The changes that Android has received in the latest versions have gone beyond aesthetics and its functions have been renewed to allow more possibilities to users. Among everything we have received is the one known as Android 3D Touch . This system, which was the inspiration for what Apple introduced in its iPhone, has often gone unnoticed but offers interesting possibilities for the user.
This tool that was introduced by Google in the first place for the Google Pixel has been expanding its possibilities so that more smartphones can take advantage of it and with Android Q the doors were opened for manufacturers to take advantage of it in their own way, even with other layers of customization run above Android.
What is Android 3D Touch and how does it work?
The system known as 3D Touch of the most widespread operating system works based on software , which allows it to do in a similar way to what Apple achieved through hardware. To know it, we must mention its operation, which is key to knowing what we can do and that is that it is a system that allows the screen with a longer and / or prolonged press to offer us options.
Its main operation is for now in Android 11 in the system applications from the launcher that we have on our smartphone. It recognizes pressure exerted through software or relies on time to show us options that would otherwise take us intermediate steps. For this reason, it is a tool that offers shortcuts for Android and beyond that it falls short of what we see in Apple.
Inspired by the iPhone but with differences
The idea that Google drank for Android to have that 3D Touch mode was acquired with the intention of competing with Apple in all its terminals without the need for specific software, although this in turn led it to run into limitations for having developed minus that option and leave it halfway. Meanwhile Apple has continued working on it and has made it possible for its screen to recognize keystrokes in a more advanced way with the pressure-based 3D Touch system , achieving surprising results.
Among all that it allows, of course, the possibility of making quick options in the icons appeared as in Android, but it was also integrated into the gallery with the Live Photos, a multitude of tools even in the system widgets and in the control center . A function that undoubtedly gained prominence with the disappearance of the home button, while in Android the gestures were the ones that won the possibilities.
However, that evolution in which Apple seemed to gain an advantage over Android was buried forever with the arrival of the iPhone 11, since 3D Touch technology was eliminated from its terminals. This was not all, because with iOS 13 the death of the 3D Touch also occurred through hardware in the other iPhones, being in any case limited to a version based on pure Google-style software.
How to use it on Android phones
To take advantage of this useful tool on Android mobiles, it is only necessary to have a version higher than Android Q and go to the home screen to make a constant and long press on one of the icons. This will show us a series of quick actions that vary depending on the application, allowing us to perform many options that we will know in depth later.
Does it work on all mobiles?
Unlike other possibilities that we have seen in Android, there is no exclusivity on this function and all manufacturers can implement it. This allows us to use the 3D Touch system on Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, OPPO terminals and any Android manufacturer regardless of the layer of customization with which it integrates. This function can even be used in the launchers that we find in Google Play since it does not require anything more than programming through software.
In the images we can see that the integration of the shortcut system in Android runs with a different appearance depending on the layer, but nevertheless the options shown are the same in all Android terminals.
Everything we can do with 3D Touch on Android
These functions that Android integrates and possibly you had never stopped to use offer us many quick aspects and we are going to show you everything we can do. For this we are going to know the main functions of the apps that come with Android terminals, but these are extended by other popular apps.
- Phone: Call a recently used contact and add a new contact.
- Messages: Reply to a recent message.
- Google Play: Access my applications.
- Chrome: Incognito tab and new tab.
- Camera: Record a video and take a selfie.
- WhatsApp: Use the camera and open a recent conversation.
Quick actions are not only present on the home screen, but can also be used in the Android app drawer. In all of them we can touch on the “i” that will take us to the information of the app.
Convert a shortcut to a shortcut
One of the most interesting functions of this Android 3D Touch system is an advanced trick with which we can turn the quick actions into a direct icon to that function. With this we manage to have at the touch of a finger a conversion that we usually use in WhatsApp, a quick access to a camera function or everything that we need and is possible. You just have to drag the access to the desired part of the home screen and enjoy it.
And what we can’t do
Although almost all the apps developed by Google integrate shortcuts to facilitate our tasks and many important developers have also integrated the Android 3D Touch shortcut system , there are still those who have not worked on it. This leads us to find very popular social networks, apps or games that cannot or do not want to add these functions and therefore force us to enter the app. In these cases we can only use the information of the app as in all the others or pause it through the mode without distractions, something that depends on Android and not on the developer.
Something like this also happens with widgets, where Android, unlike iOS, has not integrated the 3D Touch system into its smartphones and we can do nothing more than delete the widget when we hold it down. We will see if with future versions these options change and we get surprises.
