Image credit – Android Police
One of the abilities of Apple’s 3D Touch feature is that users will be able to launch apps with specific commands without having to launch the app first, then finding what they want. For example you could launch a messaging app and go straight to sending a new message, or launching the camera app into video mode directly.
Now it seems that WhatsApp could be gaining a similar feature too, except on Android. As noted by Android Police, it looks like WhatsApp has added app launcher shortcuts in the latest beta of the app. Basically instead of launching the app, users now have the option to launch into specific parts of the app, like the camera, going directly to a starred message/conversation, or creating a new message.
However as Android Police points out, it is unclear why it chooses to display starred chats instead of pinned chats or even recent chats. They also point out the fact that WhatsApp on Android already has quite a few widgets of its own that already offer shortcuts to users, so we’re not sure how much of a difference these changes will make.
That being said, this is still a beta which means that these features are being tested out and could change upon its final release, but what do you guys think of it so far?