Google brought back a familiar piece of Android history on its new Googlebook laptops. The F1, F2 and F3 keys now carry the classic triangle, circle and square navigation symbols once widely seen on Android smartphones. The physical keys serve as Back, Home and app overview controls, respectively.
The F1 key, marked with the triangle icon, works as the Back button and takes users to the previous screen. F2 carries the circle symbol and functions as Home by minimising open applications and returning users to the desktop. F3, marked with the square icon, opens an overview of running apps.
The arrangement effectively moves Android’s traditional navigation system from the smartphone display to a physical laptop keyboard. The three symbols date back to Android 5.0 Lollipop, when the Back, Home, and Recent Apps buttons formed the standard navigation system on Android devices. Google later moved towards gesture-based navigation, although three-button navigation remains available as an alternative on current Android versions. Google integrated them directly into the keyboard. This makes the controls accessible regardless of which application is open.
The move addresses a practical challenge for Googlebook. Android applications can behave differently when used on a laptop because many were originally designed for touchscreens and mobile interfaces.
A dedicated Back key can provide a predictable way to navigate such applications. The Home and app overview keys also offer system-level controls that do not depend on individual app interfaces.
Google’s official documentation lists several other keyboard shortcuts for Googlebook, including shortcuts for returning to the Home screen, going back, viewing open apps and switching between recent applications.
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