TechGadgetsGoogleAndroid\u2019s physical navigation buttons are back on Googlebooks, but not the way you thinkAn oldie but a goodie \u2014 and kind of a necessity-die.An oldie but a goodie \u2014 and kind of a necessity-die.by Antonio G. Di BenedettoOct 7, 2026, 8:44 PM UTCShareGiftWhat year is it, and what dessert name of Android are we up to? Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto \/ The VergeAntonio G.<\/p>\n
Di Benedetto is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.A common misconception I\u2019ve seen with Googlebooks is that the Quick Insert and Google logo keys are new. They\u2019re not, as they first debuted a couple of years ago on some Chromebooks. But there is something new for Googlebooks that\u2019s ripped straight from Android phones circa 2014.On every Googlebook keyboard, the F1, F2, and F3 keys are the old triangle, circle, and square navigation icons that first debuted on Android 5.0 Lollipop.<\/p>\n
These were the back, home, and app switcher buttons long before everything went to gesture-based navigation, and they\u2019re still built into phones on Android 17 as an alternative. On Googlebook OS, these keys do what you expect: the left-pointing triangle goes back, the circle goes \u201chome\u201d by minimizing all open apps, and the square tiles your open apps like Mission Control on macOS \/ Task View on Windows.If I stare at these keys long enough, I can pretend I\u2019m holding my old Nexus 6. Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto \/ The VergeIt\u2019s useful to have these buttons, and to have them matched across all Googlebooks.<\/p>\n
The back button seems sometimes necessary when using Android apps that aren\u2019t really optimized for a desktop interface or mouse controls. I just wish a second press of the home button brought all your apps back to where they were, but that\u2019s another feature called desktop peeking that uses a different keyboard shortcut.If you\u2019re an Android nerd of yore, it\u2019s kind of fun to see these buttons live on. But they\u2019re also a reminder that you sometimes need a fallback when Android gets all Android on you.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Antonio G. Di BenedettoAndroidGadgetsGoogleLaptopsTechMost PopularXbox has secured GTA 6 streaming rightsApple and LG team up on new smart home gear, starting with a lock, doorbell, and thermostatOpenAI drops another batch of mathematical breakthroughsHBO Max and Paramount Plus will merge into a single streamer under SkydanceNew leaks provide our first look at Apple and LG\u2019s smart home devicesAdvertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TechGadgetsGoogleAndroid\u2019s physical navigation buttons are back on Googlebooks, but not the way you thinkAn oldie but a goodie \u2014 and kind of a necessity-die.An oldie but a goodie \u2014 and kind of a necessity-die.by Antonio\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}