A closer look at Activator’s new Application Shortcuts feature

Activator 3D Touch Shortcuts

Earlier today, we reported that Ryan Petrich had updated his beta repo, and with it, the Activator beta for iOS 9. The update brought overall compatibility to iOS 9, but more interestingly, it brought about a new feature called Application Shortcuts.

In our previous post about the iOS 9 compatible Activator beta, we briefly touched on the new Application Shortcuts, but in this post, I’d like to dive in a little deeper to show you exactly what these puppies can do, and why they’re so cool—even for older pre-iPhone 6s devices.

In a nutshell, Application Shortcuts let you access the shortcuts that are normally only available to 3D Touch capable iPhones on the Home screen, merging them with Activator gestures. The result is a super-cool feature that will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the iOS 9-enabled Activator.

First of all, I need to briefly explain how 3D Touch works with compatible apps on the Home screen. On 3D Touch-enabled devices like the iPhone 6s, certain apps feature Home screen shortcuts that let you access specific parts of the app directly using a 3D Touch gesture. A 3D Touch gesture is performed by pressing on an app icon on the Home screen to reveal the 3D Touch shortcuts menu for the app in question.

For example, if you 3D Touch on the App Store app icon, you’ll see two options: Search and Redeem. Tapping Search will take you directly to the Search tab, and tapping Redeem will take you directly to the gift card redemption page. You can learn more about 3D Touch in my post here.

App Store 3D Touch

Now that we have that established, let’s talk about Activator’s new Application Shortcuts, and what it does. In a nutshell, it allows you to perform Activator gestures that tap into the 3D Touch shortcuts. For example, I could assign a triple press of the Home button to go directly to the Search tab inside the App Store app. I could also assign a tap and hold of the App Store icon itself to take me to the Search tab of the App Store.

Application Shortcuts Activator

Application Shortcuts basically allow you to link directly to specific portions of an app using any Activator gesture of your choice. In other words, this is a powerful new feature that’s certainly worth your attention.

Better yet, Application Shortcuts work on all iOS 9 devices, not just devices that feature 3D Touch. This means that the new Activator opens up these 3D Touch shortcuts to all jailbroken users, even if you don’t have a 3D touch capable device.

That’s powerful, and an exciting new chapter for one of the best jailbreak tools of all time. Be sure to watch our video demonstration above to see the Application Shortcuts in action. After you watch, drop us a line down below with your thoughts and opinions.