A new addition to Android N has revealed the potential for Launcher Shortcuts, which will add 3D touch style timesavers to the home screen.
3D Touch has been punted by Apple as the biggest addition to iOS in years, and one of the most prominent uses of the technology is to quickly navigate through apps from the iOS home screen. Now, recently discovered in an Android N developer preview, Launcher Shortcuts may soon do the same thing on Google’s mobile OS.
Android Launcher Shortcuts will add a similar contextual menu on app icons on the mobile OS; swiping down (as opposed to a hard press) will show a number of quick items to navigate to.
Read: Android N preview reveals potential new “˜VR Mode‘
For Android phones with 3D Touch displays, a forceful press will instead reveal a contextual menu detailing in-app notifications.
As no Android app yet has the ability to use Android N’s new feature set, the Phandroid team have developed a quick video displaying how an Android app might make use of the feature once Google’s newest update to its mobile OS is released into the wild.
The addition of Launcher Shortcuts likely precipitates the arrival of full-fledged 3D touch support on Android, which could be announced at Google I/O.
In the Android N developer preview notes, Google suggests that Launcher Shortcuts could be used to direct users to specific map locations, media controls or game save files.
Launcher Shortcuts isn’t the only interesting addition to home screen apps on Android recently; BlackBerry recently introduced the ability to swipe up to activate an assigned widget on their newest flagship, the Priv.
Read: BlackBerry Priv Review: Crossing the Rubicon
You can see the Phandroid team demonstrating uses for shortcuts below:
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Source: Phandroid
