"quick app switch" gesture finally works in 4.0.1, please enable it

Feature Requests
1

Quoting the original TJC post:

In the Sailfish OS 3 prototype shown on MWC 2018, a new gesture was included that allowed switching directly back-and-forth between apps with the normal horizontal edge swipe gesture, if that swipe was wider than 2/3rds of the screen.
The recent Sailfish OS 3.0.0.5 though doesn’t include this gesture. What happened to it, did it fall through the user tests for being too confusing? Or is it still coming in a later version?

I must say I really liked that gesture.

it turned out that this experimental gesture can be enabled via dconf write /desktop/sailfish/experimental/quickAppToggleGesture true. I’ve done that and have been using it for over a year now.
@rainemak mentioned that the main reason for not enabling it by default was that switching away from sailfish-browser did not work properly.
I can happily announce that it is working properly now in 4.0.1.48. So I am asking you to let QA test this feature properly again and then enable it in the next release.

25 Likes
2

There’s one case where you might find the gesture’s behaviour a bit quirky:
When “quick event view access” is enabled via an edge-swipe from the left, the gesture is still active and switches to the last recently used app without showing the app switcher.

While I do not find this problematic, possible alternatives to this behaviour are

  • disabling quick app switch for left swipes when quick event access is active
  • add a transition animation to the app switcher when the switch-swipe threshold is activated, maybe @jpetrell, @Martin or some other UX magician can come up with a suitable animation
6 Likes
3

There is at least sound when it activates. :slight_smile:

4

I always wondered what happened to this. Thanks for the dconf config.

5

A ‘sound’?
You mean vibration, or? (3.2.1.20)

6

Actually both - a sound and vibration.

7

Or neither if you switched both off in Settings :wink:

1 Like
8

How about making the gesture independent of the distance you have to swipe (think of large displays or when holding your device in landscape orientation)?

A IMHO more accessible alternative would be to peek into home/events by starting to swipe from the screen edge and then (without lifting your finger inbetween) move up/down to select the app to switch to. Lift your finger to switch to that app. Move your finger straight back to the screen edge to cancel.

9

Thinking about it, the same concept is also useful for the Events screen:

  • If you peek into events and move your finger up/down, the app to whose notifications you want to scroll could be selected. This is comfortable if you have lots of notifications from many different apps.

  • If you peek into home instead and move your finger up/down, you can still switch apps, like described in the previous post.

2 Likes
10

Peek into the homescreen and move the finger to the app one wants to open is a great idea.

I misunderstood the feature and thought it was the carousel type as in N9.

1 Like
11

i do not see the BIG difference between :

swipe and lift vs. swipe and tip

2 Likes
12

If your device has a big display and the app cover you want to tap is for example in the top left corner of the screen, swipe-and-lift is easier, because you don’t need to reach that corner with your finger.

13

@rainemak any news about this feature?

2 Likes
14

I enabled this function on 4.3 phone XA2.

15

Yes.
And it is working really fine.
So please add an option in settings.

2 Likes
16

really useful for my use case. Switching between browser and notepad.

2 Likes
17

This is cool!
But still slower than the N900 camera button half-press to switch between last two used apps :innocent:
Maybe would it be even better/quicker not having to wait for the vibration at 2/3 of the screen.

BTW, any way to do that in some config file/dconf command on SFOS?