watchOS 7 Removes Force Touch Support From Your Apple Watch, Here's Everything That's Changed

[MrCrowbar]

I wasn't aware of most of these functions, most of them could be done in different ways anyway.
Force touch always felt a bit awkward to me... I do love the haptic feedback however when it's registering the hard touch. I'm curious, do you still get the haptic feedback when long-pressing?

I do very much enjoy how in iOS 13, it shows you a widget of the app in addition to the menu. Different widgets than the normal ones too.

 

[User 6502]

Force touch does not work on watchOS 7 on any Apple Watch anymore

I have reported that to apple.com/feedback as a bug.

 

[odonnelly99]

You lot are such suckers. Hasn't Hollywood (and history) taught you anything? We're all bad guys and not to be trusted.

Never trust a nation of millions of people who willingly and without question bend the knee before one of their own, simply because of that individuals “royal bloodline.”

Hey, but also, maybe don’t trust a nation of people who somehow allowed the guy who was the inspiration for the 80s redesign of Lex Luthor to become President. (FYI, I’m one of his “losers” who willingly went to war. Oops, I guess.)

But seriously, Hollywood moved to individuals of Eastern European descent for their bad guys like fifteen years ago. A good example of that is Hannibal Lecter being British* in Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, and the rest of the films, while in the NBC series (which was highly underrated, imo), he’s now portrayed of being of Eastern European descent.


*Yes, I’m aware that he’s not British in the novels/source material.

 

[bobob]

Kudos to Apple - - touch should always be by consent, never by force.

 

[twistedpixel8]

There is plenty of reason. There is a cost associated with maintaining the software to support the functionality.

Oh boo hoo: trillion dollar tech company doesn’t want to spend a few thousand $$ supporting a feature on devices barely a year old. Might hurt those hundreds of billions of $$ in revenue.

 

[bobob]

Glad they did. It made discoverability difficult and got in the way of actual long-press gestures on the phone at least.

This is the key word on this subject.

 

[whatgift]

While I understand peoples frustration over the removal of force touch, it's going to be hard to mount a compelling legal argument when no actual functionality has been removed - all the functions that force touch performed are still there, just in a different form.

 

[MrUNIMOG]

I don't think the removal of Force Touch hardware from the new models is cost-driven, since the hardware used in the Watch for pressure sensing actually is very cheap–and unlike what had been used for 3D Touch in iPhone, it also doesn't add to the thickness of the display in any significant way.

However, disabling any Force Touch functionality for older Watches that do have the hardware is unacceptable.
Apple needs to do better–why can't they handle this like 3D Touch, which with iOS 13 even got better for older iPhones?

 

[k1121j]

This sucks really who thought this was a good idea to make it more difficult to use your watch and phone and in many cases made it take longer to perform the same actions?????????????

 

[GadgetBen]

Just got my Series 6!!

I’ve just been swimming and found that you can open and navigate the watch now when it’s wet much more easily!

Was this a feature of Series 5? It certainly is new since my Series 4.

Macrumors you need to investigate this.

 

[44267547]

It makes complete sense they removed it. Force touch/3D touch were essentially the same thing, which Apple really didn’t market this feature. So how is the consumer to fully understand its capabilities when there’s no real ‘demo‘ of this product, which just makes it more confusing. It had its purpose, but was over-shadowed by other features on the Apple Watch that consumers had no idea what it was.

 

[CheesePuff]

I would use Force Touch all the time to clear all notifications :/

Now they waste screen space to have a dedicated always showing clear all notifications button, a new message button in Messages, etc. So all Series 3 - 5 devices have Force Touch hardware but no longer works at all, while iOS 14 on all iPhones XS and before still has and supports Force Touch in the OS.. doesn't make sense.

 

[sdf]

I didn’t go through the list, but number two definitely still works.

 

[ChrisBos]

I was wary from the moment I heard it would be going. And after a few days, can say I genuinely hate the change and find using my watch less convenient. IMO this was a critical feature for Watch, and use experience took a big hit here.

