Android’s forgotten shortcut superpowers
These out-of-sight Android shortcuts could make you meaningfully extra environment friendly — should you (a) determine easy methods to faucet into their full potential and (b) bear in mind to make use of ’em.
LoveYouAll / JR Raphael
I certain do love me a great time-saver. And generally, the perfect time-savers of all are those which are proper underneath the floor of our favourite apps and companies, simply ready to be seen — or possibly remembered.
I’ll admit it: Even as somebody who makes use of and thinks about Android nearly always, as a part of each my life and my job, I often discover myself stunned by how usually I stumble onto one thing that I knew about sooner or later however way back forgot to maintain utilizing. It occurred to me with among the Android Assistant tips we talked a couple of couple months in the past, and it is occurred to me but once more now with a robust shortcut system constructed proper into Android and supported by oodles o’ totally different apps.
The system known as, fairly fittingly, App Shortcuts. It’s been round since 2016’s Android 7.1 Nougat launch, and it was initially framed as a response to Apple’s once-buzzworthy 3D Touch characteristic on the iPhone.
And that, as I wrote on the time, is the true Achilles’ heel of Android’s App Shortcuts: The system tries too exhausting to emulate Apple as a substitute of specializing in what is smart for Android and would supply the absolute best expertise in our most well-liked surroundings. Heck, wanting again at what I stated concerning the shortcuts five-plus years in the past appears nearly eerily prophetic and like a too-perfect prologue to what we’re speaking about right this moment:
Their presence is totally hidden, with no visible cues in any way; you’d must occur to long-press an icon to seek out them, and even then, you won’t totally grasp what occurred or why these objects appeared. Users who know concerning the choices are prone to neglect they exist and underutilize them, too, as usually occurs with non-obvious instructions in a consumer interface. Out of sight, out of thoughts — it is a very actual phenomenon.
And right here we’re, all these years later, speaking about how so many people neglect to make the most of these time-saving potentialities. The particularly tough factor about Android’s App Shortcuts is that even should you do keep in mind that they exist generally, you by no means know which apps take full benefit of the system and which do not — or when any given app is up to date with a richer set of shortcut choices — except you simply haphazardly press icons each few weeks to see what, if something, occurs.
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When you do press the precise icons, although, you are certain to be delighted by the buried treasures you unearth. And with a teensy little bit of tinkering, you can also make a few of ’em much more helpful.
So sufficient of my blathering: It’s time to find — or maybe rediscover — the productivity-boosting potential of Android’s App Shortcuts.
The ins and outs of Android App Shortcuts
First, let’s again up for a fast primer on what precisely App Shortcuts are and how one can put ’em to make use of: App Shortcuts are principally simply direct hyperlinks to particular features inside apps in your telephone — methods you will get to particular person actions or areas inside an app with out having to undergo the standard means of opening it up, plopping round by means of its menus, and tapping a number of instructions to get the place you need to go.
See?
JR
You can entry App Shortcuts by urgent and holding your finger down on an app’s icon — both on your private home display screen or in your app drawer — for a couple of second. And here is the place the true time-saving potential comes into play: You can even place any of the shortcuts that pop up immediately onto your private home display screen for even simpler one-tap entry. Just press and maintain the shortcut you need whenever you see it come up, then drag it into an open area in your house display screen and let go.
So the place would possibly this be useful? Well, in loads of locations, you goofy ol’ goat. Let’s discuss some specifics.
16 particular Android App Shortcuts value embracing
I went by means of a bunch of various productivity-oriented apps to determine among the most broadly helpful (and but woefully underutilized) App Shortcut actions. Here are 16 wonderful choices to floor after which prepare your self to make use of by yourself Android machine:
This checklist might go on kind of indefinitely, relying on what particular Android apps you employ, however you get the thought. And all of that, my dearie, continues to be simply the beginning.
Advanced Android App Shortcut motion
For as helpful as they’re, Android’s App Shortcuts might be made much more highly effective with the assistance of an app I’ve talked about in different contexts earlier than. It’s just a little somethin’ referred to as Sesame, and it will probably do quite a lot of various things — however particular to our dialogue right this moment, it allows you to take management of an app’s shortcut checklist to each develop it and condense it in some fairly efficient methods.
To expertise Sesame’s full profit, you will want to make use of it along side a customized Android launcher designed to take full benefit of what it will probably do. It works natively with many of the launchers I are inclined to suggest — together with my present private favourite, Niagara, in addition to the long-standing Android fan favourite Nova.
So what precisely does Sesame do? Well, lemme let you know, you beautiful little gecko: With the precise form of launcher setup, you can open up Sesame and choose precisely what shortcuts seem everytime you long-press totally different apps in your house display screen surroundings.
With Google Calendar, as an illustration, along with the usual new occasion and new reminder shortcuts we talked a couple of second in the past, you may have the App Shortcuts system present your complete subsequent month’s value of occasions from any of your linked calendars — work, private, salami-eating schedule, you identify it. And if you would like any of these shortcuts to be prioritized and completely positioned on the high of the checklist, you may merely pin ’em from proper inside that very same enhancing software.
JR
And when you do — nicely, by golly, wouldya have a look at that?
JR
Other apps have totally different choices. In Messages, as an illustration, you may choose sure high-profile contacts and preserve shortcuts to their conversations pinned on the high of the App Shortcuts checklist. In Gmail, you may pin one-tap entry to particular labels into the app’s long-press menu. In the Google app, you can also make shortcuts for figuring out a music on demand and even for pulling up a digital bubble degree software. And in Drive, you may pin shortcuts to particular cloud storage folders for straightforward ongoing entry.
JR
My favourite of all, although, needs to be Chrome, the place you may create a particular, set checklist of often accessed web sites after which have these websites present up as one-tap choices everytime you press and maintain the app’s icon — form of like a easy, exceptionally accessible private begin web page, solely you do not even must open something to get to it.
Oh, and simply with like Android’s normal built-in App Shortcuts, any of the shortcuts you create with Sesame can be dragged onto your private home display screen for much more direct entry. (The app prices $3.50 to make use of after a free two-week trial, by the by. Given all the valuable seconds it’s going to prevent, I’d say it is value each penny of that value — and them some.)
Pretty nifty, proper? Android’s App Shortcuts system definitely has some conceptual issues, and it is one more unlucky instance of Android sliding again into previous unhealthy habits and placing invaluable choices out of sight and out of thoughts. We might discuss for hours concerning the methods Google might repair this (and, um, we did — a number of years in the past). But it’s miles extra productive to remind ourselves about what’s hidden after which prepare ourselves to begin profiting from it.
And now, the ability is in your arms. Embrace it correctly — and this time, do not forget to maintain utilizing it.
Get much more superior shortcut information with my new Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll be taught tons of time-saving tips in your telephone!