The ability to swipe down in the home screen to see the notification shade has been present in custom ROMs like MIUI, OxygenOS etc. and launcher apps for quite some time, and it’s very handy, especially on large smartphones, because reaching the notification shade on the top is just tough. Well, the good news is, the Pixel Launcher in Android Q will have the swipe down to see notifications gesture.
The new Pixel Launcher feature has been spotted in Android Q Beta 5, and as you can see in the video below, it works as it’s supposed to.
Now, this feature arrives at a time when there’s news that gestures like these only work on system-installed launchers, like the Pixel Launcher or the default launchers in MIUI and OxygenOS. So, if you really enjoyed this gesture or the plethora of gestures launchers like Nova, Lawnchair etc. offer, you won’t be able to use them in Android Q. Now, having said that, developers might be able to implement gestures in their launcher by playing around with Android Q source code, but that’s something we will have to wait and see.
Coming back to the Pixel Launcher, it’s great that it’s finally bringing a feature we have always wanted. I mean, we all know that the Pixel 4 XL is going to be a huge huge smartphone with no physical fingerprint scanner on the back, so a swipe down to access notification center gesture should come in very handy.
