Even before the Pixel 4’s big launch, we already heard about Motion Sense feature will work in 38 countries and maybe 9 apps at launch. Supported apps are mostly streaming apps (Amazon Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music) but we’re expecting more will be added to the list. We then mentioned Motion Sense API will not be available (yet) for 3rd party developers. A few days later, we shared the Pixel 4 Motion Sense can finally be enabled in your country with some instructions.
Pixel 4 comes with the Soli radar. Early demos showed precise and smooth hand gesture detection. Unfortunately, it’s not the case in actual use. Skip track gesture doesn’t work on some apps. At the moment, it only works with 23 media apps. The basic gestures work though like reach to wake the phone, swipe in any direction to mute timers/alarms/incoming calls/, and flick left/right to skip tracks.
It seems Motion Sense is limited to a few apps. Two games can take advantage of the feature now–Headed South and Pokemon Wave Hello. Google has said Motion Sense API is not open for 3rd-party devs but an XDA dev modified the Motion Sense Bridge app to allow gestures. Root access may be required so Google’s signature protection will be disabled.
You may need the ‘OsloBridger’ companion app so you can control the broadcast intents and adjust granularity, sensitivity, and distance of supported gestures. Remapping the gestures is definitely a possibility. You may need some tweaking and you have to disable the original gestures under Settings> System > Motion Sense. This will let you adjust or do whatever to the Pixel 4’s Motion Sense gestures.
