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StumpyBloke

macrumors 603
Apr 21, 2012
5,366
5,919
England
3D Touch-ing the keyboard to use it as a mouse to move the cursor. I used that multiple times per day and I really miss that feature. Is there anything comparable that I'm missing?

For that alone, I wish we had 3D Touch as it was.

Yes, press and hold the space bar. I find it works just as well.

Edit: oopps akash beat me to it by 23 seconds LOL
 
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miamialley

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 28, 2008
3,499
966
California, USA
I'd forgotten about that, however, that does not fix it for me. I use Swiftkey because I like the number row showing at all times. The default iOS keyboard does not allow this function. Do we know of a third party keyboard that allows the number keys AND the space bar tap for moving the cursor?
 
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Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,533
10,787
Yeah. Space bar equivalent is not The same thing. first, you cannot “hard press” to start selecting a word. Second, the Cursor has to start from where you activate the cursor and move up, left, right, but not down, because there is not enough room to move cursor down. Space bar equivalent is a downgrade for sure.
 

Sndman2004

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2013
57
39
SF Bay Area, CA
Yeah. Space bar equivalent is not The same thing. first, you cannot “hard press” to start selecting a word. Second, the Cursor has to start from where you activate the cursor and move up, left, right, but not down, because there is not enough room to move cursor down. Space bar equivalent is a downgrade for sure.

If you tap a second finger on the keyboard after it’s in cursor mode you can select text, but I agree still not as good as 3D Touch!!
 

martin2345uk

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2013
1,441
1,172
Essex
Yeah. Space bar equivalent is not The same thing. first, you cannot “hard press” to start selecting a word. Second, the Cursor has to start from where you activate the cursor and move up, left, right, but not down, because there is not enough room to move cursor down. Space bar equivalent is a downgrade for sure.

Hold spacebar to activate, then you can quickly lift your finger and move it up, giving you the whole keyboard area to move the cursor.
 

MacDevil7334

Contributor
Oct 15, 2011
2,526
5,717
Austin TX
Hold spacebar to activate, then you can quickly lift your finger and move it up, giving you the whole keyboard area to move the cursor.
Great tip! Didn’t know that was an option. Figured I was stuck being constantly annoyed when having to move the cursor down in trackpad mode since the space bar is so close to the bottom!
 

MJedi

macrumors 6502a
Dec 16, 2010
878
352
I miss it on the Reminders app, where I can peek at the current and upcoming reminders. I know it can still be done using press and hold, but it takes a little bit longer (about a second) for the window to appear. It was faster with 3D Touch. But I guess it will just take some getting used to.
 

genomez

macrumors regular
Apr 1, 2006
122
18
Hold spacebar to activate, then you can quickly lift your finger and move it up, giving you the whole keyboard area to move the cursor.

Thanks for this tip! I was aware of the way to highlight (with a 2nd finger), but wasn't aware of the one you mentioned.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,533
10,787
Hold spacebar to activate, then you can quickly lift your finger and move it up, giving you the whole keyboard area to move the cursor.
Fantastic. Great tip. But 3D Touch version is still superior in this regard, as you don’t even need to lift your finger to achieve the same result.
 

StumpyBloke

macrumors 603
Apr 21, 2012
5,366
5,919
England
Fantastic. Great tip. But 3D Touch version is still superior in this regard, as you don’t even need to lift your finger to achieve the same result.

I’ve just tried it and I don’t need to lift my finger. It works absolutely identically to the 3D Touch version on my XS max (to move the cursor around).
 
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Supermallet

macrumors 68000
Sep 19, 2014
1,808
1,445
Personally I prefer haptic touch over 3D Touch. While 3D Touch allowed for more options in a given context, I frequently found that the line between a gentle press and a hard press was so fine that I’d see the gentle press action zip by and the hard press action activate almost immediately, even if I didn’t want it to. Peek and pop is a perfect example of this, most of the time the system went straight to pop even when I wanted just to peek, and if I tried to press more lightly, it would be too light of a press and nothing would happen. Haptic touch is far more consistent.
 
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martin2345uk

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2013
1,441
1,172
Essex
I’ve just tried it and I don’t need to lift my finger. It works absolutely identically to the 3D Touch version on my XS max (to move the cursor around).
You don't "need" to lift your finger, it's just that if you don't then if you want to move the cursor down, it's difficult because your finger is already at the bottom of the keyboard on the cursor.
 

muckymucky

macrumors member
Jul 17, 2008
71
11
Personally I prefer haptic touch over 3D Touch. While 3D Touch allowed for more options in a given context, I frequently found that the line between a gentle press and a hard press was so fine that I’d see the gentle press action zip by and the hard press action activate almost immediately, even if I didn’t want it to. Peek and pop is a perfect example of this, most of the time the system went straight to pop even when I wanted just to peek, and if I tried to press more lightly, it would be too light of a press and nothing would happen. Haptic touch is far more consistent.
i'm the opposite. i've always had issues with long hold because i would initiate 3D touch. i can see why from a developers standpoint, consolidating gestures is good for developers and saves apple money and adds more room for battery life. i just dont like it. 3D touch master race checking in.
 

blulegend

macrumors regular
Apr 15, 2008
196
32
I only sort of miss 3D Touch. Reason being it was inconsistent for me. Most of the time hard pressing worked great. But sometimes no matter how hard or long I pressed it wouldn’t register. Now I just need to remember to long press and I’m sure the muscle memory will change and things will be more consistent.
 

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Jul 31, 2007
2,106
691
The absolute one place I miss 3D touch is in Spotlight. I have alot of apps and while they added alot of long presses in the home screen, i like to 3D touch right after I found the app in spotlight and it works! but on the new iphones, they don't have this feature.

It really bothers me.
 

44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,491
I still use 3D Touch all the time, but what I am noticing as of late, is a lot of my third-party applications are ceasing updates that promote 3D Touch. I’m guessing they obviously are aware Apple is no longer supporting it, therefore they’re abandoning any further development for that specific application.
 
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akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,818
16,896
I still use 3D Touch all the time, but what I am noticing as of late, is a lot of my third-party applications are ceasing updates that promote 3D Touch. I’m guessing they obviously are aware Apple is no longer supporting it, therefore they’re abandoning any further development for that specific application.

Yep I was an avid 3D Touch user and used to use it a lot to launch an app at a specific view directly from the home screen but with the new implementation a lot of my apps have lost that functionality unless they update to the new way of handling gesture input.
 

ventmore

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2008
787
331
The absolute one place I miss 3D touch is in Spotlight. I have alot of apps and while they added alot of long presses in the home screen, i like to 3D touch right after I found the app in spotlight and it works! but on the new iphones, they don't have this feature.

It really bothers me.
Long press works for me in spotlight on my iPhone X with 3D Touch switched off, and also on my iPad Pro.
 

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Jul 31, 2007
2,106
691
Works on my 11 pro max, if you guys are referring to when you do a search for an app in spotlight and then long press on it and you get a context menu. This is on iOS 13.1.2.

I haven't updated to the latest OS. Thanks for the update.
[automerge]1569970191[/automerge]
UPDATE: I'm long pressing the mail app in spotlight, but I don't see the context menu. This is iOS13.1.2
1569970150887.png
 
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