App Review: Fingerprint Gestures adds additional functionality to your fingerprint sensor

Almost every handset today is coming with a fingerprint sensor. Apart from securing and unlocking, some vendors have gone beyond and baked additional functionality to fingerprint sensors. Recently Google announced the new Pixel and Pixel XL which arrived with a fingerprint swipe gesture to toggle the notification panel. Owning a Nexus 6P, I was hoping that this feature would arrive with the new Nougat update, but then I found it was limited to the Pixel handset. The good news is, a bunch of third party apps have started appearing on the Play Store which let you add similar fingerprint gestures to your smartphone, in my case the Nexus 6P. You don’t need root access or any other complicated procedures either to make it work.  One of these apps that I’ve been using for a couple of weeks is Fingerprint Gestures developed by SuperThomasLab. Once you install the app and grant all permissions, you can assign different gestures a function notification shade or turn on the flashlight. You can assign a single tap, double tap or a fast tap (swipe) to any navigation button, toggling the notifications panel, opening quick settings, media controls, opening an app, and more. If you have Android 7.0 installed then you can also toggle split screen mode. Having root access lets you perform additional actions like scrolling through apps and activating sleep mode. The app requires Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and of course a fingerprint scanner. I managed to try it on my Nexus 6P and a Nexus 5X. It didn’t work on the Redmi Note 3 or any other smartphone having the fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button. It’s fairly consistent and works pretty well although it does need time to getting used to. You can download the Fingerprint Gestures app from the Play Store over here.