Google has yet to enable Predictive Back at the system level in Android 14, but the in-app variant is active in some apps, including most recently Gmail.
Predictive Back shows a preview of the home screen as you swipe back from the left/right edge of the app. It’s intended to address how the instant back movement can cause “people to leave the app by mistake.” Google revealed that “the new Predictive Back feature has been shown to outperform the current end-user experience in task completion, preferences, satisfaction, confidence and premium quality.” It wants to be adopted by third-party developers.
Android 14 was originally expected to enable Predictive Back, but it remains behind Developer Options > Predictive Back Animations: Enable system animations for predictive back.
Meanwhile, Android 14 introduces support for custom in-app transitions/animations and this is active for every app without having to enable anything. We recently noticed Predictive Back in Gmail — version 2024.03.03.x — when closing an email. This complements the existing animation when you tap the Back button in the upper left corner.
You have to swipe back on the left/right edge to see the email screen shrink into a window with rounded corners. You’ll see your inbox in the background to provide some context. By comparison, iOS has its own sliding pane metaphor.
This joins In-app Predictive Back in the schedule or day view of Google Calendar when closing a full-screen event. We also saw this when closing the playlist in YouTube Music. Again, this requires Android 14 on Pixel, Samsung, etc.
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