Most Useful 3D Touch Gestures on iPhone

[elie195]

For the App Store "Update All" flakiness described in the article: I wasn’t able to see the option at first, when the App Store showed no badges for available updates. So here’s what I did to get it to work:

1. Open App Store, go to Updates tab, pull down to refresh.
2. Apps now show some updates available
3. Force-quit the App Store app
4. 3D-Touch the App Store app and you should now see the option to Update All

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I really love all the functionality they keep pushing into 3d Touch! I love how much more useful the ipad is with...

:|

 

[WilliamG]

Thank you so much for this article. I knew about all of them except the Force Touch keyboard. Man alive it's like waking up.

Boy do I feel like a fool. My excuse is that my last phone was the 5S. Still though, I should've known, seeing how much time I spend on here.

Thanks again.

3D Touch on the keyboard makes 3D Touch worth it for that one thing alone.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

Haha I wish I had a 3D Touch compatible device. I’d love to use some of these.

 

[macfanrutler]

I think my favorite 3D touch feature is in the Notification Center. I often go a couple of days and forget about them. A good 3D touch later and I get the option to clear them all.

 

[djlythium]

When 'prioritizing app downloads' makes it into the Top 5, the feature is near-useless. Srsly, $20 says the vast majority of people who have an iPhone with 3DT aren't downloading apps so often they need to prioritize them.

 

[bluecoast]

I agree with iOS perhaps needing some of its bloat trimmed a little, but you have to remember how much more complex and capable the software and hardware has become.

I like 3D Touch and use it regularly. It’s a good way of increasing functionality without overwhelming the user. I’ve been critical of iOS 11 - mainly the battery/throttling mess - but overall iOS 11.3 on my 6S is one of my best smartphone experiences.

Ok fair enough. However I can’t see that 3D Touch is anything other than a dead end as I don’t think that the iPad is going to have it.

I think it would be better for Apple to be consistent on both devices ie and not having swipe up do different things on each device, for example!

 

[DoubleFlyaway]

3D Touch is a feature that's been around since the 2015 release of the iPhone 6s, and it's become an integral gesture system on all of Apple's latest iPhones.

Though it's been around for a while, there are several hidden and less obvious 3D Touch gestures that you may have forgotten or might not be aware of, especially if you don't use the feature often. In our most recent YouTube video and in the guide below, we've highlighted some of the most useful and lesser known 3D Touch gestures.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

3D Touch Cursor

Whenever you're typing something using the default iOS keyboard on the iPhone, if you 3D Touch, the keyboard turns blank and morphs into a trackpad that allows you to quickly move the cursor on the screen through the text you've written.

This is a useful gesture that allows you to make quick edits without having to reach up and tap the display.

If you hold the cursor over a word for a short length of time, you can also use it to select text for deleting multiple words, copying and pasting, formatting, and other purposes.

You can use this cursor gesture in Mail, Notes, Messages, and more on 3D Touch-enabled devices running iOS 11.

Control Center

In Control Center on devices running iOS 11, you can 3D Touch on almost all of the included icons to get additional control options and shortcut access.

Some of the available options are listed below:

[*]Wi-Fi - 3D Touch the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth box to get additional options for AirDrop and Personal Hotspot.
[*]Music - 3D Touch for additional Music control options both for the iPhone and for connected devices that include HomePod and Apple TV.
[*]Brightness - 3D Touch the brightness control to see a larger slider and to access options for Night Shift and True Tone.
[*]Volume - 3D Touch to see a larger slider.
[*]Flashlight - 3D Touch to change the brightness of the rear flash, aka the "Flashlight." There are four brightness levels.
[*]Timer - 3D Touch to choose a timer length using a built-in slider bar.
[*]Calculator - 3D Touch to copy your last result.
[*]Camera - 3D Touch to access quick options for taking a selfie, recording a video, recording a Slo-mo video, or taking a portrait.
[*]Home - 3D Touch to access controls for your favorite scenes and accessories.
[*]Screen Recording - 3D Touch for options that include screen recording to camera roll or Facebook, turning the microphone on and off, and starting a recording.
[*]Wallet - 3D Touch for a shortcut to your default credit or debit card and an option to access your last transaction.
[*]Notes - 3D Touch to access shortcuts to create a new note, a new checklist, a new photo, or a new sketch.
[*]Remote - 3D Touch for a full Apple TV Remote interface.

Prioritizing App Downloads

When you're downloading a bunch of updates from the App Store, if you 3D Touch on an app that's pending, you can force it to download first. This is useful if you're stuck with an app that's loading but need to access it quickly.

