Apple Plans to Expand Uses of Haptic Touch on iPhone XR Over Time

[840quadra]

I remember when 3D Touch was new and people were actually excited about it. Years later, I have a hard time understanding the animosity people have that don't like or use 3D Touch.

How is taking away, and having less input methods is somehow better?

I had a feeling that something was changing on springboard due to how the 3D Touch interactions in iOS 12 now feel slow / throttled as compared to before. 3D Touch is one of the few features that sets iOS apart from Android, and one I always miss when using those devices.

I still catch myself pressing onto the screen of my Pixel, expecting it to bring a a cursor up for me.

3D Touch was useless from the beginning. And it makes the devices thicker and more expensive for Apple.
Long press and hold is the solution, works great on the spacebar for moving the cursor in iOS 12.

Long press is in iOS, has been since the beginning and works fine. 3D Touch is another method of input, and unlike long press, does not require the user to slow down & wait. Sure, you can long press for cursor on iOS 12, but it takes longer and in most cases I would be done scanning down or up a line with 3D Touch, before the long press cursor becomes active.

Devices with 3D Touch did not have a landmark increase in cost as compared to previous models without. They also were only marginally thicker overall. If .02mm is killing all of your pocket space, perhaps it is time to buy bigger pants .

 

[techfreak23]

Sucks for those of us that actually know how to use our phones and take heavy advantage of the options that are available to 3D Touch. It’s convenient in certain areas (albeit small areas) but getting used to that muscle memory of pressure to use took awhile. It would suck to have to retrain the muscles AND lose functionality... unless they are going to drop the cost of the devices, they need to keep 3D Touch there. Only justifiable reason to remove is if they can bring the end user price down. That’s what people should be saying, instead of “I don’t use it at all, so get rid of it for everyone that does” that’s why Apple gave you the option to turn it off if you don’t like it or use it. I’m tired of Apple catering to the idiots in their customer base.

 

[macduke]

Popping what in what case? Not everybody is using Earpods, mate. The fact that they don't have to be recharged, ever, is a win in the "wired headphones" column. Sheer sound quality uncompromised by wireless compression is another. Your Earpods are working for you, great, but they'd also be working just the same on a phone with a wired headphone jack.

First of all, I'm talking about AirPods, not EarPods. This is the solution that Apple provided. It is superior. It works really well. Also, I wasn't even talking to you.

If you can't get over it, plug your precious headphones into the Lightning Port. End of discussion. You're probably the same guy that was complaining about them removing parallel ports and floppy disks, lol.

 

[Abazigal]

3D Touch is fun. Sometimes when I am bored, I force press random apps on my home screen just for that sensation of popping bubble wrap.

 

[Falhófnir]

I do like 3D touch, I think it's one of the most interesting features Apple's developed in recent times - but if they can retain some of the functionality it enabled via force touch, then I wouldn't necessarily mind losing it, particularly if it paves the way for the return of TouchID...

 

[ike1707]

I get an impression that many people who do like 3D Touch like it not for its usefulness (it does not really offer any benefits over the long press)

Um..

Except that they both currently exist side-by-side on flagship models and do different things, thusly doubling potential functionality. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

3D touch has a medley of secondary gestures after activating it that add all sorts of nuance and potential to what it does. Swipes, secondary presses etc. It’s as if all the naysayers just haven't bothered figuring this out.

And the way the OS is currently designed doesn’t allow for long press to replace 3D touch, because long press is already in use for other longstanding features. Period.

 

[robotphood]

The XR is actually thicker than the XS though so that argument is flawed. Space bar still isn't as precise or large enough as having the entire keyboard to select everything you want, like dragging to highlight paragraphs of text.

It takes a little relearning where to activate the cursor but it nearly works the same. Once you use the space bar to activate it, you have the whole keyboard to move about. As far as selecting text, you have to tap with a 2nd finger to activate it. Cumbersome if you are using your phone 1 handed but I find that the majority of the time I am using both and just activate it with my other thumb.

 

[Virinprew]

Should we go back to 30-pin connectors and Edge antennas too? How about a physical keyboard for those hardcore Blackberry users?

There's a reason these ports and features don't exist anymore - something better came along.

Still waiting to use lightning headphones with Mac. It will come along right?

 

[robotphood]

one of the reasons i went with the x line of phones.
I use Peek-and-pop extensively to read messages without others knowing i read them. lol

Turn off read receipts?

 

[tennisproha]

NOOO! 3D Touch is awesome. I use it everyday. Once you get the hang of it, it makes your productivity so much faster. Make 3D Touch better and more widespread Apple.

3D Touch could have been "long press" since day 1. Wasted engineering effort, like the compact Mac Pro.

3D Touch was useless from the beginning. And it makes the devices thicker and more expensive for Apple.
Long press and hold is the solution, works great on the spacebar for moving the cursor in iOS 12.

3D Touch and long press have vastly different use cases. Long press allows you to access right click actions on touch. While 3D Touch allows shortcut, preview, and widget actions. They're for entirely different things. If you combine them, your long press action list will be 15+ actions long. It’ll become the cluster**** that share sheet currently is.

