Android Q to permanently remove the back button, may add ‘Dark Mode', ‘Desktop Mode’: Report

Barely 10 months since unveiling Android 9 Pie OS, tech giant Google is already getting ready to rollout Android Q, the latest version of the most popular smartphone OS in the world.

Though Google is yet to announce the date, reports suggest the software company will rollout Android Q at its developer event Google I/O 2019 on May 7. The event will see Google releasing the new OS for developers before being rolled out to regular users.

Although Google has remained tight-lipped about the features, several reports have surfaced online speculating about the upcoming features of the OS.

Android Q a.k.a Android 10.0 would focus more on gesture controls. According to a report by XDA Developers, Google is going to remove a very old and standard feature that is common across all Android phones — the back button.

The report states that in Android 10.0, users would have to drag the home button slightly on the left. The report also mentions the presence of dark mode in a leaked build of Android Q. Android may get a system-wide dark mode that can be enabled through the Settings.

While Google has already worked on Permissions for apps Android 9 Pie, XDA’s report states that Google would further fine tune the Permissions and may also roll out a revamped layout. Google might go the Apple way and limit an app to have location access to ‘While the app is in use’. Android Q would also have ‘Permissions Usage’ which would show users which permissions were given away and when and for how long were they accessed.

Finally, Google would include Desktop Mode for stock Android. It would be similar to Samsung DeX. The developer report has ‘force desktop mode’  with a description that reads “force experimental desktop mode on secondary displays.” Although XDA was not able to enable the feature, it stated that Google is working on the feature.