Suggestion: revised gesture to close the active app (made relevant again by SFOS 3.0 UI changes)

I agree. Love Jolla UI as it is. But as an option for user to choose it would be great. I just might use it my self because I have to sometimes change my grip to close programs.

I disagree. While the 'swipe from the top to close' gesture is the most intuitive, Jolla is simply too big. I have quite a large palm, but still can't perform this gesture comfortably. When I try hard to do it, I can almost feel the phone slipping out of my hand. 4.5" is way too big.This would help.

@nodevel And how much effort do you think it takes from Jolla to develop this and for the users to learn yet another (and completely new kind of) swipe-gesture ?

Fixing issues requires effort. I don't think this is too difficult to do in lipstick. On users' side? Why would they need to learn something new, when the current gesture is gonna be there? It's better to have at least one working gesture than none, don't you think ;)

There is already a working solution for closing apps / locking the screen. This is not an issue, this is a suggestion to re-design the UI with a new swipe, thus requiring learning from users and development effort (just for make already working features somewhat more pleasurable for some). Don't you think that there are more pressing issues to be sorted in the platform / midleware and implementing the missing features than this?

The gestures should not be eliminated, the current ones work good-enogh. If you don't want to down-swipe the app to close it, "minimize" it by edge-swiping and close with long-pressing.

I also come from the N9, but as that was quite smaller, the swipe wasn't that hard to reach. With Jolla the top of the screen is quite far away when you try to swipe with one hand.

@jjaone: Please read again. I am arguing in favour of KEEPING the down-swipe-close. I want it to stay.

@FlyingSheep Why should I read again? In your answer you say: "this gesture should be eliminated".. And I am proposing that no gestures should be eliminated, nothing needs to be fixed, the current design is good enough (why don't you read my Answer again, if you didn't understand it the first time).

@jjaone: given that we are both in favour of keeping the down-swipe to close, you surely agree with the main point of my answer, but you have down-voted me for a detail (which started tentatively with I suggest). I will edit that sub-point to make it more clear.

A swipe from above is not the easiest way possible if you can't reach the top of the device without changing grip or using your other hand.

So what is your suggestion? Long press and tap some button? I don't think it goes more easy, except you are able to fully configure your gestures and make e.g. swipe from left to close and swipe from right to minimize. Lefthanders would probably prefer it the other way around.

Ease of use of this side swipe and drag down to close- gesture is dependent of implementation. The l shape don't need to be there, only beginning point at the screen edge and ending point at the close indicator. That indicator practically needs to be narrower than the screen to allow minimize gesture at every height. So edge swipe at the bottom to the close indicator would be a lot faster than the top edge to down swipe.

@tad: Also, swipe down isn't that precise imo. I don't know how many times I activate the pulley menu instead of closing the app.

@NuklearFart: I find it slightly annoying when you post absurd ideas like it was something I'd suggest. For the record I like the original idea in the post that started this discussion, see top post. Also that suggestion works great with both left and right handed, as it could start at any side.

@Mohjive you said the swipe from above is not the easiest way, so I just asked for your suggestion, not more, not less. The way of SFOS 2 as it is now is to long press and tap - that's a fact and not your idea. I never said it. You are only saying that swipe down might be not easiest. I think it is. The last part of my post was only to say that the easiest way for anybody is to fully configure it - that was not your idea but mine. So please don't try to turn my words into something which might be against you.

That would be a nice natural aproach. 'cutting the app in half kills it'

While it might sound good in theory, looking at Ubuntu Touch (which utilizes complete swipes of different length), I would try to avoid it as much as possible. When I see even fan "reviewers" (fans of Ubuntu that were invited to pick the phone among the first) struggling with it, I can imagine how confusing it must be for a regular user.

Currently, it's not exactly like you describe - there's only one swipe - the one minimizing programs. The 'short swipe' (peaking) you describe is just holding the finger without releasing it, not having any other effect.

I think that would feel natural - swipe in from the left to minimize and do a full swipe to close :-) - for the tablet the old gesture (from the top like on the N9) wouldn't be very ergonomic - btw I still like the behavior of WebOS or the old Playbook OS - swipe from the bottom up to minimize and then swipe away to close

That's how I understood the original suggestion: "Here it goes: start sliding finger from either edge (l or r) with peek. Multitasking view starts to appear. After a certain point, a semi - transparent red area (maybe with an "x", or the text "close", or any other visual indicator) appears at the bottom of the screen. If you then drag your finger to this area at the bottom of the screen, the app closes."

@Mohijive exactly.

@Mohjive, that is not quite what I meant. My suggestion is that instead of the current vertical gesture use the L shaped gesture, It wouldn't need to reach the bottom or even a certain point, but users finger would need to travel a minimum set distance until the close animation kicks in. Not even the animation needs to change, or just very little. Perhaps this way isn't giving enough visual hints to new users, but in my opinion is a lot more comfortable than trying to reach the very bottom of the screen and would be easy to get used to for seasoned users.

Edit: please try both ways with one hand on your Jolla and check which feels easier.

@fasza2mobile now I get what you mean. You got a point there, but as you say it would not give a visual cue to the user. I think I would use it, but it may be difficult for beginners. There could be a setting for that, like an "easy version" with the visual cue area at the bottom of the screen, and the "power user version" without graphical cues.

Very, very cool idea! I didn't think about that possible issue, it totaly makes sense. This should be a comment rather than an answer, though ;)

As an option? Sure.

There's a suggestion to vote for this here: https://together.jolla.com/question/3244/remorse-timer-actions-and-remorse-timer-settings-configuration/?answer=33294#post-id-33294

i think this would leed to so much useless 'work' if you do not want to close it! imagine you are taking this whole multitasking thing and switch fast between several apps (so obviously they need to stay open in homescreen), you would end up tapping between each stepp! i think that would horribly slow down and interrupt the flow of work!

@dieerstegiraffe: I don't think the intention is to show the remorse timer every time you switch from an app, only when you close an application. And then you would only need to tap the remorse timer if you closed it by mistake. It doesn't get in the way of normal multitasking behavior.

There's a lot of great info in that post! I really like pretty much every design choice. I am sad that cover actions are changing to buttons, but I trust the developers in that it will be the best option and that it won't be cumbersome.

I don't agree that they listemed to us with regards to this thread. The new close gesture is relevant even with the old gesture being present. Personally I would like the new gesture suggested here together with the new ambiance swither swipe.

Closing an app by swipe is a feature I'm really missing in 2.0 UI. Comparison:

1.0. - swipe down

2.0 - swipe from side - long press - press X - tap screen (to remove X from other apps)

Why did you make it that complicated? 4 actions for something that could be done with 1 action in older versions. Please bring back the old behaviour or make it configurable.

Edit: It's already configurable: Settings -> Gestures :)