Update 1/07/16: Android N has been officially named Android Nougat
We already caught the whiff of VR being integrated in Android N, but native support for pressure sensitive touch-screens definitely comes as a surprise. According to a report from The Verge, Google has confirmed the support for pressure sensitive displays for manufacturer’s who wish to implement the new feature.
Also Read: Android OEMs Not Interested in Apple’s 3D Touch?
Pressure sensitive touch, which became popular with iPhone 6s, adds another layer of user interaction with the software. If you haven’t experience it yet, you must know that accessing desired function in an app intuitively, simply by pressing hard on the display can be very gratifying.
Taking control of pressure sensitive touch from the start will avoid 3D-Touch-like confusion where OEMs waste time and money on custom APIs, and developers act all muddled up and reluctant to work with these individual tidbits lacking mass outreach.
Just a few weeks ago we were wondering about slow adoption of Apple’s 3D Touch on Android side of the table. Major manufacturers like Samsung and LG shunned it with their respective flagship launches at MWC this year. Pondering on the same subject, we chalked down iPhone to Android adoption cycle as follows:
This is how the adoption cycle goes:
- A feature debuts in Apple S series iPhone
- Samsung and other Android OEMs implement it in the next flagship
- There are no universal or standard APIs and thus no proper developer support
- It gets carved in stone when Android adopts it in a Nexus
Now Android baking in 3D Touch as early as this year itself marks an unprecedented change. It must also be taken into account, that Android N isn’t likely to gain significant market share at the same time next year. Even if Google integrates pressure sensitive touch in Android N, the feature won’t go mainstream on Android till late 2017.
