Chrome prototyping Android 14 Predictive Back support to show last page

Abner Li | May 13 2023 - 11:30 am PT

Predictive Back will be one of the most apparent user-facing changes this fall. As work continues, Google at I/O 2023 shared how some developers, including Chrome, might adopt Predictive Back in Android 14.

Predictive Back shows a preview of the homescreen as you swipe away from the edge and the current app shrinks. According to a study Google conducted, back-to-home animations “significantly reduces users accidentally leaving apps and feels more premium.”

You can test it today in Android 13 (Settings app > System > Developer options > Predictive back animations). Google is set to enable it by default with Android 14, but it’s still optional as of Beta 2.

Android 14 adds in-app Predictive Back, where you can get a preview of what screen you’re returning to when navigating within an app. In addition to the cross-activity animation Calendar demo, Google provided “key moment” examples at I/O:

Reddit is experimenting with collapsing a post as you swipe back to the feed.
Chrome is “prototyping previewing the previous web page as [you] swipe back.”

To aid adoption, developers can now “opt in to predictive back system animations per-Activity instead of for the entire app.”

Meanwhile, Material components are also leveraging Predictive Back animations in:

Side Sheets (nav drawer): “Side sheet detaches from the top and bottom edges of the screen to signal it will close.”
Search: Fullscreen search page shrinks and snaps back into pill-shaped bar on previous screen.
Bottom Sheets: Sheet shrinks and drops down.

It’s also soon coming to the bottom navigation bar and nav rail.