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The long press has always been nice when developers integrate it. But they don't always.

If a developer didn't bother to incorporate long press actions after all these years, I doubt they're going to bother incorporating force touch actions very quickly, either. A developer would be foolish to incorporate force touch and not incorporate long press, in my opinion, given the size of the userbase running iPhone 6 and older hardware.
 
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If a developer didn't bother to incorporate long press actions after all these years, I doubt they're going to bother incorporating force touch actions very quickly, either. A developer would be foolish to incorporate force touch and not incorporate long press, in my opinion, given the size of the userbase running iPhone 6 and older hardware.

It's not about third-party integration at this stage, nor will it be for 1-2 generations on top of the iP6S. It's about the increased functionality of bundled, first-party apps that will make this a feature worth having. It's about changing how apps like Camera, Calendar, Maps, or Safari works. Press hard on the tab viewer button, for instance, and a new tab opens straight away on your screen. I don't expect many third-party devs to include it for a long time, for the reasons you stated.


So here's a question -- do they plan on coupling this with "taptic" feedback? If so, maybe we'll finally get a software keyboard that feels like a physical keyboard! I would have been skeptical of how well this would work, but trust me, the feedback on the 12" rMB keyboard I've been using for months is VERY good, I wouldn't know it wasn't a physical button unless someone told me.


If you think that keyboard is good, you don't use a keyboard enough. On a traditional Cherry MX I type at around 130WPM, on my rMBP I can do about 115-120, but even with practice I can barely do 100WPM on the stupid rMB keyboard. It's just horrible. You don't feel depression, there's no depth to the keys, and there's no satisfactory 'push down' sensation. I also hate the stupid force touch pad, though admittedly that's probably because I didn't give it a chance. You push, and push, and push, and there's no give.

I'll be scooping up a classic separate trackpad for use with future rMBP purchases if I carry on not liking the rMB one.
 
So basically instead of holding down on it, we'll have to tap the screen harder?

Think of playing the piano, touch is selecting the note, velocity/impact/force after the touch (tells how hard you attack the note). The interaction with the screen can be brief but of adjustable force, enabling you to go to the next note right away.
How would a long touch do the same? It can't.
 
I kind of feel like it will be confusing wondering what will happen when you force touch inside an app. Kind of like memorizing all those Mac hot keys.

That's what I'm thinking - this doesn't really sound consistent. It's basically just adding a bunch of hidden features behind menus you won't even know exist. That sounds terrible!
 
Thanks, it makes sense to me now. Although, without a home button what would happen to the fingerprint sensor? I remember reading something about integrating it to the screen.

Yeah pretty much. I think there was a patent on it a couple years ago. It depends on the technology and the way that it's implemented. I think on the 7 they might just make the bottom part of the screen Touch ID capable, but they could do it on the whole screen if they can get the cost down. They might use a newer generation OLED screen and could keep a lit up circle visible at all times if the screen isn't face down or in a pocket. That would be the indication for users to put their finger down and scan. But that's just one solution of many. I'm sure their engineers could come up with something better than I can.

You should submit all of your ideas to Apple! Being serious here, some really neat stuff you wrote! Thx, enjoyed it! unattributed.

Thanks. I'm a UI/UX designer a few years out of college. It would be fun to work at Apple because I've got a lot of weird ideas that I would like to try out. I realize that many of my ideas might not work, but at least I wouldn't get bored. I enjoy refining small details over and over again until things are simple and easy to use. I'm just not sure if I would fit well with the culture as I've heard they're not very family friendly. The work consumes your life.

Yea, sort of like how on a traditional desktop/laptop a right click (mostly in Windows) is a quick, redundant mode of access to additional app or OS functionality.

Exactly like that. We haven't really had that in iOS. Long pressing can be clunky and not always work when trying to bring up contextual menus for editing text, etc. It's not as graceful as on the desktop. This could help depending on the implementation.

If a developer didn't bother to incorporate long press actions after all these years, I doubt they're going to bother incorporating force touch actions very quickly, either. A developer would be foolish to incorporate force touch and not incorporate long press, in my opinion, given the size of the userbase running iPhone 6 and older hardware.

Developers love integrating new features that Apple adds to the API. Especially the top level developers who make the most interesting interfaces. They love to show off their interesting design solutions and push out updates to be one of the first because often times Apple features those developers prominently in media and on the store.
 
Will Force Touch prevent my best friend from banging my ex girlfriend? ¬¬

In all seriousness, this seems like and appealing upgrade coming from a 4S.

And for me coming from an iPhone 5. Have force touch on my 2015 retina MacBook Pro. Really like that I can press anywhere on the trackpad to click. I am looking forward to the 6S in the fall.
 
Get rid of home button. Force touch to wake iphone. Circle indicates where to place finger to read fingerprint. ft to multitask.
 
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Force touch doesnt seem different than a long press.

This is my thought exactly. I have and love the Apple Watch, but using force touch takes just as long as a long press and since there are no long press commands, there is no benefit to having it.

I can see it being used in games eventually... But other than that it is just a gimmicky replacement for a long press.
 
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On the Apple Watch, Force Touch can determine various levels of pressure. For instance, try slowly pushing down on the watch face. You can move it in and out based on how hard you press. I hope this capability is robust enough that Apple could unveil an API for it so that drawing apps can take advantage of the pressure sensitivity.

I hope that we are able to Force Touch things we can’t usually tap. The article mentions home screen icons, which is a neat idea. But imagine being able to Force Touch various status bar icons to quickly perform various actions—although admittedly the tap target sizes for those icons are really small so that may never happen. We could also FT notifications on our home screen to bring up a menu to do various things (more options than we have now). Or Force Touch on the clock on the home screen to see our calendar or next meeting.

