eBay’s app now supports Android Nougat’s app shortcuts which means if you use the Android app then you now have a much easier way to get to certain parts of it. There seems to be four app shortcuts in total that you can access if you have the app icon on your homescreen, and these include a shortcut for “following,” a shortcut to the search page, and shortcuts for items you’re either watching or selling. While it isn’t particularly hard to get to these portions of the app when you open the app normally, the idea is that the shortcuts to these things specifically makes it quicker and easier, thus saving you a little bit of time in the process.
Since the APP Shortcut API is only supporting Android Nougat software, your device will have to be running on Android 7.0 or higher to make use of this feature, although the app has already been updated to include it so if you do use a Nougat device you should see it immediately if you long press on the icon. If you’re usually a buyer when it comes to eBay, then the app shortcuts will make it much quicker to get in and check on items you’re interested in but have been waiting to place a bid on. If you’re like tons of eBay users out there you may wait until the last couple of minutes to start placing bids in hopes that yours will be the very last one, and this should definitely help with getting to these items in the final moments before the auction ends.
While the app shortcuts are definitely a nice touch for those that use devices with Android 7.0 Nougat or above, there are some things included in the most recent version of the eBay app that are geared towards all users, although these aren’t new features and are rather just bug fixes and improvements. That said, fixes are still important. eBay states that this update includes fixes for notifications opening to an older message or item, as well as a fix for the app restarting if you placed it in the background instead of keeping it as your currently open app.