[Video] New Gestures, Dark Mode, Clock Widgets, and more in Android Q

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For years, stock Android has been fairly limited in terms of native customization and theming options. Users have had to depend on custom ROMs or third-party mods to change the interface on their devices. But that is set to change with the Android Q, which brings the inbuilt options to change accent colors throughout the system as well as apply a full-blown dark theme. Apart from this Google has also been working on new lock screen widgets and an improved navigation scheme. Even though some of these features are disabled by default, you can enable them in Android Q beta 1 by investing some time and patience into modifications. Note that you’ll need a computer to run ADB shell commands. Don’t worry we have descriptive articles on how to get the things done.

While the liberty to customize colors and the theme in Android Q is interesting, perhaps the most compelling part for most users will be the new navigation gestures. Moving a step forward from the pill navigation in Android 9 Pie, Google will now allow you to hide the back button completely – first discovered by Mishaal Rahman, XDA Developer’s Editor-in-Chief. Besides Recents, the pill can also serve as a Back button as well as let you control the notifications panel. The only catch is this feature is currently disabled in the Android Q beta 1.

However, for those eager to try, Mishaal has elaborated steps that will be needed to actuate the new navigation system. In the video below, Danial Marchena for XDA TV shows you a glimpse of all the amazing features you can turn on in Android Q beta 1 if you have a knack for tinkering (of course you do, isn’t that why you’re running Android Q before the rest of the world?)

Make sure you go through the following guides before starting out: