Tips

Here’s how to get Google Pixel like motion gestures on any Android smartphone

By Vim V

Posted on May 10, 2021

Google Pixel devices have some exciting features including inspirational motion gestures. The smartphone inbuilt radar chip helps to efficiently detect your nearness under Motion Sense. The whole technology is based on Project Soli which was originally showcased in 2015.

After the mouse, keyboard, and touch screen display, the motion gestures are set to become a new medium of communication between smartphones and humans. Still, the feature on Pixel phones are limited to just a few motion gestures, but their applicability is much diverse.

Other smartphones do not feature any radar chip, but with the help of other sensors and the Tasker app, we can attain the Motion Gestures. Tasker is a popular automation app available on the Android ecosystem.

It can perform complex functions using multiple triggers. We have crafted a guide to enable Pixel 4 motion gestures on any Android smartphone using Tasker.

Enable Pixel 4 Motion Gestures

It is a bit complex process, as the user has to create multiple triggers to attain Pixel 4 like functionality. We recommend following the process carefully.

Things to Attain

Our procedure will enable motion gestures for Next, Previous, Play and Pause music tracks.
Sending WhatsApp Messages without touching the smartphone.

Prerequisites:

Below are some plugins and permissions you need to accomplish the procedure:

Note: Both the below plugins will require an Accessibility Service request. The user can enable it by heading over to Settings > Accessibility.

Download and Install Tasker App on your Android smartphone.
Download the AutoInput and AutoNotification Tasker Plugin.

Points to Ponder

After downloading the above apps, the user needs to grant some access to both of these apps.

Both the AutoInput and AutoNotification apps need Accessibility access. You can grant access to both the apps by heading to Settings > Accessibility.
After installing the Tasker app, grant the user access and display over other apps access by heading to Usage Access.
Grant storage, microphone, and body sensors access permission.

Steps to enable Pixel 4 Motion Gestures

Follow the steps carefully to control music and send a WhatsApp message without touching the smartphone.

Download or Import the Tasker project over the device.
It will prompt to get certain permissions, tap Yes. Follow, the on-screen instructions.
After successful import to the profile, head over to the profile section to make sure that profiles are free of any exclamation mark. (Note: If any exclamation mark occurs, then recheck the permissions as some might be missing.)

Accessing Pixel 4 Motion Gestures

Now you can watch the video to learn to operate both of the features.

Controlling Music:

Users can easily control the music from Google Play Music, Spotify, and the Pocket Cast app.
Open any of these apps and hold your hand against the front sensors to pause music, wave from the right or left to play the next or previous song.

Send WhatsApp Message:

Open WhatsApp and head over to the chat screen.
Now, perform a swipe to initiate a voice chat popup and then automatically send the message.

It is quite an amazing feature to try on Android devices. It can make your device look superficial with the Tasker app. The process is a bit complicated, but we hope our guide would have helped you to enable the Motion Gestures on Android smartphones.