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

[robbietop]

I am so disappointed, but I'll get used to it.

 

[Rogifan]

Glad 3D Touch is gone. A long press does the trick for me. No difference.

Why are you glad it’s gone? Did it not work for you?

During the days of the 6s/7, I frequently saw posts about people claiming that they don’t use 3D Touch, that it was a gimmick, etc etc.
Now suddenly everybody uses it and it’s a critical function for them.

Amazing.

My 3D Touch use are for initiating task switcher (by 3D Touch on the left side), and turning the screen off by 3D touching the assistive virtual button. Most because I’m on the 6s and I want to prolong the life of my mechanical home button as long as possible.

I’m guessing the people complaining are ones who did use it (like me). Or maybe didn’t use it frequently but it’s like that Cinderella song don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

Only miss the 3DT gesture for the app switcher and the instant trackpad anywhere on the keyboard. Haptic Touch is excellent and allows for much better battery life which is a far better trade off

We don’t know that removal of 3D Touch is a/the reason for better battery life. There’s a lot of speculation about it but it’s not something Apple confirmed. Since the 6 the phones have been getting thicker every year. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple allowed that narrative to stick because of course most people would take more battery life over 3D Touch. I’m still skeptical that was a real trade-off and only this year Apple decided to favor battery life. More likely they cheaped out on the XR not adding it and going forward it would be easier if they didn’t have to support it on any new phone.

Apple needs to bring back 3D Touch as a compliment to Haptic Touch so the 3D Touch and Haptic Touch working together can make sure it’s not accidentally selected as without 3D Touch they have been many times it pops up because I left my finger down too long when scrolling or pressing a link, with 3D Touch it could of been used on them devices as a miss prevention and both together working as one would of felt like pressing an actual button on screen.

well done Apple you blew it big time.

I wish they would but 3D Touch required specific hardware and I don’t see that coming back. I’m sure they’ll keep making improvements to haptic touch but it will never be the same.

 

[smaffei]

The thing that bothers me about the removal of 3D Touch form the phones is now Apple's product lines operate inconsistently. The Apple Watch UI requires you to use 3D Touch to access functions in many apps.

So, now, the phone and the watch UIs behave differently for deeper functionality access. Very un-Apple like!

Obviously, the removal of 3D Touch was a cost savings measure.

 

[arkmannj]

I was not an iOS beta tester, when I first installed it on my 6s, one of the very first thing I noticed was 3D touch not working properly. It was in my opinion a very poor decision to basically remove it in software from people who still have supporting hardware. 3D touch and the headphone jack (I spend hours a day on the phone, wired headphones and having my phone plugged in at the same time are very useful to me) are both real considerations for why I haven’t upgraded to a new device. I like voting with my money and despite the age, my 6s still performs admirably.

 

[Kramerjn]

I upgraded from a X to the 11 Pro Max. I miss 3D touch so much more than I expected to.

 

[zenotds]

6S user here, I hated 3D touch, it was inconsistent AF. Glad they got rid of it.

 

[mdatwood]

I liked 3D Touch and miss it on my new iPhone, but I will admit the lack of 3D Touch on my iPad Pro made going back and forth annoying. I would have preferred they offered 3D Touch everywhere, but consistency is welcome.

 

[decafjava]

Should never have killed it and made the phone a bit thicker instead so it still keeps the new battery increase.

They went backwards with this move.

Yea, and instead of whining about the lack of 3D touch we would have whines about how thick and heavy the phone is.

 

[C DM]

Glad 3D Touch is gone. A long press does the trick for me. No difference.

That’s kind of like if the Messages app was suddenly removed and someone who doesn’t use the Messages app for texts/iMessages says they are glad the app isn’t there anymore because they can just continue using Facebook Messenger since that works just fine for them.

 

[bakerzdosen]

Just to echo others, cursor selection/placement in iOS 13 is AWFUL now. I feel like I'm using Android.

I HATE it. It was entirely natural before, but the current implementation is anything but natural.

 

[BigBoy2018]

Funny the way it is how when 3D Touch was around, people were asking “why does this exist?”. Now that it’s gone, people are asking “why did they take it away?”

Thats because its different ‘people’ genius.

Thats as dumb as stating “funny how people complained about smoke in restaurants and now that they’ve banned smoking in restaurants, people compiain they arent allowed to light up in restaurants anymore”

@jezbd1997

 

[C DM]

If you are using the phone one handed it takes effort to press hard on the screen for the right click menu to pop out. THis increases your chances of dropping the phone. Use your phone naked and its an accident waiting to happen with that slippery back. It also results in your screen getting smudged a lot quicker. With Long Press which is essentially haptic Touch, it requires less effort and because the phone can be navigated with a very light press, there are very less smudges on the screen. Haptic Touch does 95% of what 3DT did without the extra hardware and the lower battery life. Android had always done it right from the beginning with long press.

None of that seems to be related to the noticeable slower performance of Haptic Touch compared to 3D Touch, which must ruin the whole device experience going by that same logic of the supposed home button lag that supposedly did that. Given that it would just be inconsistent, to say the least, otherwise.