As far as various potential home screen actions, I could see:

FT on Settings to quickly change a customizable set of things
FT on Calendar to quickly see your next meeting information
FT on Notes to quickly jot something down
FT on Camera to instantly take a picture or start recording a video
FT on Maps to start directions home
FT on Music to start your favorite playlist or station
FT on Reminders to quickly make a new reminder to your default list

I could go on, but I hope that they give us the ability to customize actions that can be taken when we FT different icons and third party apps as well.

As for things we could do inside of apps, it would be nice if we could FT any image anywhere in iOS and get options to share or have it default share or save it to our preferred service. Or FT a website URL or URL bar to save it to a reading list or to Pocket. I could also see FT on emails being useful if Apple would build in additional capabilities to use our inbox like a to-do list. FT could enable that without over-complicating the interface. It would be neat to FT a phone number to quickly set a reminder to call that number, add it to contacts, etc. The same could be done for other actionable information.

Another idea is that you could FT the keyboard to switch between modes for numeric, or third party keyboards, or emoji, etc. Or you could FT on Control Center to view another layer of controls. Or FT on a control center toggle to quickly switch it out with a list of other toggles that fly out in a circle around your finger. Or FT on any text input field and instantly start speaking to use dictation. Oh man there are so many fun things you could do!

I also hope that we get some kind of Taptic Engine feedback when typing—as long as it feels right—but I don’t know if that would drain the battery or wear out the parts faster.

FT already stands for FaceTime, you're going to choose another initialism for Force Touch.
 
This could also add a whole new dimension of complexity, maybe in a bad way.
Knowing what a "force touch" would do in all the circumstances in all the different apps could get quite confusing.
I don't want to be pressing everywhere, trying to get some hidden functionalities out of some apps via trial and error.

Well said. That's exactly my issue with Force Touch on the Mac. Apple has a support page with a long list of 'What you can do with a Force click' in various applications. In one context it brings up a map. In another it edits a file name. These are very different activities, activated with the same gesture. I agree with you, I don't want to have to remember all these different contexts and results. Wouldn't it have been much simpler just to let it bring up a contextual menu?

Apple seems to have remembered that simplification of user interfaces is a core value, but forgotten how best to do that. So we have dumbed down user interfaces that make it less obvious how to find features, but more complexity via complex gestures and hidden features like Force Touch.
 
it is the begining for the big one iPhone 7. They need force touch for them to remove the home button. but they need same sapphire cover so this mean sapphire instead of gorila glass and this force touch. This is the only way that can be operated like a home button without one. because force touch is not a 100% software based so if your app is frozen you can force touch and come back to home screen like you do with your home button now.
So this force touch is forward thinking for the iP7. Like they did with ios7 and iphone 6, swipe left/right and with iphone 6 curved screen to be more fluent experience
can you image a big screen with no buttons and duel sided speakers. smaller body because of no home button and edge to edge screen :D it needs to happen.
 
I would love to have a force-touch on the Netflix or Amazon home screen icon take me right to whatever I was last watching (and maybe optionally autoplay). Especially on iPad. Too many steps to get back to where you were.
 
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They can already make things a lot faster if they give us an option to remove all those unnecessary animations.
E.g. page transitions animations: you have to always wait for the page transition to finish animating before you can push the button that you always wanted to push.
e.g 2 : Recent contacts always have to animate a bit before it refreshes, sometimes you will press the wrong recent contact because it was animating.

just use your iphone with this in mind and you will suddenly find a lot more examples.
 
A 3 dimensional UX. The only people being critical here are people who do not buy Apple products anyway so there's zero point in trying to convince them of the utility of it. It turned my rMBP trackpad into a mini Wacom tablet. It allows me to quickly navigate the UI. There is literally depth to a webpage or app. This tech allows for BOTH a long press and FT. This tech will allow me to feel basic texture, have a physical yet virtual keyboard, etc. 3 Dimensional interfaces are the future. Samsung will have nothing that can compete.
 
It's basically just adding a bunch of hidden features behind menus you won't even know exist. That sounds terrible!

That doesn't sound too terrible... So maybe you won't immediately know what FT-ing this or that will do, but given two weeks with the 6s you wouldn't want to give it up. But maybe you were being sarcastic
 
This could also add a whole new dimension of complexity, maybe in a bad way.
Knowing what a "force touch" would do in all the circumstances in all the different apps could get quite confusing.
I don't want to be pressing everywhere, trying to get some hidden functionalities out of some apps by trial and error.

Anyways, I shall wait and see. Maybe it will grow to be a necessity
I was thinking the same thing - more complexity. However, it might more complexity in a good way and long as Apple uses restraint in how it is applied.
 
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A 3 dimensional UX. The only people being critical here are people who do not buy Apple products anyway so there's zero point in trying to convince them of the utility of it. It turned my rMBP trackpad into a mini Wacom tablet. It allows me to quickly navigate the UI. There is literally depth to a webpage or app. This tech allows for BOTH a long press and FT. This tech will allow me to feel basic texture, have a physical yet virtual keyboard, etc. 3 Dimensional interfaces are the future. Samsung will have nothing that can compete.

I disagree. I find Force Touch on the Watch really annoying. I never press hard enough at first, and so it takes as long or longer than a long-press gesture as I realize "oh I need to press harder". It's not the same as Force Touch on the Macbook trackpad, which gives you tactile feedback as you press. It's just your finger mashing into the glass. And I don't want to mash my finger into glass to trigger something. It forces you to slow down your actions and your tasks, and that's not a good thing. You mention Samsung, but this feels like a Samsung feature – technology for the sake of it without a clear user experience advantage.
 
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