 

[kc9hzn]

I’ve been using the beta for a month or two now. People talk about how Force Touch was faster, but I wonder if that’s actually true or if it merely felt fast. Granted, clearing all notifications isn’t as easy or fast now (though scrolling to the top of a scroll view is pretty quick with the Digital Crown), but, especially in third party apps, force touch would often just be used to show some buttons that could have easily been in the UI instead of hidden in the force touch overlay. Granted, the only two situations where I used force touch on a daily basis were clearing notifications and changing watch faces.

I also have to say that, if my watch were at the wrong angle, force touch would be downright uncomfortable, almost painful, feeling (too much pressure on my wrist), especially if my hand were in a fist, angled down (which I’d commonly do to make it easier to use the crown and to check time). Besides, I usually found that it took me a moment to apply enough pressure to activate either Force Touch or 3D Touch, in that regard, it was functionally no different than a long press in day to day usage.

 

[Denzo]

That really sucks that in today’s day and age you don’t have the choice of what to use.. especially when you more than likely paid for the watch with the function there.
I don’t mind updates to models that come out with new stuff... but now new updates come out and render parts of things I own own useless. That’s it mm

 

[recoil80]

Besides, I usually found that it took me a moment to apply enough pressure to activate either Force Touch or 3D Touch, in that regard, it was functionally no different than a long press in day to day usage.

Ditto. Long press would have been ok from the get go, they decided to go for a force touch adding complexity to the hardware for nothing.
The main problem with 3D touch, even on the iPhone, has always been discoverability. You don't know if the function is there, you force press the first time and try to see if something happens. That's bad UI, and they finally figured it out.

 

[urbanslaughter1997]

The only one that's an improvement is the weather one, where tapping the screen lets you cycle through the viewing options. Having to go into settings first, in order to change my calendar view is a HORRIBLE solution. It couldn't be more awkward. People talking about how with force touch the issue was discoverability. Well, now, if I want to change the calendar view I have to go out of the calendar and go into settings to change it. How is that more discoverable? I would never have even known that I could change the view without force touch.

 

[kc9hzn]

The only one that's an improvement is the weather one, where tapping the screen lets you cycle through the viewing options. Having to go into settings first, in order to change my calendar view is a HORRIBLE solution. It couldn't be more awkward. People talking about how with force touch the issue was discoverability. Well, now, if I want to change the calendar view I have to go out of the calendar and go into settings to change it. How is that more discoverable? I would never have even known that I could change the view without force touch.

To be honest, I usually don’t use the calendar app, but then, my schedule is largely the same from week to week. Switching views on the calendar app is something I almost never did. When I need to check my calendar weeks out, I tend either to open my phone or my paper weekly agenda (faster to find the date and write only as much info as I need than it is to open the phone and fill all the required and/or optional info I populate into the calendar). So Up Next or List is almost always the view I want.

Edit: Actually, do you habitually switch between calendar views on the Watch? Or did the watch open into one view, and you needed to switch into the view you preferred. If the latter, this is an improvement, since it’ll stay in one view.

 

[russell_314]

I have reported that to apple.com/feedback as a bug.

Great slow down the bug reporting process with fake bug reports so real bugs will take longer to get fixed ?‍♂️

 

[russell_314]

That really sucks that in today’s day and age you don’t have the choice of what to use.. especially when you more than likely paid for the watch with the function there.
I don’t mind updates to models that come out with new stuff... but now new updates come out and render parts of things I own own useless. That’s it mm

I know right. It sucks being forced to use all these Apple products and... Wait what country do you live in? Do they like give them to you or just force you to buy them? If they're just giving them to you I might be moving!

 

[dcassone]

Yep, I'll miss it! I'd use it often without even thinking about is....I don't really understand why it and 3D Touch were removed...they were useful features to me.

 

[AuraSphere999999]

In my opinion, removing force touch was a downgrade.

 

[imnotthewalrus]

I used FT all the time on my series “0”. Then one day I bumped the face on a counter and the FT gasket separated and soon after the watch was irreparably damaged. That was over 3 years ago and I haven’t had a watch since. I just ordered an SE and will have to get used to using one again, so the FT won’t be an issue for me - and I won’t have to worry about that gasket! ?

 

[imnotthewalrus]

But did you read the entire T&C when you bought your Apple Watch? It will invalid your rant. And features on the watch are ran by software. I really do wish people would read the T&C before coming here saying what Apple should not be allowed to do.

View attachment 954919

You beat me to it.