If my iPhone 6 couldn’t have 3D Touch then why does it now have 3D Touch?

[CaTOAGU]

3D Touch enables varying degrees of pressure input on the display to have different effects in software. What's new in iOS 11 is a greater use of touch and hold, which enables varying degrees of time input to have different effects in software. To a limited extent it mimics 3D Touch but it is not, 3D Touch. 3D Touch is much faster as the pressure can be varied over very small time scales and it also allows for more fine grained control, such as the peek and pop effect.

Edit: Used the term "Touch ID instead of 3D Touch" (thanks ern99)

 

[ern99]

3D Touch enables varying degrees of pressure input on the display to have different effects in software. What's new in iOS 11 is a greater use of touch and hold, which enables varying degrees of time input to have different effects in software. To a limited extent it mimics Touch ID but it is not, Touch ID. Touch ID is much faster as the pressure can be varied over very small time scales and it also allows for more fine grained control, such as the peek and pop effect.

Right, except that Touch ID and 3D Touch are not the same thing.

 

[Shirasaki]

Jailbreaks have shown that iPhone 6 can have almost all the 3dtouch functions through a long press like Apple has done in CC. The reason Apple didn't give iPhone 6 any right click menu option at that time was because that would render the iPhone 6s utterly pointless. The iPhone 6s is a spec bumped 6 with 3dt and 2 go of ram.
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You can disable 3dtouch and have an option for long press even on those devices. 3DT is hard to execute on app icons on a phone like he Plus. Long press is much easier. The only place where 3dt is useful is the keyboard cursor.

Well, looks like adding one more layer of control is redundant because we run out of idea to use that extra layout of control. This reminds me my touch screen computer with keyboard and trackpad. That computer does everything I could ever imagine in daily tasks, including drawing random stuff directly on the screen. In this regard, touch screen on a conventional desktop computer is like force touch on iPhone, I guess.

 

[CaTOAGU]

Right, except that Touch ID and 3D Touch are not the same thing.

Oops, I thought 3D Touch in my head and then wrote Touch ID. I must need more coffee. Thanks I'll edit it.

 

[boltjames]

Well, looks like adding one more layer of control is redundant because we run out of idea to use that extra layout of control.

Exactly.

The 3D Touch hardware Apple has provided may be intriguing but it’s application is bereft of interest. Apple and its developers have run out of ideas and what’s left is nothing more than flyout menus and shortcuts which is exactly what long press is now capable of in Control Center in 11.1 on older devices.

If someone creates a revolutionary new fly swatter but all it can do is swat flies like the old one, who needs the revolutionary new one?

 

[C DM]

Exactly.

The 3D Touch hardware Apple has provided may be intriguing but it’s application is bereft of interest. Apple and its developers have run out of ideas and what’s left is nothing more than flyout menus and shortcuts which is exactly what long press is now capable of in Control Center in 11.1 on older devices.

If someone creates a revolutionary new fly swatter but all it can do is swat flies like the old one, who needs the revolutionary new one?

Well, as mentioned in various posts in the thread, there's certainly more than "nothing more" as far as what 3D Touch can do and already provides in iOS than just additional menus/shortcuts that long press can mimic in one way or another (and sometimes at the cost of UX).

 

[orbital~debris]

Exactly.

The 3D Touch hardware Apple has provided may be intriguing but it’s application is bereft of interest. Apple and its developers have run out of ideas and what’s left is nothing more than flyout menus and shortcuts which is exactly what long press is now capable of in Control Center in 11.1 on older devices.

If someone creates a revolutionary new fly swatter but all it can do is swat flies like the old one, who needs the revolutionary new one?

Do you actually read others’ response posts, or just endlessly remix the same baseless nonsense with different analogies?

 

[boltjames]

Do you actually read others’ response posts, or just endlessly remix the same baseless nonsense with different analogies?

Most of the response posts tell me what I already know- that the technology behind the glass of a 3D Touch model can do many wonderous things. And then they give me examples that are anything but wonderous. Apple Pen makes a thicker line. A game has pressure sensitive controls. Copy/paste is a bit more accurate.

90% of the benefit of 3D Touch comes from a deep press on home screen icons “through” the move/delete layer exposing flyout menus with shortcuts to app functions. It is possible for Apple to replicate this behavior in legacy hardware as demonstrated on the iOS 11.1 Control Center. Conclusion easily becomes that 3D Touch and it’s procey screen aren’t really necessary. A long press and a reimagined way to move/delete app icons achieves the same thing.

You people like to yap about it’s supposed breakthrough technology yet cannot provide examples of its benefits. Because there really aren’t any.

