Amazon Video, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive for iOS update with 3D Touch support
Context & Ripple Effects
Days after Google shipped 3D Touch in its Chrome beta via TestFlight, three more heavyweight iOS apps — Amazon Video, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive — are adding support for the iPhone 6s pressure gesture, signaling that adoption has moved from early experiments to mainstream checklist item.
Microsoft in particular has been systematically extending OneDrive across Apple platforms, from the Apple Watch update earlier in 2015 to this week's quick actions, making fast follow on each new Apple hardware capability part of its iOS playbook.
First-order effects
- iPhone 6s owners of all three apps can now press app icons for shortcut menus and use peek-and-pop inside content, cutting the number of taps to reach downloads, recent files, and videos.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's momentum continues into its productivity suite, where Office for iOS adds its own 3D Touch quick actions alongside Apple Pencil ink — rivals now race to match each other's depth of iOS integration rather than just presence.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, deep support for new iPhone hardware features within weeks of launch becomes table stakes among top-tier cloud storage and media apps, shifting competition toward whoever integrates fastest rather than who ships on the platform at all.
The trend: Major third-party iOS developers are converging on rapid adoption of each new Apple hardware input as a competitive baseline, with 3D Touch being the current test case.