Pixel owners who grew up on the good old-fashioned three-button navigation bar may soon receive a small-but-satisfying tweak: the option to reverse the order of those buttons, matching Galaxy phones’ layout from forever until now. Code discovered in the Android 16 QPR2 beta suggests a setting is on the way that will swap “Back, Home, Recents” to “Recents, Home, Back,” making it easier for users transitioning from Samsung phones and allowing the settings to better cater to ergonomics.
What the Android 16 QPR2 beta is missing so far
Strings found in the Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 Settings APK refer to a new “Button navigation” page, as well as a “Button order” selector.
As text, there are two options — “Back, Home, Recents” and “Recents, Home, Back” with labels that correspond to the buttons. The page seems to live under Settings > System > Navigation mode, and it’s accessible via a gear icon next to “3-button navigation.”
This toggle isn’t visible in the interface yet, meaning it is likely protected behind a feature flag. That makes it a real in-development change, rather than just for show in the UI, which also means that there’s no promised delivery date for this feature with the next quarterly update. New features found in code have been cut before, so it will be interesting to follow up on new beta releases to find out if the option actually goes live.
Why this tiny toggle could matter for Pixel users
Samsung had long put the back button on the right side, something that was hard-wired by habit into the muscle memory of millions of users. When those users switch to using a Pixel, they’ll be asked to relearn the pattern or else they will have to use gesture navigation. For many people, that’s okay; for others — especially those who use one-handed reachability or have motor accessibility needs — the change can slow down easily accomplishable gestures.
Analyst firms such as IDC and Counterpoint typically place Samsung at the pinnacle of global smartphone shipments. That means a large group of potential Pixel buyers are used to the inverted deck. And simple things, like the native “flip” option on Pixels for reversible physical buttons, cuts down friction in switching a little, small but howling bit of UX.
There’s also an ergonomics story to be told here. Larger phones also mean you need to travel your thumb. And if you’re right-handed, there’s some evidence it can shave fragments of a second from common tasks. It’s the sort of micro-optimization that power users pick up on and appreciate, and it even works with the 3-button mode Google still offers alongside gestures.
How it stacks up against other Android skins
One UI from Samsung has allowed reordering of navigation buttons for years, with the Galaxy default layout being “Recents, Home, Back.” Not to mention other OEMs such as OnePlus and Xiaomi offering controls for button order or preferring gestures by default with fallbacks. Google has been all about gestures on Android-running Pixel devices since last year’s Android 10, and though Pixel phones still kept the three-button navigation option, there hasn’t been a built-in way to reverse the layout — until now.
On Pixels today, anyone hell-bent on flipping the order is left to use third-party tweaks or perform deep system-level hacking workarounds.
Placing the control in Settings nudges stock Android a bit closer to the sort of flexibility found on customized Android skins.
Will this navigation button order option make the final cut?
With localized strings and a named settings page, the work is well underway but the setting itself isn’t (yet) visible. In Google land, that generally implies a server-side flag or a System UI gate being fine-tuned. If it does land in a later beta, chances are it’ll move up to become part of the final stable QPR build. If not, it might make its way to an update down the line.
Either way, the direction is clear: Google is spending time on small but high-impact quality-of-life improvements.
But for Pixel people who, like half the Galaxy line of phones that may also switch over, prefer three-button navigation, being able to dictate where “Back” lives is the kind of simple choice Android should just offer as a user-friendly default.
The takeaway on Google’s potential nav button flip option
Some code in Android 16 QPR2 suggests that one of the features it brings about is a “Button order” toggle which will allow Pixel users the ability to mimic Samsung’s three-button layout. It’s not live yet, but if it lands it could lower switching friction, make one-handed ergonomics better and put stock Android’s customization closer to what most OEMs already offer.
The find has been brought to light by experienced Android analysts known for deconstructing beta builds, and it further fits Google’s up-and-down history of refining the Pixel experience with logical, user-driven features. Watch for the next beta release to determine if it makes an appearance in Settings.