After you set up a brand new Samsung phone today, it defaults to the standard Android three-button navigation controls, but this may change in a forthcoming version of its One UI 8 software. It’s an alteration we’ve been waiting years for, and it can’t come soon enough.
Samsung may introduce an option to select which navigation style you prefer during the setup phase of One UI 8.5, allowing a new owner to pick the three-button control method, or the more modern swipe navigation system, where swipes across and up the screen replicate the actions of the three buttons.
A menu giving the choice between buttons and swipe gestures has been spotted in a beta version of One UI 8 by SammyGuru, indicating Samsung is at least testing such a change. In One UI 8, which is installed on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7, the phones still default to three-button navigation after set up, leaving you to go into the Settings menu and change to the swipe-based system if you prefer.
Samsung will know the preferences of its users, and by testing a navigation selection tool, it suggests more of them are switching to gestures once the phone has been set up than before. It makes sense too, as it’s often faster to use swipes on large screens with thin bezels. Many may prefer the less cluttered look on the home screen, and the more modern style too.
A long overdue change
Notification cards on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s lock screen
The company is currently out of step with the competition, as the vast majority of other Android phone makers already provide a choice of navigation styles during set up. Those unfamiliar with gestures are usually treated to a guide on how to use them, before being asked to make a “final” choice, ensuring anyone interested in trying them won’t feel lost.
It’s always possible to change back to the three-button controls in the phone’s Settings menu, and manufacturers are right to leave it as an option, but the choice should be offered alongside other core preferences when the phone is being set up. It’s one of several changes we always make to a Samsung phone, with another being altering the way notifications are shown on the lock screen.
If Samsung does bring a navigation selection option to One UI’s setup, it will have been a long time coming. We wrote at length about this, and other Samsung default option oddities in 2022, and Google first added navigation controls to Android 10, which was released in 2019. While Samsung may be testing a navigation switcher, it does not mean it will ever arrive in a public version of the software, and there’s no current release date for One UI 8.5.