I just bought an 11 Pro Max and it has 5 hour better battery life than the XS Max because of removal of the 3DT motor. Only a fool would pick 3DT over 5 hours of extra battery when long press does 95% of what 3DT did.

3D Touch motor? Are we talking about the Taptic Engine, which is still basically there and isn’t exactly all that related to 3D Touch? Seems like the foolishness might lie elsewhere there.

Yea, and instead of whining about the lack of 3D touch we would have whines about how thick and heavy the phone is.

Aren't the new phones heavier anyway? Seems like something that is fairly moot as far as it being 3D Touch related.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Funny the way it is how when 3D Touch was around, people were asking “why does this exist?”. Now that it’s gone, people are asking “why did they take it away?”

What you mean is.. it's funny how some people said why does this exist, while completely different people ask why it's being taken away.

 

[jamienyc]

3-d touch made the iPhone more than special, it made it a power user’s dream come true. A niche feature most never noticed. My 4-year old 6s Plus is still the perfect phone. The X’s notch was a branding gimmick for the masses, and now we get punished with this lesser “haptic” touch which sloppily has eliminated keyboard cursor movement, making my next power phone an 8 plus. With time the haptic touch will hopefully mature and the notch’s time will pass…

 

[CJLevinsk22]

I'm genuinely bummed they took away 3D Touch. I used it constantly on my iPhone XS

 

[57n]

3D touch is still there above the settings for Haptic Touch on my XS Max, so it can still be used, but it's just ”one level” and does the same way as a ”long touch” (i.e. Haptic Touch).

By the way, does anyone notice any difference between the ”Fast” and ”Slow” touch duration settings? Seems about the same to me...

Edit:
Okay, there is a slight difference but I think it's hard to tell there on the test image. More noticeable for me for icons on the home screen (for example) for some reason.

Edit 2:
One problem I see with Haptic Touch is that it relatively easy can be accidentally activated on an item (happens to me quite often for links on pages in Safari for example). Not so with 3D Touch. While there is an option to disable 3D Touch I see no way of disabling Haptic Touch and using only 3D Touch for those of us that has a device that supports it. Too bad…

I accidentally enable Haptic Touch ALL the time, and I am really surprised that Apple have not fixed this since iOS 13 betas... I wish that as an iPhone X (which has 3D touch) user, I could disable Haptic Touch and only use 3D touch.

 

[danny842003]

3-d touch made the iPhone more than special, it made it a power user’s dream come true. A niche feature most never noticed. My 4-year old 6s Plus is still the perfect phone. The X’s notch was a branding gimmick for the masses, and now we get punished with this lesser “haptic” touch which sloppily has eliminated keyboard cursor movement, making my next power phone an 8 plus. With time the haptic touch will hopefully mature and the notch’s time will pass…

What? How is it a branding gimmick? Nobody wants the notch to be there, some like myself accept that it’a needed and beats the current alternatives but I don’t know how you can claim it as branding.

 

[Jbusick7944]

I feel that it was removed to cut costs, increase profits. When they rolled it out, they showed videos of all of the pressure sensors in the screen and how it was difficult to engineer. I personally love 3DT and use it all the time. It will definitely be an adjustment when I move to an 11 or later (On X now).

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

The latest one. Yes, it gives you a windowed preview but it used to open the whole page if you pressed hard enough.

Oh yeah, I see your point now. You're right!

 

[DoctorApple]

You can just drag cursor now on iOS 13. It’s A LOT easier.

I bought the iPhone 11 Pro Max ... and I absolutely hate Haptic touch. 3D Touch was useful and it made sense. It made no sense to remove something that has usefulness.

One example is how distorted the long press feels now to gain access to the keyboard cursor. They even had to limit the thing to the spacebar to activate and scrolling left to right sucks.

The other is in order to delete an app you must first "Rearrange" them in a submenu. :\

 

[jahsavi]

May the force touch and haptic feedback be with you..

 

[co.ag.2005]

I bought the iPhone 11 Pro Max ... and I absolutely hate Haptic touch. 3D Touch was useful and it made sense. It made no sense to remove something that has usefulness.

One example is how distorted the long press feels now to gain access to the keyboard cursor. They even had to limit the thing to the spacebar to activate and scrolling left to right sucks.

The other is in order to delete an app you must first "Rearrange" them in a submenu. :\

a quicker way: press and hold on an icon, as soon as haptic touch kicks in (small vibration), do a quick drag down of the icon. Then you get in "wiggly" mode instantly instead of waiting a long time for a longer haptic hold to kick in or choosing rearrange in the menu.

 

[DoctorApple]

You can drag the cursor now just with your finger on iOS 13. It’s so much more intuitive and easier. Try it!

I too missed it till I re-read the updates on iOS 13 and found this gem.

Besides the slight lag behind the input of 3D Touch, the one place I specifically miss 3D Touch is activating the cursor anywhere within the keyboard. It’s only a fraction more cumbersome to have to specifically choose the space bar.

That AND the pressure sensitive Live wallpapers were fun to play with while tripping or otherwise vibing.

 

[Lennholm]

What a total downgrade! Question: how does this work with apps that already implement their own long press feature? Wont that be broken now?

 

[Mabus51]

I guess I never really used 3D Touch. I can’t tell the difference from the X to the 11Pro. Meh