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Samsung introduced a useful feature to their smartphones just to cripple it one year later.

In 2015, Samsung introduced camera quick launch to their Galaxy S6, where the camera could be accessed by double-pressing the home button. Before that, the double press accessed the far less useful S Voice.

A year later, with their Android 6.0 update and the phones that had Android 6.0 pre-installed (starting with the Galaxy S7), they ruined it with a useless "Camera has been opened via quick launch" pop-up that would appear if the camera app detects that the phone is in the pocket. This was detected using the front and rear proximity sensors.

If this useless pop-up was closed with the "back" key or by tapping the background behind the pop-up or by doing nothing for five seconds, the camera application would close itself. It would only stay open if the user tapped the tiny little "OK" button that could easily be missed in a crucial moment.

This made it impossible to blindly launch the camera while the phone is still inside the pocket, defeating one of the greatest benefits of the feature. And closing that pop-up takes time that could lead to a moment being missed by the camera.

Additionally, Samsung introduced a bug in Android 6.0 where launching the camera within seconds of going into stand-by mode would cause it to exit automatically after a few seconds.

Screenshot credits: https://forums.androidcentral.com/t...

Comments
  • 2
    now you can launch it by double clicking power button on samsung devices without any popup.
  • 1
    @joewilliams007 Thankfully Samsung realized what kind of idiotic idea this quick launch pop-up is. It outright defeats the benefit of quick launch.
  • 1
    @joewilliams007 isn't that standard for any android device?
  • 0
    @electrineer I think stock Android got camera quick launch in Android 6.0 or 7.0, but Samsung had a proprietary implementation of it.
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