Google is trying to keep Android as consistent as possible these days, and apparently that includes keeping its new Android 10 gesture navigation system front and centre. 

According to 9to5Google, other manufacturers (OEMs) now have to agree to supress their own navigation systems within the setup.

Google's contract with phone makers when they sign up to use Google Mobile Services (GMS) asks them to effectively bury their own systems in the settings app and that they can't be part of the initial setup of the device or be the default.

That will effectively kill such navigation elements on third-party phones - what's the point of creating and maintaining these elements if users can't access them? Of course, that's no bad thing if it means that Android phones leave their oft-confusing mix of back and app switching buttons behind. 

We already knew that device manufacturers would have to include Google's gesture navigation in implementations of Android 10 as well as the traditional three button setup as options for users, but manufacturers could also include their own systems. 

New Android 10 devices also bin the iPhone X-like navigation bar at the bottom of the screen seen in Android Pie - although Google's documentation says that phones that had it previously can keep it. We know that OnePlus has dumped it in its Android 10-based version of OxygenOS.