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Messages in iOS 10: How to Use Digital Touch

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Apr 12, 2001
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In iOS 10, the Messages app is gaining Digital Touch, a communication feature that was previously limited to watchOS. With Digital Touch, you can send friends and family drawings, heartbeats, fireballs, kisses, and more, all with just a few taps.


Sketches, taps, and other Digital Touch messages created on your iPhone are also viewable on the Apple Watch and vice versa, giving you plenty of ways to express yourself. Here's how to use the new feature.

openingdigitaltouch.jpg

Accessing Digital Touch

  1. Open the Messages app.
  2. Open an existing conversation or start a new one.
  3. Tap the icon that looks like two fingers over a heart.
  4. Tap on the arrow on the right hand side to expand the Digital Touch window.
You can send taps and drawings by using the smaller Digital Touch interface that replaces the keyboard, but there's more screen real estate to work with when it's expanded to the size of the full iPhone display.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: Messages in iOS 10: How to Use Digital Touch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-10-messages-digital-touch/
Thanks for posting these little tutorials! They've made learning all the new little things very easy for my mum
 
Serious question: Are there any meaningful applications for this feature to be expected in the future? I can't think of a situation where one of those few animations would benefit a conversation or express something an emoji won't.
 
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The "digital touch" messages seem to send instantly. Example - I press/hold with one finger to send the "fireball", and as soon as I lift my finger from the screen it automatically sends - no "blue send button", no "do you want to send" prompt...just sends instantly. Am I doing it wrong or missing something? Not really a fan of having these messages just send on their own.
 
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sdilley14 said:
The "digital touch" messages seem to send instantly. Example - I press/hold with one finger to send the "fireball", and as soon as I lift my finger from the screen it automatically sends - no "blue send button", no "do you want to send" prompt...just sends instantly. Am I doing it wrong or missing something? Not really a fan of having these messages just send on their own.
Click to expand...

Same problem here.
 
I think these stickers and animated gifs are cute and fun. However, it seems that it is addressing a desire by users to communicate less with the written word. When I heard a few years ago that teens were communicating with each other by text, I thought it was great and will increase literacy (in the United States). This was also something I observed among the teens in my family. But now that trend seems to be reversing. I have read that Apple adopted these visual features because of the trend among teens and pre-teens to send images rather than text.

Other than cutesy and emotional messages, I am trying to figure out a business case usefulness for these features. Has anyone found any that they would like to share.

I am impressed with the technology.
 
Cineplex said:
Okay. The messages app is a mess! The interface is not clean and intuitive at all. Its is so anti-Apple it's not funny.
Click to expand...

My iPads messages app is very clean. I don't even have an option for sending photos or emojis or lips or stickers or anything aside from basic text anymore. Just a little non-functional arrow button where everything else should be. Couldn't be happier.

Ooh, I can sketch though.

And I can paste photos in if I copy them via the clipboard with the still wonky selection & highlight tool from another app. Minimalist messages. I like it.
 

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sdilley14 said:
The "digital touch" messages seem to send instantly. Example - I press/hold with one finger to send the "fireball", and as soon as I lift my finger from the screen it automatically sends - no "blue send button", no "do you want to send" prompt...just sends instantly. Am I doing it wrong or missing something? Not really a fan of having these messages just send on their own.
Click to expand...
Same here too.
 
Cineplex said:
Okay. The messages app is a mess! The interface is not clean and intuitive at all. Its is so anti-Apple it's not funny.
Click to expand...
It has become rather bloated in its presentation.
[doublepost=1473923919][/doublepost]Have to say, I really like the digital touch features on Apple products. They allow users to think about what they are doing, allowing them to be creative. Apple should get back to focusing on empowering users to be creative.
 
I would prefer the "adult" setting for Messages, which removes most of the new/cute features. Many of the new features are obviously aimed at the under-16 age group. And yes, the interface with all that cutsie stuff is a mess.
 
sdilley14 said:
The "digital touch" messages seem to send instantly. Example - I press/hold with one finger to send the "fireball", and as soon as I lift my finger from the screen it automatically sends - no "blue send button", no "do you want to send" prompt...just sends instantly. Am I doing it wrong or missing something? Not really a fan of having these messages just send on their own.
Click to expand...
Yes, I had the same problem when playing around with it. I only wanted to see how it worked and ended up sending out quite a few fireballs to a friend who hadn't even updated yet.

I hope they fix that.
 
In the betas, there was a way to send fireworks full screen. I don't see this anymore on the released version. Perhaps it is there but I can't find it.

EDIT - nevermind, I found it. You have to deselect reduce motion in settings.
 
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Sheboygan said:
I would prefer the "adult" setting for Messages, which removes most of the new/cute features. Many of the new features are obviously aimed at the under-16 age group. And yes, the interface with all that cutsie stuff is a mess.
Click to expand...
Why is it adult or some other type of irrelevant overgeneralized stereotypical grouping that needs to be used there. You want a set of options to control what is available in the Messages app (and perhaps other places), it's that simple and straightforward. For the time being, simply not using those things mostly does the job in a similar fashion.
 
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Yes, this feature can be useful. I was discussing a machine learning concept and quickly drew a simple diagram.
 
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