TouchBar is awesome. Weird it didn't take off.

[aka777]

Just picked up a smaller MacBook 13 with the Touch Bar and the functionality is awesome. I don't understand why people disliked it so much, as it has literally accelerated my usage. I would love to see more devices with this, as the functionality is endless. It's essentially a secondary separate touchscreen but alas Apple has discontinued this feature.

Anyone else share this experience?

 

[GMShadow]

As someone who's used a TB equipped Mac for the last 3 years, I didn't really have strong feelings either way, though I had the later revision with a physical Esc key. That said, I've been noticing more errant behavior under Sonoma (it loves to pop up the password prompt on input boxes that aren't for passwords) and I don't expect I'll miss the Touch Bar on my MBA.

 

[Iwavvns]

It's essentially a secondary separate touchscreen but alas Apple has discontinued this feature.

It's also has a separate operating system, it runs bridgeOS and can be quite troublesome. I was happy to see that "feature" removed.

 

[JonnyMacx86]

Just picked up a smaller MacBook 13 with the Touch Bar and the functionality is awesome. I don't understand why people disliked it so much, as it has literally accelerated my usage. I would love to see more devices with this, as the functionality is endless. It's essentially a secondary separate touchscreen but alas Apple has discontinued this feature.

Anyone else share this experience?

Yes, for those few of us who found ways to work it into our workflow, the TouchBar was a godsend.

 

[Fishrrman]

Too.
Many.
Problems.

(both hardware & software)

 

[JPack]

For most users, it was a solution to a problem that never existed.

Most people didn’t want remappable keys. They wanted volume and brightness buttons to be permanent. The hardware itself was known to be unreliable.

 

[playtech1]

Sorry, but I can't agree. There may have been a way to do it better that I could have gotten on board with, but for me physical function keys are far preferable. More predictable and tactile - which trumped the aesthetics and flexibility for me.

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

If nothing else, the thing lacked a Retina display and Haptics. Apple, who has succeeded brilliantly at replicating physical buttons with haptics and glass, didn’t think to demand haptics when replacing an entire row of keys on a keyboard. That is a head scratcher for sure. I can only assume that haptics were planned for a future Touch Bar, but was scrapped when it became clear that the new MBP design was loathed overall from the I/O to the flawed Keyboard to the Touch Bar itself, and was going to be replaced with a new design in the end.

 

[zorinlynx]

It's also has a separate operating system, it runs bridgeOS and can be quite troublesome. I was happy to see that "feature" removed.

I always found it so absurd that Apple drove the TouchBar with a completely different CPU and OS. Way to go adding so much extra complication to a function that should have been just built into MacOS itself.

 

[Iwavvns]

I always found it so absurd that Apple drove the TouchBar with a completely different CPU and OS. Way to go adding so much extra complication to a function that should have been just built into MacOS itself.

Agreed. And, that Touch Bar was basically a heavily modified iPhone screen so it needed some kind of OS. I think all MacBooks that have TouchID are still running bridgeOS for that TouchID button. I was looking through some logs on my MacBook Air M1 and still see references to bridgeOS, and this machine doesn't have the Touch Bar. If you remember bridgeOS was what was used in the T2 chip, M1 machines no longer have that T2 chip but bridgeOS is still there for TouchID.

 

[jb310]

Well, to adjust the volume on physical keys, you just:

1) Press the key you want to adjust volume up or down

To adjust volume on Touch Bar keys, you have to:

1) Press the Touch Bar to turn it on in case it fell asleep
2) Press the volume key 🔉
3) Finally, you can adjust the volume

So assuming there's no bugs and the display isn't acting up, even simple adjustments take 2x to 3x as much effort compared to physical keys. It might not seem like a big deal, but after a while it kind of becomes a hassle. And if the Touch Bar did have bugs, a system restart is the only reliable way to fix it.

To be fair, the Touch Bar did have some nice features, especially with certain apps, but in the end, I think people just decided the potential upsides just weren't worth the hassle (or the bugs). Maybe if Apple stuck kept it for a few more generations, the issues could have been ironed out? Who knows. 🤷‍♂️

 

[dmccloud]

When I first switched to an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro, I was sure I would miss the Touch Bar. A week into using the new machine and I had already forgotten it existed.

 

[Iwavvns]

..I was sure I would miss the Touch Bar. A week into using the new machine and I had already forgotten it existed.

