SENARYNotes · Senary Launcher 1.5
Twist twice
Five gestures for starting voice without touching the screen. Four didn't make it.
1.5 added voice: hold the search bar in the dock, say an app's name, let go. I wanted a way to start it without touching the screen. I tried five gestures, each measured on a Pixel 10a with labelled sensor logs: the gesture on purpose, plus a run of normal handling.
| Gesture | Result |
|---|---|
| Raise to the ear | Never fired |
| Raise to the mouth | 3 of 4, about 0.8 seconds to arm |
| Hold volume down and lift | Worked; removed |
| A single flick upright | Also fired on 10 of 11 normal pick-ups |
| Twist twice | 10 of 10 twists, none of the normal handling |
Raise to the ear
Lift the phone like a call, and let the proximity sensor confirm it. Never fired. When you speak into a phone it's at your mouth, so the sensor at the top never gets covered.
Raise to the mouth
No proximity sensor, just tilt: fire once the phone passes 88 degrees. It caught 3 raises of 4, but took about 0.8 seconds to be sure. Too slow.
Volume down
Hold volume down and lift. It worked, but volume keys are for volume. Removed.
A single flick
A sharp flick to upright. Quick, and it fired, but so did 10 of 11 normal pick-ups, and the pick-ups were faster than the flicks. No threshold separates the two.
Twist twice
Motorola has done this for years: twist twice for the camera, chop twice for the torch. A twist is a turn about the phone's long axis, back and forth, and normal handling doesn't alternate like that.
The rule: four alternating swings about the long axis, each peaking at 4 radians a second or more, all within 0.8 seconds. It caught 10 twists of 10 and none of the normal handling. The most alternating swings normal handling produced was three.
What shipped
Off by default, under Settings, Gestures, and it works on the home screen. A twist can start voice or toggle the torch. After a twist the mic stays on until you stop talking, 8 seconds at most, with Android's mic indicator showing. Details in the privacy policy.
Still open
Twice in the first four tries, voice after a twist misheard “Maps”. Holding the bar never did. Not sure why yet; I'm watching it.
More notes: all of them. What changed in each version: What's new.