You can also cancel downloads and pause downloads with this feature.

Bonus: In the App Store itself, if you 3D Touch on the icon, you can update all of your apps with a quick tap that doesn't require actually opening up the App Store app and navigating to the Updates tab. There are also shortcuts for accessing your purchased apps, redeeming a gift card or promo code, and conducting a search. Note: The "Update All" icon doesn't seem to appear reliably at all times, which may be due to a bug.

Previewing, Sharing, and Saving Photos

In the Photos app, if you 3D Touch on a thumbnail, you can see a preview of the image without needing to tap to open it, which is known as a Peek and Pop gesture. Swipe up after the initial 3D Touch to get access to options to copy a photo, share a photo, favorite a photo, or show additional photos from the same day.

You can use this same gesture in Safari and other apps that have images, such as Messages, Mail, and Apple News. For example, 3D Touch on an image in Safari, swipe upward, and you'll see options to save the image to your camera roll or copy it. Make sure to 3D Touch and then immediately swipe, because if you continue to hold down it will initiate a full "pop" gesture which eliminates the quick save option.

Bonus: 3D Touch on the Photos app icon to get access some fun and useful shortcuts to your most recent photos, your favorite photos, photos from one year ago, or a search interface.

Third-Party App Shortcuts

Apple made 3D Touch available to third-party developers, and there are now hundreds of popular apps that have incorporated it, offering up new options on compatible iPhones.

3D Touch, for example, enables pressure sensitive drawing and writing in note taking and sketching apps, and it's even been incorporated as a control method in some games. Blackbox, Asphalt 8: Airborne, and BADLAND 2 are all examples of games that incorporate 3D Touch in some way.

On a more basic level, most apps have Home screen shortcuts accessible using 3D Touch. Instagram, for example, lets you access the camera, create a new post, view activity, or switch accounts using 3D Touch options, while Facebook has shortcuts for things like scanning a QR code, searching, or writing a post.

Many apps also support 3D Touch gestures in app. For example, within Instagram or Facebook, 3D Touch on a thumbnail or a link for a preview of the content. These kind of Peek and Pop gestures have been built into quite a few third-party apps for a consistent usage experience on devices that support 3D Touch.

3D Touch-Compatible Devices

3D Touch continues to be a feature that's limited to the iPhone, and it's enabled through a built-in Taptic engine included in every generation since the iPhone 6s. 3D Touch is available on the following iPhones:

[*]iPhone 6s
[*]iPhone 6s Plus
[*]iPhone 7
[*]iPhone 7 Plus
[*]iPhone 8
[*]iPhone 8 Plus
[*]iPhone X

Conclusion

3D Touch can do a whole lot more than what's included in this guide, and the best way to discover everything is liberal use of the feature. 3D Touch on third-party app icons to see what shortcuts are available, 3D Touch within apps to see if there are built-in 3D Touch gestures, and give it a try in all of Apple's apps, most of which have been built with 3D Touch integration.

Use 3D Touch in apps Messages, Safari, and Mail on links and photos to preview content with Peek and Pop or to find new sharing options, and 3D Touch on notifications to get more information.

Have a favorite 3D Touch gesture that we didn't cover in the guide? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: Most Useful 3D Touch Gestures on iPhone

This was helpful, thank you.

 

[S G]

Honestly, if my next iPhone didn't have 3D touch I think the 3D touch cursor is the only thing I would miss.

Based on my iPads I think most other useful 3D touch features can be accomplished with a long press on devices without 3D touch anyway...

It's annoying that Apple will not let cursor control without 3D touch for iPhone SE. Google keyboard does it well enough by just swiping normally across the space bar...

 

[xalea]

Wow! This was so informative. I don't know if I'm just an idiot or what but I didn't know most of this. lol.

 

[robantonelli]

Force touch on any folder to quickly change its name

 

[cmChimera]

Thanks for the article, but 3D Touch is terrible!

It smacks of iOS becoming way too complex over the years.

Personally, the only app I ever used 3D Touch quite a bit in, was Apple Music. But that’s only because Apple Music is an absolute mess, UX-wise.

I get that it’s the Touch equivalent to a power user right click on desktop. But it means we all get to pay extra for a harder to make screen component that a) adds cost to each iPhone b) is more expensive to replace when it breaks c) adds on weight to the phone plus reduces battery space & thus overall battery capacity.

I’d rather Apple take a good look at iOS and strip it of the any excessive complexity. Long presses should be ok enough. And surely Apple Pencil is the future?

