I want the Moto X double twist camera shortcut to come back… for Google Lens

Abner Li | Apr 19 2024 - 2:00 pm PT

My technological “how often do you think about the Roman Empire” is the double twist shortcut introduced with the Moto X that would launch the camera from anywhere, including when the screen is off.

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I’d much prefer it to double clicking the power button – which is on the small side if Google wants people to use it for Assistant/Gemini – on today’s Pixel phones. In 2013, that twist gesture felt so futuristic and a marquee example of phones getting smarter by having always-on sensor processing.

I will concede that clicking twice is probably slightly faster than two twists of your hands, but I think it would help prevent overloading the power button.

If you want a taste of it, the Pixel Camera has a double twist to “switch in and out of selfie mode,” thus proving its technical feasibility.

However, if Google won’t bring it back for the camera, what about making double twist the dedicated way to launch Google Lens?

Visual search is powerful — especially OCR (optical character recognition) for copying physical text in the real world — but something that isn’t second nature to people yet. Associating the double twist with Google Lens could be an iconic way to raise awareness about the AR tool ahead of the glasses future.

In this hypothetical scenario, you’d make it part of Android itself and available to every manufacturer. I can see the fun marketing campaign now. (As an aside, Circle to Search is seeing a shocking amount of advertising. There’s of course the Samsung marketing angle, but it’s pretty wild to me how this is the Android/Search feature being elevated.)

The gesture itself acts as an IRL marketing for Google Lens that will cause others to wonder what exactly you’re doing with your Android phone.