That says quite a bit.

 

[Falhófnir]

I don't think it is particularly weird it didn't take off given it was only ever on one line of Macs, and not even the best selling model(s). If they'd gone all in and put it on the Air and the desktop magic keyboard as well, there might have been more incentive for developers to come up with more useful & compelling features in their apps, but why bother when it's only available to a relatively small subset of your users?

 

[Tagbert]

And Apple, themselves, never did anything with it. They put it out and never revised it. Never put it into other computers. Never gave it more features. Never gave users a way to customize it. It was an orphan from the day it shipped.

 

[Elusi]

Well, to adjust the volume on physical keys, you just:

1) Press the key you want to adjust volume up or down

To adjust volume on Touch Bar keys, you have to:

1) Press the Touch Bar to turn it on in case it fell asleep
2) Press the volume key 🔉
3) Finally, you can adjust the volume

So assuming there's no bugs and the display isn't acting up, even simple adjustments take 2x to 3x as much effort compared to physical keys. It might not seem like a big deal, but after a while it kind of becomes a hassle. And if the Touch Bar did have bugs, a system restart is the only reliable way to fix it.

To be fair, the Touch Bar did have some nice features, especially with certain apps, but in the end, I think people just decided the potential upsides just weren't worth the hassle (or the bugs). Maybe if Apple stuck kept it for a few more generations, the issues could have been ironed out? Who knows. 🤷‍♂️

I get this though 1 didn't happen in my particular use-case but I imagine if you're blasting music and leave the computer maybe it turns off.

2 and 3 could be combined as you could just press down on the symbol and start dragging immediately. This did however not present itself in visual cues.

Ultimately Apple could have just made a volume up and down symbol. BetterTouchTool supports this and together with widgets and other cool gizmos it makes the touch-bar way more awesome.

 

[pshufd]

They didn't make any normal keyboards with it, didn't push software developers to integrate it into their products and the tactile key feelings are missing. Maybe a Touch Bar in addition to the function row would have been a better idea.

And then they had hardware failure problems. It was just poorly thought out and incomplete in their product lines.

 

[SjoukeW]

I struggled for years with the Touch Bar, happy my new Mac has none.
As a software developer many functions are under the function keys which I use often. On my mac the function keys were on the Touch Bar.
The function keys on the Touch Bar I can’t find blindly and I often hit the wrong “key” by accident, since I couldn’t feel them. Hitting the wrong key stopped the debugger making me restart it, loosing 2 minutes again for instance. Lots of frustration.
Now I have physical keys again I can use the shortcuts again while typing and not looking at the keyboard, for somebody like me who can find all the keys blindly a huge plus. It speeds up my typing a lot.
I would even have paid more to get rid of the Touch Bar and get keys instead.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Kinda like it but it needs haptic feedback and it needs to be flawlessly responsive. Lost count of how many times mine clearly registers a touch but there's no response from macOS. It's more like a press firmly and hope for the best bar. Nice concept but half heartedly implemented and then abandoned. Meh.

 

[leifp]

I loved the idea of the element. I hated its execution: it replaced way more useful buttons rather than adding to them. If they’d just added the touch bar rather than replace the Function keys, I imagine it’d still be around today…

 

[Jim Lahey]

I loved the idea of the element. I hated its execution: it replaced way more useful buttons rather than adding to them. If they’d just added the touch bar rather than replace the Function keys, I imagine it’d still be around today…

Yep. Could have been great but Apple delivered it undercooked and then bailed out. Missed opportunity.

 

[iMacDragon]

Also they just never quite got it working properly in everything, even years later safari tab previews still glitched all the time. It just never felt fully baked. Had it been in addition to function keys as others have stated, I'd have been a lot more forgiving.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The real problem was lack of adaption on desktop computers & external keyboards. Yeah, I could use the Touch Bar when portable but then when I plug in at my desk - no more Touch Bar. So no incentive to really fold it into my workflow.

 

[dizmonk]

I started out wanting to like it but after about a month - I hated it. Like really hated it. As an earlier poster noted, I just want to change the brightness or volume and it's WAY easier and faster with physical keys.

 

[pshufd]

I started out wanting to like it but after about a month - I hated it. Like really hated it. As an earlier poster noted, I just want to change the brightness or volume and it's WAY easier and faster with physical keys.

Apple eventually got the message and ditched it. It can take Apple a while to admit a mistake.