Android P Beta Hints At A Notchless Pixel 3 With Gesture Refinements

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have been on the market for over seven months now, and given the interest in Google's home brewed handsets, it's a pretty safe bet a Pixel 3 is in the pipeline. It's also a given that the Pixel 3 will arrive with the next major version of Android, currently called Android P. If a couple of leaked illustrations of Android P are any indication, the Pixel 3 will arrive with a notch-free display and refined gesture controls.

Spotted by SlashLeaks, the illustrations are found in the current Android P beta, which are accessible by heading to Settings > Sounds > Shortcut to Prevent Ringing. It's not clear if the images are supposed to depict the Pixel 3, but if so, it means Google's next batch of smartphones will ditch the bezel in favor of an all-screen design, and without the the notch that so many Android phones have been adopting.

Credit (or blame) really goes to Andy Rubin and the Essential Phone for introducing a notched display, though Apple was the one that really ran with the idea with its iPhone X. After that, several Android phones began to sport a notch. The idea behind the notch is to enable a bezel-free design with a nearly all-screen design, while leaving a little section at the top to house the front-facing camera(s).

The Android P illustrations suggest Google is going in a different direction with the Pixel 3. There is no notch visible in either image, which raises the question of where the heck Google put the front camera. Perhaps Google figured out a way to embed it underneath the display, in what would be some serious technical wizardry. Less likely is that Google decided to ditch the front camera altogether—an almost sacrilegious idea in the era of selfies. Or maybe a camera ejects from one of the edges.

As for the accompanying gestures, the illustrations show that users can swipe up on the Home button to switch apps, and swipe up a second time to see all apps. This works on any screen and takes the place of having an Overview button on the bottom-right of the display.