Google released its version of a gesture navigation system with Android 10, and the reception has been mixed. While it's certainly a step in the right direction, niggling compatibility issues with older Android UI elements have made it far from a smooth transition. Jawomo, the same developer who remapped the Bixby button, has once again given users the extra customization options that we should've had in the first place.

Options for tapping, or long-pressing the navigation button.

In the free version of the app, you can assign multiple actions to a tap of the navigation "pill" — the oblong line in the center of the gesture area. The back gesture is the default, and on larger devices like my S10+, this is a welcome feature. When I use my phone one-handed, reaching for either edge of the screen is cumbersome, as well as terrifying. Being able to tap to go back perfectly blends the old two/three-button navigation system with the new gestures.

Adjust settings for long-press duration, gesture sensitivity and more.

Pay $2.50 via an IAP to unlock pro mode, and a plethora of new options are made available to you. My favorite is bringing back a long-press for Google Assistant, like the older button-based navigation systems had. As with the back gesture I mentioned previously, long pressing on the gesture navigation pill is sometimes more comfortable than reaching for a bottom corner. The app also allows you to toggle haptic feedback, gesture sensitivity, and long-press duration.

If you're like me and you shudder every time you have to open a slide-out menu by "peeking" or reaching for the button at the top, then you may want to sit down for this one: Gesture Plus lets you disable the back gesture altogether, relying solely on tapping the gesture nav bar's pill to go back. However, this only works on Samsung devices, requires ADB, and you'll have to manually enable the feature via a command sent from your computer. Switch this on, and you'll be sliding out those nav drawers with ease, just like before. There's probably a joke in there somewhere.

Make your Assistant push-to-talk.

Finally, there's peek actions. With this switched on, pressing and holding on the gesture navigation pill will activate whatever function you've assigned but, and this is the important part, letting go disables it. The easiest way to illustrate this is with Google Assistant. Holding down the button opens the Assistant, and when you let go, it closes. You can use it to make the Assistant push-to-talk, and it works with any action you've assigned to a long-press — albiet with varying degrees of success.

Gesture Plus is brand new, and available now through the Google Play Store as well as APK Mirror.

UPDATE: 2020/01/19 9:30am PST BY ZACHARY KEW-DENNISS

Disabling the back gesture is only available on Samsung devices. As I was using my S10 to test this app, I didn't run into this issue at the time. Thank you to all of you who commented with this issue, as well as the developer for sharing an explanation.