[Bug/feature request?] Add an animation for predictive back gestures

[mbestavros]

Predictive back is a fairly new Android feature that (on stock launchers) provides a nice animation when a back gesture takes the user back to their homescreen. Kvaesitso does not currently handle these gracefully - the transition is fairly janky, as demonstrated below:

https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso/assets/10786787/a82fc567-3a96-4ca7-a65c-e90ccb157fdd

Kvaesitso should add support for the new gesture.

[mbestavros]

I noticed that there was a mention of predictive back not being implemented yet in https://github.com/MM2-0/Kvaesitso/issues/578, so I figured this could be a more direct tracking issue.

[MM2-0]

I noticed this as well, but I'm not aware of a better way to handle this. To me this looks like a typical Google move to "forget" that 3rd party launchers exist. Or do you know of any 3rd party launcher that does it better?

Related: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/263606935

[mbestavros]

Or do you know of any 3rd party launcher that does it better?

Unfortunately not. A quick survey of Nova Launcher, Niagara, and Lawnchair indicate they all share the same issue, so it seems like it's indeed an upstream bug.

As a workaround, users can disable predictive back animations in developer settings (at least on a Pixel). It sucks that we have to lose such a nice QoL feature, though.

[MM2-0]

So I've upgraded to Android 14 now and what I found is that when you reboot your device after changing your launcher to a third party launcher, the predictive back animation from app to home screen gets disabled entirely. Which isn't great, of course, but at least it's not as jarring as in your video. And the animation still works when you navigate within an app.