Haptic Touch vs 3D Touch: What's the Difference?

[Rogifan]

I don’t buy the iPad reasoning either. They even renamed the OS specifically for iPad. They’re not supposed to be the same. I think it’s because Apple cheaped out on the cheaper phones by not including 3D Touch, which fragmented the feature past the 6s. I don’t know why they thought that was a good idea since of course more people will buy the cheaper phone! That means less phones in the Wild that have 3D Touch...

This 💯. They got rid of 3D Touch because they were too cheap to add it to the XR & 11 (what is now considered the mainstream iPhone).

 

[JosephAW]

I'm assuming if I update to iOS 13 I can still use 3D Touch on my iPhone 7 Plus.

 

[AustinIllini]

This whole discoverability nonsense is just that, nonsense. How is long press any more discoverable than 3D Touch? It’s not and never was. And all the Android fanboys who laughed at 3D Touch as nothing more than long press with feedback...sorry it’s not the same at all. Haptic Touch is no replacement for 3D Touch. Gruber thinks they got rid of it so they could put bigger batteries in the phones. I think it’s because the new mainstream iPhone (XR and now 11) was never going to get it for cost reasons and Apple didn’t want to support it just for the pro models. Oh and it’s probably saving them a few bucks too which Tim Cook would approve of.

If the reasoning was battery, it's more than worth the sacrifice. Haptic touch, for most people, is worth it for the increased battery life.

Everyone is already familiar with long press from moving icons on the home screen. It is 100% familiar.

Okay this one really pisses me off. I love 3D touch and it was worth every penny upgrading to my 6s back in the day just to get it. I thought removing it from the Xr was just cost-cutting for the cheaper model, but this is now my primary hindrance for upgrading from my Xs to the 11 Pro. I hate feeling like my only options are staying behind or buying a $1000 compromise.

Sometimes, we get attached to a crappy feature. 3D Touch was garbage and now it's gone.

Also the "$1000" compromise comment is a joke. Go find a competitor willing to waste money on a 3D Touch screen. There is no demand for it because the implementation sucked.

 

[Johntotah94]

Something the article leaves out: The best part of moving the cursor with 3D touch... selecting words! It wasn't just about moving the cursor, but pressing deeper as you hover over words to highlight them.

This was so damn handy. With haptic touch you can do this by holding space bar then tapping with another finger to select. But this requires another finger and going across rows suckssss!

 

[goobot]

Not sure what the default setting is, but I had 3D touch enabled after upgrading to iOS 13 from iOS 12, which means both 3D touch and Haptic Touch is working in tandem. But now in iOS 13, it seems 3D Touch only works as a different way of triggering Haptic Touch, so no deep press or anything – only one step.

And like I said it seems you can only disable 3D Touch and not keep that on and disable Haptic Touch instead. Would be nice I think, since I sometimes accidentally trigger Haptic Touch on things.

Take a look at Settings > Accessibility >Touch and see how you have things set up there on your device.

So they removed peak and pop?

 

[Zaft]

3D Touch is better but I guess apple could not get it implemented onto iPads which caused some issues when going from iPhone to IPad.
Haptic touch does 90% of what 3D Touch did.

 

[k1121j]

It stinks omg I miss the force touch I want my money back.

 

[JosephAW]

They should have used a two finger right click gesture instead. It would have been much faster.

 

[palmerc2]

To the extent it was a "fringe" feature is only the fault of Apple. It was a huge keynote feature for the iPhone 6s—the next step past multi-touch.

It would have been so easy to give 3D touch items a visual indicator. And even if not, how many people using Macs use all of the esoteric keyboard shortcuts? They're still useful. Outside of people reading Macrumors, I doubt many people launch an app by typing command space, the first letters of the app and then return. But it's still nice for the people who do.

I don't buy the thing about parity with the iPad, either. The iPad has Apple Pencil support. The iPhone does not. Apple always used to say they wouldn't hold one product back to prevent it from cannibalizing another. And the iPad even has its "own OS" now.

In order to have 3D Touch it takes a physical component which adds thickness, and my best guess is Apple figures a software replacement is the best route to allow for more / better internals. It doesn’t require special hardware to use Spotlight on Mac (command + space bar you used as an example).

I’m bummed 3D Touch is gone, I’ve used it every day since it was available. No use in complaining, it is what it is.

 

[Rafterman]

How about a "arrange icons alphabetically" option?

 

[techfreak23]

I'm assuming if I update to iOS 13 I can still use 3D Touch on my iPhone 7 Plus.

You can. Apple just shot it in the kneecaps to bring it down to the level of Haptic Touch. The only true 3D Touch that remains is in third party apps that haven’t updated to use the Haptic Touch frameworks, but that won’t last forever as the 3D Touch frameworks for peek and pop have been deprecated.

 

[lederermc]

I can't believe anyone really cares about this. They are virtualy the same. It's that damn lightening cable I want see go bye-bye.

 

[MarkB786]

Gosh. Another phone feature that Samsung didn't implement first. it sure does seem to me that some of Apple's new fearures come from Apple engineers buying a Samsung phone.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Really? 3D Touch on my XS running iOS 13 betas was never as good as it was with iOS 12.
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BS. It was way better than long press.

I absolutely agree!!!

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

So glad they got rid of that POS 3D Touch or whatever nonsense. Created by jony Ives and since he’s been fired, that feature went too and good riddance! Smashing your display isn’t my cup of tea. Haptic touch all the way for me.

