The HTC U 11 will come with an app to show you how to squeeze it

Someone's got an itchy trigger finger at HTC, because a companion Edge Sense app for the HTC U 11 briefly appeared on the Google Play app store, before getting pulled again. It's designed to walk users through what could be this phone's most distinctive feature.

Based on a variety of leaks we've seen up until this point, we're expecting Edge Sense (or maybe Sense Touch) to introduce a new way of interacting with your phone: squeezing and scrolling the sides of your handset to navigate around. It's even teased on HTC's official press event invite.

Before the app disappeared from view Android Police managed to grab some screenshots. It looks like it will take you through the process of testing your squeeze strength, then show off some of the ways you can use this new input method: taking photos, sending messages, launching Google Assistant, and so on.

Squeeze frame action

A pressure-sensitive frame would help HTC stand out in what's already a very competitive market as far as 2017 phone launches go. There's the added bonus of being able to interact with your phone without obscuring the screen, though we'll have to wait to test the phone to see exactly how well it works.

What we can't see in any of these screenshots are the Edge Sense options, so it's not clear how you'll be able to configure it or what else it can do - presumably you can slide as well as squeeze to navigate menus, adjust the volume and so on, but that's to be confirmed.

We're expecting to see a 5.5-inch, 1440 x 2560 display when the phone is finally unveiled on Tuesday, as well as a Snapdragon 835 chipset and as much as 6GB of RAM powering everything under the hood. We've collected all the most recent rumors for you here.