Long taps [LWN.net]

Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 0:26 UTC (Wed) by corbet (editor, #1)
In reply to: Xoom and the Android tablet experience by neilbrown
Parent article: Xoom and the Android tablet experience

Think of a long tap (holding your finger in the same place for about a second, essentially) as being like a click with the right mouse button. Touchpads can't (yet) tell fingers apart, so the interface uses a long tap as a way to get a different response out of the element you've put your finger on.

For example, on Android phones, tapping the "home" button returns to the home screen. A long tap on that button will, instead, put up a list of running applications and let you choose one to switch to.

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Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 1:22 UTC (Wed) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

In my experience, this isn't the exact requirement for making it into the list. Apps which get launched from other apps don't get inserted into the list (e.g., Youtube launched from the browser). It seems to only be applications launched from the home screen/application drawer. Granted, I'm now using LauncherPro, but I remember this being the case with the HTC default as well.

Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 6:16 UTC (Wed) by KSteffensen (subscriber, #68295) [Link]

Youtube is not an app, it's content being shown in the browser.

Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 11:09 UTC (Wed) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

I actually have a YouTube application which, AFAICT using a task killer, is launched for YouTube videos (even from the browser). Same with other webvideo and the generic "Streaming Multimedia" application I have.

My biggest gripe is that you can't background it to allow it to buffer the whole video. Seeking is also very flaky (often just tossing away all of the cache and then quitting). This is the primary reason I refuse to use flash on my main machines: mplayer just does so much better at everything than flash when it comes to video.

Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 14:00 UTC (Wed) by nevyn (subscriber, #33129) [Link]

I wouldn't surprise me if this was the main reason they are moving away from the "long press" functionality. I only found out about the long press on home feature by accident, after having my phone for 6 months or so (and then it must have taken me 5-10 minutes to find out what I did to get it).

It's also kind of slow (I'd guess you have to hold the press for 2 seconds), and out of the way enough, that I rarely use it.

And I didn't know about the "long press for numbers" functionality, until I read this review.

Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 15:14 UTC (Wed) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link]

>And I didn't know about the "long press for numbers" functionality, until I read this review.

Eh? Does your on-screen keyboard not show you the shifted version of each button in a lighter colour above the main button? Mine has '1' above 'Q', '!' above 'A', '_' above 'Z', etc. Trying to type on the thing would be excruciating without those.

I think this is Froyo (but maybe the keyboard is an application independent of the OS version?).

Long taps

Posted Apr 20, 2011 21:36 UTC (Wed) by edgewood (subscriber, #1123) [Link]

I discovered the "long press on home" by accident after a month or two of owning an Android phone, by being distracted into not raising my finger quickly enough to complete a regular press.

Being an analytical person, I then wondered what long taps on other buttons would do, and discovered the "long press on search to bring up voice search".

But I could see other people never discovering the difference that a long tap can make.