 

[falainber]

Um..

Except that they both currently exist side-by-side on flagship models and do different things, thusly doubling potential functionality. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

3D touch has a medley of secondary gestures after activating it that add all sorts of nuance and potential to what it does. Swipes, secondary presses etc. It’s as if all the naysayers just haven't bothered figuring this out.

And the way the OS is currently designed doesn’t allow for long press to replace 3D touch, because long press is already in use for other longstanding features. Period.

Long press can have the same secondary gestures, right? There is not difference between the two. I am pretty sure 3D press is longer than the regular press too (there must be some time delay there to filter out accidental strong press - as opposed to sustained strong press).

 

[FriendlyMackle]

3D Touch was useless from the beginning. And it makes the devices thicker and more expensive for Apple.
Long press and hold is the solution, works great on the spacebar for moving the cursor in iOS 12.

Yeah, I’m sure Apple will be dropping the price on th X+++ models next year and beyond to compensate for their ‘savings’ from the discarded 3D Touch. Perhaps it is actually true that it consumes a good deal of space within the phone internal body, and perhaps it is an added expense—but at most, what are we talking, $2 per model or less?

 

[Radeon85]

3D touch is something I use many times a day for years so would hate to see it disappear. Games that use it work great, particularly racing games. Gentle touch of the screen for slow acceleration and the car moves faster the harder you press, try doing that with the the XR.

3D touch for games works like game controller triggers and this can't be replicated in software.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

Long press can have the same secondary gestures, right? There is not difference between the two. I am pretty sure 3D press is longer than the regular press too (there must be some time delay there to filter out accidental strong press - as opposed to sustained strong press).

You set the amount of delay AND the amount of PRESSURE for 3D Touch when you set it up. I really do think a lot of you who dislike it have never used it beyond one cursory attempt. 3D Touch is awesome, and I’ll be very unhappy if Apple dumps it after so many years.

 

[iGeek2014]

Must admit I wasn’t an extensive user of 3D Touch at first but got used to it over time.

I know you can long press on iPad Pro and iPhone SE but it can come in useful.

 

[hagar]

I like 3D Touch for peek and pop in Photos and Safari. But I never use it on app icons on the home screen. Because I never remember what the options will be that appear (if any). So, it’s just quicker to open the app and go from there.

Also, as 3D Touch is not on the iPad, it never became ubiquitous.

 

[Raist3001]

“It'll be interesting to see where Apple expands Haptic Touch across iOS, as the feature can only be implemented for actions that don't already rely on a long press. For example, long-pressing on an app icon on the home screen enables "wiggle mode," allowing apps to be deleted or rearranged on the home screen.

For that reason, Haptic Touch does not work with Quick Actions when you long press on an app icon on the iPhone XR home screen. Haptic Touch also doesn't support Peek and Pop for previewing content such as links and messages.”

Ever use an iPad pro? The long press on apple apps will certainly open a quick menu. Continue to hold and all apps will enter wiggle mode. Why cant the same be applied to the XR?
This is also easily solved by using the long press to enter a quick menu just as 3D touch does, and simply have an option to rearrange icons, which will then put all apps in wiggle mode.

 

[predation]

Turn off read receipts?

I can do that but I like to let people know I’ve read their texts.

 

[Dreamer2go]

I use 3D touch a lot... turning on the selfie camera with a pressured press on the camera icon to check if my face is okay before a meeting... peak and pop... some apps even utilizes it well, like ProTube (before it was removed). I guess people just didn't take the time to learn how to use it.

 

[omihek]

Not liking this. 3D Touch is my most favorite feature on iPhone. Can't fathom it's disappearance.

Even better than calling people?

 

[itsmilo]

NOOO! 3D Touch is awesome. I use it everyday. Once you get the hang of it, it makes your productivity so much faster. Make 3D Touch better and more widespread Apple.





3D Touch and long press have vastly different use cases. Long press allows you to access right click actions on touch. While 3D Touch allows shortcut, preview, and widget actions. They're for entirely different things. If you combine them, your long press action list will be 15+ actions long. It’ll become the cluster**** that share sheet currently is.

What does long press do on a 3D Touch device besides making the icons wiggle? Honestly don’t know right now lol

 

[Brien]

If only Apple and devs used it as the right click it was meant to be. Or for games (run vs walk wtc.). But nope.

 

[jonnysods]

I don't even use 3D Touch on my phone. I love haptic feedback but I don't use the force touch much it never seemed to fit into my workflow.

 

[Vasilisxd]

Apple shouldn’t get rid off features that make iPhones unique just because they are not willing to implement them on iPhone XR. XR costs too much to skip the 3D Touch feature and Apple’s mechanics should have found a solution.

 

[hybra]

3D Touch was useless from the beginning. And it makes the devices thicker and more expensive for Apple.
Long press and hold is the solution, works great on the spacebar for moving the cursor in iOS 12.

Actually the long-press-to-cursor-mode works on all the keyboard surface for me, not just the spacebar. Just tested in Notes. But it has to be a force-long-press.