Apple Drops Force Touch Gesture in watchOS 7

[allenvanhellen]

This is terrible. Haptic Touch is not as good as 3D Touch. On a small screen like the watch you need feedback and firm touches.

Well this isn’t even a switch to Haptic Touch! You’ll have to go to Settings to change views in Calendar. Crazy!
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Looks like I’ll eventually upgrade my Series 2 to just a 5.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Possibly to make the next gen slimmer, but at the expense of usability. Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away (again).

Ah but they key thing here is that nobody has ever asketh for thinner Apple Watch or iPhone. Apple just thinks that’s what we want. And they’re wrong for the most part of it means removing things we love.

 

[cwwilson]

I’m a really big fan of Force Touch and am disappointed that it appears Apple is abandoning it. Feels like something that is essential on the Watch and I adore the FT Trackpads as well. It was already odd that they removed it from the phones but it wasn’t as widely used there... Don’t get me wrong though I liked having 3D Touch while it lasted, it was a shame to see it go.

Any particular reason why Apple is doing this?

 

[Rogifan]

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.

What hint does long press have?

Ah but they key thing here is that nobody has ever asketh for thinner Apple Watch or iPhone. Apple just thinks that’s what we want. And they’re wrong for the most part of it means removing things we love.

Maybe not iPhone but I’ve sure seen people wish the Apple Watch was less bulky.

 

[AussieStu]

Looks like I might be staying with the old WatchOS then and not upgrading my watch hardware.

 

[btrach144]

Why though? Force touch was helpful!

 

[justme1]

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.

I didn't even know it was there, and I've been using Apple Watch since S0

 

[satchmo]

FFS Apple, leave well enough alone. Who was complaining about this that you feel it necessary to remove.

It feels more of a need to be consistent in your guideline, rather than what makes sense for a device.

 

[scottlitch]

I liked it on the iPhone and still like it on my Apple Watch. I wish they weren't moving in this direction.

 

[agsystems]

Maybe if a bunch of people complain it will come back - but apparently the next Watch will not have this press sensing tech so they are getting ahead to silent the complainers - I am a day 1 Apple watch wearer and I will not upgrade to IOS 7 if this is the case

 

[quietstormSD]

From a mechanism that most people didn't know existed to a mechanism that everyone didn't mean to do.

 

[WingsAndBeer]

So they are disabling hardware that was advertised during watch marketing...bad move.

 

[scaramoosh]

Get rid of the crown, I find that more hassle than it’s worth, I’d rather keep the force touch as I use it.

 

[lucidhysteria]

I still miss 3D touch on my phone EVERY DAY when I'm typing anything on my 11 Pro Max (despite their recent text selection improvements, nothing is as fast and fluid as the old 3D touch tricks of press harder anywhere on the keyboard for a text cursor, then press harder again to select a word, press harder again to select a line, etc. — and drag the cursor or selection around without ever taking your finger(s) off the keyboard), not to mention the usefulness of a pressure-sensitive screen for drawing, writing, and the things creative third-party apps would do with it (Seaboard 5D is an awesome synth keyboard-ish app that made great use of the pressure-sensitivity for an experience you just can't replicate without that hardware).

Most of those don't apply to Force Touch on the watch, but the feature will still be missed — especially because, as someone pointed out, it's such a small screen that Force Touch seems like a really helpful way to offer more options without visual clutter and confusion. But alas, like 3D Touch, I guess Apple didn't do a very good job making people aware of it, so not enough people use it (or depend on it), and so they lose interest and kill it.

I still get a little mad every time I hear the phrase "Haptic Touch," because IT'S NOT A THING AND NEVER WILL BE A THING . It's just a long press with a little feedback. One of the lamest marketing moves Apple's ever pulled trying to pass that off as some kind of feature or in any way equivalent to 3D Touch.

 

[johnnyenv]

Well seeing as they've axe'd it from some iPhone models im not surprised but its a shame as its fantastic technology that was barely harvested.

However if you told me you'd need to remove it in order to enhance battery life to a degree where sleep tracking was possible without the need to potentially fully charge the watch between days then sensible. They didn't do a fantastic job of marketing the technology enough when the 6s debuted it.

 

[Seanm87]

I didn’t really miss 3D Touch on the phone as Haptic Touch worked just as well. But I have to agree with others that I don’t like this change for the watch.

 

[ShadowJade]

This really bothers me. I use a score keeping app in volleyball...hard press brings up “new game” to reset to 0-0. Also, I despise grid view, and discovered list view by mistake once...I show this quick change to everyone, they usually quickly change as well. Now someone must enter grid view, (default on startup), find setting icon, scroll to general, switch to list view?

 

[Devnul0]

This is sad. Force touch on the Watch was the most reliable input mechanism. For example, trying to swipe and tap to finish recording a workout with hot, sweaty fingers would rarely work correctly.

 

[izyreal]

I really liked force touch on the iPhone. It was the best and fastest way to move the curser when typing. It isn't a huge inconvenience for it to be gone, but it is certainly a worse user experience.

 

[jwolf6589]

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.

just don’t upgrade to WatchOS 7.

 

[longofest]

I swear Apple is abandoning some of its most innovative user interface innovations of the past decade. Force Touch and 3D Touch were really quite awesome user interface innovations. So sad that Apple is abandoning them.

 

[spytech]

For those staying they won't upgrade or advise on not upgrading, that isn't an option. You WILL need to upgrade at some point and you WILL need to change your hardware for a more recent model at some point, which is unlikely to include force touch given what we're seeing. This is not something "solvable" unless Apple back out (which they likely won't).

Either they come up with one hell of an alternative and revamp watchOS or... I don't know

 

[QCassidy352]

This will cause me to not upgrade to watchOS 7. I love force touch and was extremely underwhelmed by the watchOS 7 features I saw yesterday.

 

[x-evil-x]

Almost certainly because it's a lot easier to crack the screen of the watch than people realise. It looks solid enough but you can't know how solid until you break it. If, like me, you've ever had the misfortune to break one then you'll see that the screen is eggshell thin.

It is significantly more fragile than the crystal cover on most watches. And, because it's an integral part of the watch and not just a protective cover, a lot more expensive to replace.

Are you saying you pressed too hard for a force touch press that you shattered your screen?

 

[darkpaw]

For those staying they won't upgrade or advise on not upgrading, that isn't an option. You WILL need to upgrade at some point and you WILL need to change your hardware for a more recent model at some point, which is unlikely to include force touch given what we're seeing. This is not something "solvable" unless Apple back out (which they likely won't).

Not really. If someone thinks their current interactions with the Apple Watch are what they want, they don't NEED to buy a newer model with the new OS. When that Apple Watch no longer works, there are three options: 1. Buy a new Apple Watch and put up with the new way of using it (initial bad experience might colour their use and opinion of Apple as it is already); 2. Find a watch from a different company that works for them; or 3. Don't buy a new watch at all. In two thirds of those choices, Apple loses a customer.