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New iPhone SE Supports Haptic Touch, With 3D Touch Now Officially Eliminated From Apple's iPhone Lineup

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The new iPhone SE, like the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, features support for Haptic Touch instead of 3D Touch, which means that 3D Touch has officially been eliminated from Apple's iPhone lineup as the now-discontinued iPhone 8 was the last iPhone Apple sold that supported 3D Touch.

iphonesehaptictouch.jpg

Apple first removed 3D Touch from the iPhone XR in 2018, replacing it with Haptic Touch. The feature was then rolled out to the entire 2019 iPhone lineup, and now, added to the iPhone SE.

Haptic Touch is similar to 3D Touch and offers a lot of the same functionality, but it is not pressure sensitive so there are no longer multiple functions for each press, such as the "Peek and Pop" gestures that were possible with 3D Touch.

Haptic Touch is more like a long press or a press and hold with haptic feedback, and like 3D Touch, it works throughout the iOS operating system. It can be used by pressing in a relevant location until a small haptic pop is felt under the finger and a secondary menu pops up, with content varying based on where the feature is used.

For those coming to an iPhone SE from an older phone with 3D Touch, the transition to Haptic Touch will feel unfamiliar at first because it's slower than the 3D Touch gestures, but because it ultimately works in the same way, most users should become accustomed to it quickly.

Eliminating 3D Touch in favor of Haptic Touch across the iPhone lineup allows Apple to provide a similar interface experience for all iPhone and iPad models. For more on how Haptic Touch works and where it can be used, make sure to check out our Haptic Touch guide.

Article Link: New iPhone SE Supports Haptic Touch, With 3D Touch Now Officially Eliminated From Apple's iPhone Lineup
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/15/iphone-se-haptic-touch/
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I will always miss this feature. Keyboard text selection—and text selection in general—has certainly gone downhill on iOS since it’s removal.

There were a lot of features tied to 3D Touch that allowed me to be faster at more complex tasks. I‘m worried we’ll never get that back.
 
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When my kids were younger this would have made for an awesome phone. I think Apple did a good job nailing a budget phone or for those that love small factor daily drivers.
 
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esh314 said:
Why does it say the battery life "lasts about the same as iPhone 8"? Shouldn't the lack of 3D Touch allow for a bigger battery, like it did in the iPhone 11 Pro?

(Seems like the A13 should also improve battery life.)
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Well, they could be using the same batteries as the iPhone 8 so no big change on that.
BugeyeSTI said:
Full functionality of 3D touch is one of the reasons my X is on 12.4.1 permanently. Unfortunately when I upgrade to the 6.1 12 Pro I'll have to deal with the loss of it but I've been using long press on the iPad so I'll manage..
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You can jailbreak and install a tweak called Orion, its not 1:1 (the pop feature doesnt work as it doesnt exist in iOS13) but you can disable haptic touch to avoid unwanted interactions when youre long pressing something. Also if you or someone do this, install NoTrackpadDelay. It fixes the delay that happens when you peek on the keyboard to move the cursor.
 
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MacRumors said:
Eliminating 3D Touch in favor of Haptic Touch across the iPhone lineup allows Apple to provide a similar interface experience for all iPhone and iPad models.
Click to expand...
This statement doesn't make sense. Apple is implementing a unique interface experience in the iPadOS compared to iOS.
 
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I'll miss 3dt, however in my ipad 7th gen, I don't miss the haptic feedback and do not think that is necessary. If I am going to suffer through loooooonnnnnnnggg press then don't annoy me with haptic feedback. I'm past that.
 
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The new way is not good at all.. having said that.. ipad's need haptic feedback! Harder to do on such a large screen.. I get it.. still.. Apple needs to find a way at some point.
 
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I always found 3D Touch kinda awkward but I wonder if I'll miss it when I upgrade my 8 to the new SE.
 
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I don't see how it is consistent across all systems, as iPads don't have taptic engines. The iPhone is still trying to do something unique with long touch with unique hardware (the taptic engine). So there's no reason they can't have unique 3D touch hardware as well. Plus iPad has many things iPhone does not: Pencil support, cursor support, different UI (split, side windows, sidecar), higher refresh rates.

I really like 3D touch. I find myself mindlessly using the way people tend to click pens mindlessly. It's very satisfying.
 
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Reactions: techfreak23, Feyl, xpxp2002 and 1 other person
Good Riddance. I was never able to get 3D Touch to work at all - whenever I wanted to use it, it'd either ignore me or treat it as a normal press, and it'd pop up all the time when I didn't want it.
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zilchfox said:
3D Touch was a fantastic feature, but it was hard to teach those who just don't understand it. I used it constantly since the iPhone 6S.
Click to expand...

I understood it in theory. In just never worked in practice.
 
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