With the new Pixel being released Google provided Pixel users with a custom launcher.
The Pixel phones by Google were released with their own custom launcher called the Pixel Launcher. With the new phone Google built-in fingerprint gestures which are exclusive to this phone. The fingerprint gestures are for expanding notifications and quick settings. But much to the disappointment of Nexus users, it has not made its way over to last year’s devices via software update. Have no fear, as there is a way to enable this feature on devices with a fingerprint scanner.
This is where the ‘Fingerprint Gestures’ app comes in.
This new app allows users to control various parts of their Android devices through their fingerprint scanner. Users will gain much more functionality with this app. There are three different gestures: single tap, double tap, and fast tap (swipe). The gestures accompanying those different actions are:
- Navigation: back, home, or recent apps
- Power: power button menu
- Scrolling: scrolling up and down (both are root only)
- Notifications: open notifications panel, and open quick settings
- Media: play/pause song, next song, previous song
- Other: launch app, toggle flashlight, toggle ringer mode, toggle split screen (Nougat+ only)
The Fingerprint Gestures app certainly offers far more functionality than the Pixel does. However, from my experience using this app, the gestures can be unresponsive at times. Amination when expanding the notifications can slow down from time to time. Also, the difference between a fast swipe and a single tap can get mixed up sometimes. I was testing the app for a week using a mixture of different gestures but a normal user will not have all the gestures turned on at once.
The Fingerprint Gestures app certainly provides seamless integration of fingerprint gestures to other Android devices, although an app with a persistent notification isn’t ideal it gets the job done. I believe that the app will continue to get better as time goes on.
With its issues, this is a great app to check out! It’s available in the Play Store for free. Also worth noting, this app works with any Android device with Android 6.0+ or for Samsung devices you require Android 5.0+.
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