- Google is working to bring predictive back support to three-button navigation in Android 16.
- Predictive back lets you preview where the back button will take you.
- Currently, this feature only works with gesture navigation.
I’m sure this has happened to you at least once in the past: You press Android’s back button, and instead of an app taking you to the screen you were expecting, the button exits the app entirely. This is frustrating for users as it can cause them to lose progress, and it’s also frustrating for developers as it reduces usage. To solve this problem, Google created predictive back, a feature that lets you preview where navigating back will actually take you. Currently, predictive back doesn’t work if you use three-button navigation, but that’s set to change in this year’s Android 16 update.
Predictive back is a feature that Google has been working on for a few years now. It was first introduced as a developer option in Android 13 and became enabled by default in Android 15. It lets you preview the destination of the back gesture before you fully complete it, allowing you to decide whether to commit to going back or to stay on the current screen. If going back will take you to your phone’s home screen, you’ll even see a preview of your current home screen as you swipe inward, making it much less likely you’ll accidentally exit an app.