Thanks for the article though - it was really well written.

Is this a joke?

 

[afd]

Control centre Remote? I can’t see any difference with a tap or a force press.

 

[martyjmclean]

I was so excited to get my iPhone 6s and having 3D Touch, I wasn't disappointed! Cursor is my favourite feature and it should be more well known.

3D Touch to change the brightness of the rear flash

I use this often, especially at night.

3D Touch to access controls for your favourite scenes and accessories.

This is quite neat for quickly turning lights on/off.

The "Update All" icon doesn't seem to appear reliably at all times, which may be due to a bug.

Update All appears every time there is an update, what is the point of it being there if there are no updates?

 

[cfc]

If you want to see a truly unique use of 3D Touch then check out Poison Maps, which uses it to allow you to pan long distances across a map.

The harder you press the map the more it zooms out. Then keep pressing and pan across the map to where you want (it auto pans at the screen edge). When you let go it zooms back in to the new area. It only requires one touch of one finger, so is much quicker than pinching to zoom out, swiping across, and then pinching to zoom back in.

It would be great for other applications too. For example a document viewer where users generally work at the same scale but want to periodically navigate at a higher scale.

 

[recoil80]

I'd say 80% of my 3D touch usage is on the keyboard. The remaining 20% is mostly app switching, the gesture they ditched in iOS 11 and brought back after a couple of months.
I only seldom use app shortcuts, the most useful one is the camera in my opinion, if I need to take a selfie or shoot a video I use the shortcut otherwise I just open the camera app and shot a live photo.

I don't miss 3D touch on my iPad, while I use it a lot on the Apple Watch to dismiss notifications.
As for my Macbook pro I like the trackpad, usually I leave the mouse in the bag, but I don't use force touch a lot.

 

[bluecoast]

The very first thing I done when I got my iPhone 8 was to disable the 3d touch.

I didn’t know that you could do that. I’ve just tried it. Already half forgetting that 3D Touch ever existed!

 

[827538]

Ok fair enough. However I can’t see that 3D Touch is anything other than a dead end as I don’t think that the iPad is going to have it.

I think it would be better for Apple to be consistent on both devices ie and not having swipe up do different things on each device, for example!

I agree it should also be on the iPad.

 

[mlewin]

Thank you so much for this article. I knew about all of them except the Force Touch keyboard. Man alive it's like waking up.

Boy do I feel like a fool. My excuse is that my last phone was the 5S. Still though, I should've known, seeing how much time I spend on here.

Thanks again.

An Apple Store employee showed me that soon after 3D Touch came out. It remains the single most useful 3D Touch gesture. You shouldn’t feel foolish, though. If I’d tripped over it myself, I probably would’ve deemed it a bug.

 

[philosopherdog]

Long press on the left edge brings up the app switcher. Handy.

 

[mlewin]

Bonus: In the App Store itself, if you 3D Touch on the icon, you can update all of your apps with a quick tap that doesn't require actually opening up the App Store app and navigating to the Updates tab. There are also shortcuts for accessing your purchased apps, redeeming a gift card or promo code, and conducting a search. Note: The "Update All" icon doesn't seem to appear reliably at all times, which may be due to a bug.

In my experience, the “Update All” choice only appears if the app is unaware of pending updates.

 

[QuarterSwede]

When 'prioritizing app downloads' makes it into the Top 5, the feature is near-useless. Srsly, $20 says the vast majority of people who have an iPhone with 3DT aren't downloading apps so often they need to prioritize them.

Ever get a new device and download ALL your apps at once when restoring? Yeah, it’s incredibly useful then and I’m glad it’s there.
[doublepost=1524144554][/doublepost]

Long press on the left edge brings up the app switcher. Handy.

3D Touch the left edge and swipe to the right switches to the previous app. Stopping in the middle brings up the task switcher. Love it.

Slowed down to show how it works. It’s a lot faster and smoother than that normally.

 

[keithdoc]

In case anyone is feeling inadequate (your home screen doesn't show what's illustrated in the article):

You can customize your control center / home screen to add/remove items.
Settings / Control Center / Customize Controls

I vaguely remember doing this on my iPad Pro when control center first came out - completely forgot until now.

 

[CostaMoses]

I love these types of articles. Thank you!

 

[cerimorgan]

My second favorite 3d touch (behind the cursor movement) is clicking on the Safari icon and choosing New Tab. This loads up an empty tab in Safari and also brings up the keyboard. Lets you get very quickly from the home screen to typing in a website.