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As sibling commentor pointed out, the default (and standard) way to go back is a back gesture, there is no button to press anymore. The OS teaches you how to do

As sibling commentor pointed out, the default (and standard) way to go back is a back gesture, there is no button to press anymore. The OS teaches you how to do this with an overlay tutorial. My mom, who is 68, was able to figure this out without any help when she upgraded to a Pixel 4A several years ago. What is surprising to me is that using a Back button that's at the top of the phone would be acceptable to you. That's definitely the hardest part of the UI to reach one handed, and yet going back in an app is definitely something you should be able to do quickly without having to stretch your fingers to reach it. Perhaps you prefer smaller phones, but those are becoming pretty rare these days. > The convention is that it's in the top left and that the "swipe rightward from the left edge of the screen" gesture also goes back So what's fun about that is from an iOS developer perspective, this is not always free, and the back gesture itself only works within your own app unless you do additional work. This is probably why you mention > But Android's approach is probably better at providing a decent UX with terrible apps. As I could imagine the app's back navigation is a factor you must consider when the OS doesn't handle it. It's not a dimension that matters on Android- as all apps are going to play nice within the back gesture system automatically unless they block it intentionally, even if the app isn't particularly good. I cannot recall any app I've come across that actually blocks the back gesture (not even games, remote desktop, Steam Link).

mort96 3y ago
I don't think that a back button at the top of the screen is very usable. I think it kinda makes sense to have it there, but it's not something you should be using as the primary back input. I don't know what you mean by "the back gesture itself only works within your app". I assume there are cases in Android where one app took you to another app and you can do the back gesture to go back to the app you came from? Anyway, the iOS model is that the back gesture just navigates within the app, and there are other features for navigating between apps. I won't make an argument about which is better, but I don't think iOS's model is obviously much worse.
alexdbird 3y ago
> What is surprising to me is that using a Back button that's at the top of the phone would be acceptable This is why iOS added the back gesture, over ten years ago now, when phones started getting taller. > from an iOS developer perspective, this is not always free As an iOS developer since years before that gesture was added, I must disagree. The gesture comes for free unless you break it. Apps without back gestures smell like bad orgs. If you build some custom navigation you won't magically get it, because it's interactive and you need to make your navigation interact, but people are generally discouraged from building custom navigation. If you do go down that route it involves an astonishing amount of code to reproduce interactive pop. > and the back gesture itself only works within your own app unless you do additional work I'm afraid I also have no idea what you're trying to say here.

mort96 3y ago

I don't think that a back button at the top of the screen is very usable. I think it kinda makes sense to have it there, but it's not something you should be using as the primary back input. I don't know what you mean by "the back gesture itself only works within your app". I assume there are cases in Android where one app took you to another app and you can do the back gesture to go back to the app you came from? Anyway, the iOS model is that the back gesture just navigates within the app, and there are other features for navigating between apps. I won't make an argument about which is better, but I don't think iOS's model is obviously much worse.

alexdbird 3y ago

> What is surprising to me is that using a Back button that's at the top of the phone would be acceptable This is why iOS added the back gesture, over ten years ago now, when phones started getting taller. > from an iOS developer perspective, this is not always free As an iOS developer since years before that gesture was added, I must disagree. The gesture comes for free unless you break it. Apps without back gestures smell like bad orgs. If you build some custom navigation you won't magically get it, because it's interactive and you need to make your navigation interact, but people are generally discouraged from building custom navigation. If you do go down that route it involves an astonishing amount of code to reproduce interactive pop. > and the back gesture itself only works within your own app unless you do additional work I'm afraid I also have no idea what you're trying to say here.