It's a little ironic how at the advent of the iPhone, the desktop os was mocked as being clunky and full of those things you just have to know, rather than being discoverable. The iPhone was limited and simple. And it really helped adoption of smartphones. Now it's assumed everybody is already familiar with smartphones and welcomes yet another shortcut or gesture to make usage quicker. Take Android and the removal of the three buttons at the bottom, in exchange for some gestures. Just so the interface looks cleaner. Imagine someone who has never used a smartphone before would be starting out with that. Just hand them the phone and see how long it takes them to return to the home screen after opening the first app.
Not to say this is good or bad, just an observation mostly.
The removal of the three dots completely throws me for a loop. I simply could not get the gestures to stick in my brain. And not to sound entitled, but... I shouldn't have to?
Anyway I'm ride or die for the three dots and am pretty worried they'll kill off the option to bring them back.
I don't use gestures, never had, if possible never will. Phone works 100% fine for me as it is (samsung s22 ultra), i am as efficient with it as I want and need. Whatever works for you is how you should use the product.
Plus, lets not be pathetic with wasting life on phone, real life happens outside screens. Its good to keep reminding oneself this little truth regardless how shiny new gimmicks manufacturers bring to keep us glued to their products and ad-based services.
The iPhone got some undeserved credit for being intuitive just because it was so limited. It did not even have copy/paste. Even now, it is far from obvious how to use undo (tap with three fingers). It’s when there are many features that great UI/UX designers shine.
Late to this thread - while 3-finger tap pops up the text editing menu, you can undo with a three-finger swipe from right-to-left, and redo is left-to-right. Also if you have something highlighted you can do a 3-finger pinch-in to copy, do it twice to cut, and the reverse (pinch-out?) to paste.
I like the way Xiaomi enabled gestures on my phone. The default was the three button layout, with the option to switch to gestures. The moment you enable gestures, you get a little interactive tutorial on how to use them so you don't get confused.
Android at least lets you re-enable the old UI in most cases. And then there's the ability to install custom launchers etc that also helps maintain sanity with major releases.
Not to say this is good or bad, just an observation mostly.