There’s a narrative that I’ve not heard yet 🙄
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I wish I could DISABLE HAPTIC TOUCH. it sure let’s you turn off 3D Touch. SMMFH.

 

[Surf Monkey]

just about everything 3D touch could do can be done with long touch. 3D touch was a gimmick from the start to claim "innovation"

Well, that just isn’t true.As I said above, the concept is solid. Having a second layer of interaction below the first that you activate with pressure is smart. It isn’t a gimmick at all.

 

[DeepIn2U]

What's the difference?:
One sucks. One works

lol agreed.

@julie Clover Propper n thoroughly informative article! Excellent job!! YOu need to work for Apple! This is the kind of article that SHOULD’VE debuted before the 11 Pro to be honest. Looking forward to reading more of your articles!!!

The iPad Peo has always had pressure sensitivity with the Pencil so why couldn’t Apple incorporate 3D Touch? Last fall the iPad (6th generation) had pencil support with pressure as well. So what gives?
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There’s a narrative that I’ve not heard yet 🙄
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I wish I could DISABLE HAPTIC TOUCH. it sure let’s you turn off 3D Touch. SMMFH.

on my 8 I wish it was there too bruh!

 

[DeepIn2U]

I quite like 3D Touch although it was never properly implemented. Many of APple’s own apps lacked the implementation right up until the year they ironically killed it. Wifi and Bluetooth are both much improved and I love the way the camera and flashlight apps work. IOS13 was the year it finally got properly implemented - all these years since the iPhone 6s.

wifi n bt have NOT improved because of Haptic Touch not is the short options changed from 3DTouch. What are you talking about? This shows you didn’t use 3D Touch cause you haven’t understood where you could use it.

 

[citysnaps]

The iPad Peo has always had pressure sensitivity with the Pencil so why couldn’t Apple incorporate 3D Touch? Last fall the iPad (6th generation) had pencil support with pressure as well. So what gives?

The pressure sensitivity sensor is in the Pencil, not the screen.

 

[840quadra]

Stil, have my Xs Max as I am just not quite digging life without 3D Touch. while fine on iPad, using the spacebar to select text to edit feels so backward and slow as compared the "instant on™" function that 3D Touch provided for the same task.

 

[tehStickMan]

Haptic Touch can also work on smaller screens like the Watch, which may not have supported 3D Touch properly either.

Apple watch actually has full 3D Touch. It registers the different pressure levels, not just "light pressure" and "hard pressure".

If it remains on Apple Watch, and it remains on Magic Trackpad ..... WHY is it gone from the flagship device ???

 

[ilikewhey]

Haptic Touch sucks! Bring my 3D Touch back!! Apple just nixed 3D Touch on the iPhone X and XS because they didn't want it to be better then the iPhone 11 Pro

did they really? i haven't update to ios 13 on my x yet.

 

[everythingapplerainbow]

and they ruin the peek and pop of 3d touch on iOS 13 also

 

[Wide opeN]

similar to the headphone jack, yet here we are

I now have more sympathy for those that complained. Then guess what a year or so later AIR PODS 😂

I guess now, we're all supposed to be Uber thankful for Better battery life 🙄

 

[DeepIn2U]

Its a shame Peek & Pop was removed in iOS 13

it’s still there kinda just messed up!!

Okay this one really pisses me off. I love 3D touch and it was worth every penny upgrading to my 6s back in the day just to get it. I thought removing it from the Xr was just cost-cutting for the cheaper model, but this is now my primary hindrance for upgrading from my Xs to the 11 Pro. I hate feeling like my only options are staying behind or buying a $1000 compromise.

Haptic Touch should be called Spastic Touch, i much rather have a thicker phone with 3D touch than this stupid haptic touch thing, make the phone feel laggy, it's annoying, make you accidentally trigger it while browsing the web, if you just rest the finger on the screen getting ready to scroll, and when you actually need to trigger you need to wait... its such a stupid idea. This is the kid of **** it would never have passed Steve Jobs approval...

And then they called they event: "By Innovation Only" ... hahah WTF???? what did they innovate this year??? Put a 3rd camera on the phone and removed features from it...

They could have always just developed it further to increase consistency

Bring back 3D Touch! So much more useful.

The Watch has Force Touch (different from 3D and Haptic touch, yes confusing!), but Force Touch is actually just like Haptic Touch in that it does not have multiple levels of sensing, only one. Only 3D Touch supported different levels (soft and hard). So it doesn't matter if they replace Force Touch with Haptic Touch, the experience would be virtually identical.

That said, the Watch 5 does have Force Touch, so they kept it.

From the specs...

• LTPO OLED Always-On Retina display with Force Touch

Love 3D Touch and use it constantly on my iPhone 7. Losing it is one of many reasons I am not upgrading this year.

Watch must be able to detect multiple levels of pressure as I can make the clock face bounce in and out the harder and gentler I push on the screen.

And I can even hold the animation halfway to activating.

EDIT: This is on the S5 and worked the same on all previous generations.

And this is why I dislike iOS 13's version of 3D Touch. I'm glad they kept it there but there isn't a toggle to turn off Haptic Touch and they messed up a few if the gestures I used daily (mainly peek and pop).

well said to you all above!!

my 3D Touch contribution and how I feel about 3D Touch ... love it!
Apple really really needs to read this article. Judging by consensus of the likes from those of us complaining about Haptic Touch .... Force Touch could’ve been implemented as used from the Watch and we would’ve been much happier than this Haptic or Spastic BS!