Stefan Mileschin

Turns out it was not that hard to do after all

A new feature for Google's Pixel line of Android phones includes the ability to "firmly press" on the screen "to get more help from your apps more quickly" and the Tame Apple Press claims that it has ripped off the idea from their favourite cargo cult.

To be fair, while the feature is the same as the iPhone's 3D Touch, which Apple stopped supporting in all of its 2019 iPhones, Google's version is entirely software based. 3D Touch, which enables different actions depending on how hard you press on the touchscreen. Apple fanboys liked the feature for some people because it gave faster access to the cursor mode on the iPhone's keyboard. Apple has seemingly abandoned it because the hardware to support it was too expensive.

Apparently it didn't think it could do the same thing with software, but then again, software is not Apple's strong suit at the moment. Google has figured out how to use machine learning algorithms to detect a firm press, something Apple had to use hardware for.

According to Google, long press currently works in a select set of apps and system user interfaces such as the app Launcher, Photos, and Drive. This update accelerates the press to bring up more options faster.

"We also plan to expand its applications to more first party apps in the near future."

https://fudzilla.com/news/50418-goog...using-software