How to change the "back" and "recent Apps" buttons?

Hi,
I unpacked my new Fairphone 5 today and trying to configure everything but I didn’t find any option to use the thee-button navigation bar so that the “back” button is on the right side. Did I miss something or is there any “hack” or App to do this?
I found tons of “accessibility” settings but I can’t find this extremely basic feature anywhere?
Or is it planned to be implemented in the future?

In Google forums Android UI designers told people that the new gesture mode is better, but I must absolutely disagree. I’ve been using the three-button layout with the back button on the right for more than 10 years and I am absolutely failing to use the fancy new gesture navigation (it’s a funny toy but neither faster nor more reliable) or the reverse button layout where as a right-hander, you have to stretch the thumb all over the huge display to reach the back button (which I use faaar more often than the recent Apps button).
I read about people rooting their phone to use this but I’m not sure if I loose warranty in this case?
Thanks for your help!

Matthias

I use AutoCursor app on my FP4. It doesn’t need rooting. It allows you to configure a zone on the right edge of the phone that acts as the back button. The zone can be configured to be pretty thin and to not overlap with keyboard, so accidental triggers of the zone are at the absolute minimum for me. My thumb thanks me a lot for this app :slight_smile:

An by the way, you don’t lose warranty by rooting an FP. You can do that. But you should count with the need to flash the original OS when sending phone for repair. This means losing all data.

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Thanks. I didn’t find out how to do it with the AutoCursor App but just found an App called “Navigation Bar for Android” where I could add a custom button overlay with switched buttons :slight_smile:
I’m pretty sure this negatively influences the usability of some fullscreen Apps but I’m going to test it for a while. Would love if Fairphone adds an option to customize this.


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Ah ok so ist really ist in the right side, I see… I thougt it could be overlaid to the Button in the bottom.
Thanks!

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With Android 14 its now possible to swap the buttons

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