Launcher shortcuts, which let you skip directly to a specific function on an app when you open it, first appeared in a recent Android N preview build, and now we’re getting a look at how the feature might look in action.
There are no apps that currently take advantage of these shortcuts, but Phandroid worked with Kevin Barry of Nova Launcher to simulate what they could do. In their demo, the shortcuts are only activated by gestures, like swiping down or long-pressing, but it could hint that the next version of Android will support pressure-sensitive displays in order to compete with the 3D Touch feature on Apple’s iPhone 6s models.
Since the phone in the video doesn’t have a pressure-sensitive screen, we’ll just have to use our imagination and pretend that the swipe gesture they used is actually a forceable press. Phandroid uses a simple app to quickly show the 5-day forecast from the Weather app, but the possibilities of what you could use the launcher shortcuts for seems pretty vast, especially with a pressure-sensitive display.
Hell, I think I could save seventeen or eighteen seconds a day if hard-pressing the Facebook icon took me directly to my “Most Recent” feed.
If you don’t want to wait for this feature, you can get the next best thing using System Wide Force Touch, an Xposed module for rooted devices that simulates Apple’s 3D Touch feature.
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