Samsung has an idea that could bring the biggest feature of the iPhone 6S to its future smartphones

Samsung may be brainstorming ways to make it so that a Galaxy phone or tablet can detect how hard you're pressing down on its screen in addition to sensing whether you're tapping or swiping.

That's according to a new patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Monday, which details an idea that sounds similar to the 3D Touch feature Apple introduced with the iPhone 6S.

The document explains that a touchscreen, such as those which we currently use on smartphones and tablets, may be prompted to output a certain image or character depending on how much pressure is applied to the screen.

Here's how Samsung describes it in its application:

Specifically, the patent focuses on how this type of technology could make it easier to type on touchscreens. Touch keyboards are somewhat limited since a smartphone's screen can only display a certain amount of characters.

A system like this could make it easier to access different characters without having to display them all on screen. Pressing and holding a specific key, for instance, could trigger a certain function on the keyboard such as shift.

Samsung identifies this limitation with touchscreen keyboards as background for its idea relating to pressure sensitive screen technology:

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