For years I’ve defaulted to the gesture-based navigation on Android that puts a little navigation pill at the bottom of the screen. Until I revisited the other option—on-screen buttons—I thought gesture navigation was better because it always felt more fluid to me, plus it took up less space on the screen.

But once I learned about all the features buttons enabled, like fast app switching and the fastest possible way to access Circle to Search, I switched my phone to buttons and found myself doing certain tasks I didn’t know I could do, this time with dedicated buttons.

Here are all the cool things that turning on buttons on your Android lets you do.

How to enable buttons

Turning on buttons is easy. If you have a Pixel, just go to Settings > System > Navigation mode

If you’re using a Samsung Galaxy, the path is Settings > Display > Navigation bar.

The main downside to turning on buttons is that it takes up a bit more vertical space than gesture navigation, though I think the navigation shortcuts the buttons enable is worth the tradeoff.

The Recents button hides a two-app switcher

It’s like Alt+Tab but better

Switching between two apps on a PC is as easy as using Alt+Tab (or on Mac, it’s Command+Tab).

You can switch between apps instantly with Android buttons enabled by double-tapping the square Recents button, and I find this action to be faster and more reliable than sideswiping the navigation pill, which also lets you move between recent apps quickly, though with a lot more thumb movement and without the dedicated tap target.

If I’m working on a task and switching between two apps, this trick makes the task so much smoother because it effectively lets you work on two apps, full screen, in succession (of course, you could also turn on split-screen multitasking, but if you don’t have a phone with a big screen, or a foldable, this isn’t always the best option).

To get this to work so that you’re switching between the two apps you want to toggle between, just open the first app and then open the second app (to load them into memory), then you can quickly double-tap the recent apps button to switch between them.

You can switch between apps instantly with Android buttons enabled by double-tapping the square Recents button

Circle to Search moves to the Home button

Android’s best AI feature is at your fingertips

My favorite Android AI feature lately is Circle to Search, where you can have Gemini take action on or look up anything on your screen. It’s great for shopping, research, or just adding an event to your calendar within seconds.

With gesture navigation, you can tap and hold the navigation bar to bring up Circle to Search from any screen, but it’s inconsistent.

If you turn on button navigation, this feature gives you a dedicated press-and-hold trigger, allowing you to Circle to Search by pressing and holding the home button.

Bring back a real back button

No more guessing what the back gesture does

Many years ago, Android introduced the gesture that lets you go back by swiping along the edge of the screen. The gesture is imprecise and sometimes doesn’t work or doesn’t trigger properly. (That said, Android has a lot of gestures you don’t know about.)

If you switch to buttons on Android, you get a persistent back button you didn’t have before to make it faster to go back without having to worry about getting a gesture just right: just tap the back button and Android acts predictably.

It’s easier to dismiss the keyboard

The back button doubles as a keyboard-dismissal key

Do you ever run into a situation when the Android keyboard (which might be collecting a lot of data) just won’t get out of the way to fill out a form or navigate? When using gesture navigation, sometimes you get a down-arrow that lets you dismiss the keyboard, but not always.

If you enable buttons on Android, you can much more precisely dismiss the keyboard because anytime you bring up the keyboard, the back button turns into a down button which reliably hides the keyboard.

It takes some time to adjust your muscle memory

But it makes you wonder why we went to gestures at all

Switching to buttons takes some getting used to, and you might need to build your muscle memory for a week. Stick with it and the payoff is control: three fixed buttons are more precise and predictable than a single pill that has to guess what your thumb intended.

Why did gestures become the default in the first place? In a word: iPhone. Apple sets trends the whole industry copies, whether that’s killing the headphone jack or moving to gestures—and not every trend is the right call, but this one’s worth reconsidering. It’s a minor difference, but when you’re trying to get real work done on your phone, it matters.