The line between iOS and Android have significantly blurred in the past few years with gesture navigation, digital well-being and more features now common across the two platform. If a report by 9to5Google is to be believed, the line is going to become even blurrier with the introduction of Android’s version of 3D Touch, called “Deep Press”.
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The feature was discovered while testing the latest developer build of Android Q. Information present in documentation related to “MotionEvent” function of Android Q have revealed there will be something called “Deep Press” in the upcoming Android OS.
The documentation states that presently, users intentionally press harder on the screen when long-pressing. Deep Press should be “used to accelerate the long press behaviour.” Essentially, deep press will be a feature where an action can be triggered when the user presses down on the display harder than usual.
The feature sounds quite familiar to Force Touch or 3D Touch, a pressure-sensitive navigation feature which debuted in the first Apple Watch in 2014. \
However, just because there’s support for Deep Press in Android Q doesn’t mean it can be used. It needs specialised hardware for it to work. However, if Android Q does support it, OEMs can be encourage to install components to enable the feature.
The Deep Press feature will possibly debut with Google Pixel 4 which is expected to launch in October, a few months after Android Q rolls out to the masses.