With Android 16 QPR2 (or some subsequent updates), Google will add the possibility of change the arrangement of the buttons in the mode of navigation system with three buttons.

The evidence of this novelty, apparently already fully functional, hide within the most recent Beta 2 of the next quarterly update (which will arrive on the pixels in stable form in December).

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Google is making pixels more “familiar” for users of other brands

In the last period, from the parts of Mountain View they have tried to make changes to the user experience offered by Pixel smartphones to make them palatable to users of other brands that want to change device (or paradigm). With Pixel 10, for example, the transition from iOS to Android was simplified.

Although the system navigation through gestures is now widely used by users, some continue to use navigation with three buttons and it is here the development team aims to intervene, especially considering that on devices Made by Google A big difference is manifested compared to Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones.

While on the pixels the three navigation buttons, from left to right, are “back”, “home” and “recent apps”, on the Galaxy are “recent apps”, “home” and “back”: in a nutshell, the two side buttons are exchanged of place. This for some users Samsung was a potential limit in the passage to the pixels because it would have requested a sort of reset and learning of something different, not natural according to their use.

At the beginning of August it emerged that Google was working to solve this “annoying” aspect for Samsung users on pixel devices and with the Beta 2 of Android 16 QPR2 new indications arrived on how they were operating from the parts of Mountain View, or adding one new option to reverse the buttons.

Android 16 QPR2 could solve a potential “discomfort” for the pixels for Samsung users

The well -known Insider Mishaal Rahmanwhich initially had only found the code strings relating to this new option, still useful for reconstructing where Google would go to parry, then managed to activate the functionality, confirming more or less what he had hypothesized a couple of weeks ago (via Android Authority).

To the path “Settings> System> Navigation methods”, the current item Navigation with three buttons will be enriched with dedicated settings (like Navigation through gestures), accessible via a gear -shaped icon, which will allow you to choose between the “classic” pixel buttons and the New option to reversed buttons for the navigation of the system with three buttons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_pf5bqofja

Although this new option is not available for Beta Tester (it is hidden in the source code and that can only be activated through various experimental flags for developers), it appears fully functional. In the event that Big G decided to release it to Pixel users already with the next quarterly update (December 2025), it is very likely that this novelty may be part of the Beta 3 of Android 16 QPR2, the one that will be released to the beta testers in October.