Bug 505764 - Allow shorter/faster physical finger movements for activating gestures
Summary: Allow shorter/faster physical finger movements for activating gestures
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: kwin
Classification: Plasma
Component: Gestures (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.3.5
Platform: Arch Linux Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KWin default assignee
URL:
Keywords: usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-06-19 07:50 UTC by Riccardo Robecchi
Modified: 2025-12-03 19:55 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

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Description Riccardo Robecchi 2025-06-19 07:50:45 UTC
SUMMARY
Four-finger gestures to activate Overview and Desktop Grid require a lot of movement in order to be detected and for the effect to be shown. While this allows the animation to track the movement which is a benefit for eye candy, this also means that a quick and short movement won't be detected and the effect won't be triggered or, worse still, it will show the start of the animation without actually doing anything, which will look and feel completely broken. In other words, usability is lowered. Detecting a short four-finger gesture (up or down) and activating the corresponding effect with a smooth, automatic animation that does not follow the progress of the fingers' movement should be possible.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Do a short movement upwards with four fingers on a touchpad

OBSERVED RESULT
Nothing happens, or just the start of the animation will be displayed and it will look and feel broken.

EXPECTED RESULT
The animation plays out without the need to move the fingers across the whole touchpad.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Endeavour OS (Arch Linux)
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 Sury Aya 2025-12-03 19:55:47 UTC
+1. Switched to KDE recently and the four finger swipe in particular feels really janky because of this. I really don't think there's much risk of triggering this effect accidentally (given that it uses four fingers), the trigger should be almost instantaneous.