on the other hand, does not support it properly, and still requires two swipes to use the gestures. Twitter is in the same boat with navigation gestures on Android 12 that behave exactly like older versions as seen below.
It definitely makes for a frustrating peculiarity of Android’s otherwise nice navigation gestures right. Since programs seem to need to be enabled for this, it can of course take a while until we can use them consistently.
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