Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Drops Force Touch Gesture in watchOS 7

I noticeably missed Force Touch on the iPhone when it went away (admittedly, almost entirely for opening the camera from the lock screen--it just felt much better), but I will admit I have never once used it on my Series 4. Intellectually I know it exists, but it just didn't "occur" to me that it was there.

I'm not a Watch "power user", but then the vast majority of people probably aren't, so I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if almost nobody used it. If there's a more discoverable, non-hardware solution for the same tasks, that seems preferable in the long run.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stvoreku
I actually like the idea.

Don’t get me wrong, i really enjoyed the 3D Touch. But at the same time, i would Trade it for battery life/thinner design anytime. The 3D Touch is simply not useful enough to take so much space inside the device. The series 4 Introduced a much bigger screen, which allows for ditching the 3D Touch and maintaining great UI. It’s a logical move.
 
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: Kram Sacul, xpxp2002 and MrMacintoshIII
2013.1 said:
Force Touch had to have a slow learning curve due to its lack of hint to a function. So some useful features never were revealed to a lot of users.
Click to expand...

Similarly how 3D Touch was never marketed for the iPhone, which was just confusing to the user. Likely the same maneuver we’re seeing here.
 
Hopefully they add the option to keep holding to get a long press gesture Like the iPhone 11.
The problem is the interface is slowing down. I used to do things so much faster with a home button and 3D Touch. Now it takes longer. They are moving this slower "feature" to the watch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xpxp2002 and NetMage
I’m definitely fine with taking this out (and I’m a power user and use force touch on my Series 5 like 50 times a day) as long as it’s to improve battery life.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: xpxp2002
What the hell... Is this is a joke? This is a core way to interact with watchOS and I use it pretty much every single time

So how am I supposed to access menus now? How am I supposed to change dictation language when replying? How am I supposed to change views on apps? Are we supposed to clear notifications one by one now? Are we supposed to only be able to change watchfaces on the phone app? Will it at least be possible to long press somewhere on screen or have these options accessible in the UI now? How much space is this going to take away from screen real estate for apps (which isn't much to being with?)

I've been a Watch owner since it was released and wear it in my wrist every single day since then and I do not see how this can be removed without impacting functionality. One of the biggest reasons for keeping my iPhone 7 is because it allows you to force touch. It's incredibly useful there, and absolutely needed on the Watch.

"Not enough users are aware of it"? So are we considering the idea that most Apple Watch users only use it to check the time? I find that extremely odd and if that is the truth why don't these people just get a simpler and cheaper watch that can simply tell them the time?

Saying that this bothers me is an understatement and honestly for the first time I really wouldn't like Apple to prove me wrong.

Go ahead and remove this from our MacBook touchpad while you're at it (irony)
 
  • Like
Reactions: wazgilbert, Shirasaki, TheSkywalker77 and 7 others
I've worn an Apple Watch (well, two of them) daily since they were released, and I had no idea most of these gestures existed. The one I'm most familiar with is changing watch faces, which happens all the time by accident and I keep needing to set back to the face I like. I'm not surprised they're replacing this with something discoverable instead.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: insomniac86
As others have said, this is core to the Watch UI, and really useful in order to display full content on such a tiny display. Now we’ll have 20px buttons at the bottom of the screen and endless submenus.

This is not the Apple way of doing things, removing something fundamental to the watch concept just to brag about battery life or thickness.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wazgilbert, Kram Sacul and Luis Glez
It used to drive me crazy when I was busy and had a lot of notifications queued up. I’d swipe to dismiss each individually. The day I discovered that you could force touch, I was amazed that I could pick to clear all. I hope they add a way to dismiss all notifications easily.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheDailyApple, NetMage and Altcountryman
nickgovier said:
I always forget that this exists. I think any UI that is invisible (multi finger swipes, force touch etc) is probably never going to be discovered by most users.
Click to expand...
You should have a word with Apple, then. Go to the Music app on Catalina. Show a playlist:
1. Where's the like button for a track? Hidden.
2. Where's the play button for that track? Hidden.
3. Where's the button to show the menu for that track? Hidden.

But how do I see these three things? Ah, I hover my mouse over the track so that:
1. The heart is displayed to the left of the track artwork.
2. The play button is displayed on top of the track artwork.
3. The menu button replaces the track length (thus hiding some information whilst displaying some hidden information).

People know about the multi-finger swipes on a trackpad in macOS - and now iPadOS - because Apple tells us about them. If Apple don't tell people about Force Touch on the Watch, then that's why people aren't fully aware that it's there. This is Apple's fault, not that of the developers.
[automerge]1592912681[/automerge]
jwolf6589 said:
I may not upgrade to Watch OS 7 because of this.
Click to expand...
Same here.
[automerge]1592912803[/automerge]
I wonder if this bonkers idea is because they want Touch ID in the Watch?
 
  • Like
Reactions: nickgovier, insomniac86 and jhfenton
I thought I’d miss this but I just installed the beta and it’s fine. Long-press watch faces to edit them, and there’s a Clear All button at the top of my notifications list. So far, so fine.
harriska2 said:
Use it many, many times a day to quickly look at weather info. It switches between visual cloud/rain/sun, temp, and % chance of rain.
Click to expand...
Just a tap does that. Just tested in the beta so can confirm that’s how it works now, but to be honest I thought that was how it always worked.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: harriska2 and NetMage
I never really noticed much of a difference in my behavior between a force touch and a long press.
 
  • Love
Reactions: mazz0
Well, this confirms what I’ve already been thinking, my next “smart” watch will probably come from Garmin. Which opens the door to my next phone not being an iPhone.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: alexhardaker
Never really used Force Touch on my phone, but I did find it pretty useful on the watch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back