We have seen over the last few days some very credible rumours surrounding the new and also the missing features on the Google Pixel 4a (and Pixel 4a XL if it does indeed exist). The latest feature to be rumoured to be missing is Active Edge.
While Google has done very little with Active Edge and it has a mountain of potential to allow users to use it for things other than triggering Google Assistant but Google has never shown any willingness to expand its functionality. Even then there are third party apps that can add functionality to it.
Google’s functionality of Active Edge though is still incredibly useful and makes for an easy way to trigger Google Assistant which many people, including myself, use extensively. Unfortunately that will be no more with it being removed from the Pixel 4a in what is likely a cost-cutting exercise to meet a certain price point.
Can confirm that Active Edge is not available on @julio_lusson's Pixel 4a.
Not a huge loss especially since Google is adding a new double tap gesture that doesn't require special hardware: https://t.co/kFiL8qmzxA https://t.co/IA6qqLJnG9
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) May 18, 2020
As you can see above XDA’s Mishaal Rahman points out that Google have introduced the double tap the rear of the device gesture that would be used instead of the Active Edge. Of course we do not know if Google will actually include the double tap of the rear of the device in their mid-range Pixel 4a but you would expect that they would not remove one way to easily trigger their digital assistant without providing an alternative method.
Mishaal has provided a screenshot of the gesture settings in the leaked Pixel 4a and there is no longer a listing for Active Edge but there is also no mention of a double tap on the rear of the device. Where this leaves us is unclear but the leaked Pixel 4a is obviously running pre-release software so it could still be added in before release which we expect to happen.
The Google Pixel 4a hype train is certainly building up to its launch in just two weeks time and we are looking forwards to finding out all about it and checking it out. Let’s see what Google can do with an even cheaper phone than last year.