 

[C DM]

Most of the response posts tell me what I already know- that the technology behind the glass of a 3D Touch model can do many wonderous things. And then they give me examples that are anything but wonderous. Apple Pen makes a thicker line. A game has pressure sensitive controls. Copy/paste is a bit more accurate.

90% of the benefit of 3D Touch comes from a deep press on home screen icons “through” the move/delete layer exposing flyout menus with shortcuts to app functions. It is possible for Apple to replicate this behavior in legacy hardware as demonstrated on the iOS 11.1 Control Center. Conclusion easily becomes that 3D Touch and it’s procey screen aren’t really necessary. A long press and a reimagined way to move/delete app icons achieves the same thing.

You people like to yap about it’s supposed breakthrough technology yet cannot provide examples of its benefits. Because there really aren’t any.

Seems like a number of different ones beyond long touch-like ones have been pointed out in different posts before.

 

[LuhvLee]

The iPhone 6s was the first iPhone to have 3D touch.

 

[ZEEN0j]

Jailbreaks have shown that iPhone 6 can have almost all the 3dtouch functions through a long press like Apple has done in CC. The reason Apple didn't give iPhone 6 any right click menu option at that time was because that would render the iPhone 6s utterly pointless. The iPhone 6s is a spec bumped 6 with 3dt and 2 go of ram.
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You can disable 3dtouch and have an option for long press even on those devices. 3DT is hard to execute on app icons on a phone like he Plus. Long press is much easier. The only place where 3dt is useful is the keyboard cursor.

We are all pretty aware that long hold can do many things that 3D Touch can. They are still two completely different input methods. And being two different inputs methods opens up a lot more option for apple in how we interact with our devices. That wasn't my point with what you quoted.

As mentioned before. Let's say they add everything to the 3d touch menu on 3D Touch devices (you still press hard to open it). Now because of 3D Touch they can do something else with long hold. For example, maybe a long hold on a icon enables you to drag that icon to the top or bottom for easy split screen. How would you solve this without 3d touch without adding a bunch of buttons and menus.

I'm hoping Apple does way more with 3D Touch in the future. I'm guessing the slow progression is because there are a lot of devices out there that don't support it. But with each major iOS they have added something so I'm happy.

 

[boltjames]

Seems like a number of different ones beyond long touch-like ones have been pointed out in different posts before.

It would be great if someone could give me the names of (or links to) specific apps that represent the gold standard of what 3D Touch could be in the future. What are the 3 apps that when downloaded will rock my world with amazing feats and functionality?

 

[C DM]

It would be great if someone could give me the names of (or links to) specific apps that represent the gold standard of what 3D Touch could be in the future. What are the 3 apps that when downloaded will rock my world with amazing feats and functionality?

Not sure about any particular apps, but various OS functions that are provided via 3D Touch (that are beyond long press type of things) that have been mentioned in various posts make it something that's useful. Now perhaps it's not being utilized to the fullest potential and could be used even more and in better ways, but there are certainly useful things that are provided beyond what long touch can provide (at least not without unnecessarily coming at the cost of some UX).

 

[Shirasaki]

Exactly.

The 3D Touch hardware Apple has provided may be intriguing but it’s application is bereft of interest. Apple and its developers have run out of ideas and what’s left is nothing more than flyout menus and shortcuts which is exactly what long press is now capable of in Control Center in 11.1 on older devices.

If someone creates a revolutionary new fly swatter but all it can do is swat flies like the old one, who needs the revolutionary new one?

And the thing is, it is still an additional layer. What it can do is way more than “swatting flies”. Talking about swatting flies, if that revolutionary new fly swatter can swat flies easier and quicker, people will buy it and use it to swat flies. Same for force touch. One extra layer, less hassle on iOS design and function. More choices to the control.

 

[bangcap]

These older devices don't have 3D Touch in that their screens cannot detect pressure like the iPhone 6s and newer. Apple instead implemented a kind of faux-3D Touch in the form of a long press. It's an illusion of 3D Touch but certainly not the same. The reason the older devices have this feature now, and didn't when the 6s came out? Apple needed to sell new iPhones and that means making some features exclusive, it happens every year.

 

[C DM]

These older devices don't have 3D Touch in that their screens cannot detect pressure like the iPhone 6s and newer. Apple instead implemented a kind of faux-3D Touch in the form of a long press. It's an illusion of 3D Touch but certainly not the same. The reason the older devices have this feature now, and didn't when the 6s came out? Apple needed to sell new iPhones and that means making some features exclusive, it happens every year.

Long press has been around way before 3D Touch was even a rumor.

 

[ZEEN0j]

Long press has been around way before 3D Touch was even a rumor.

Exactly, long press is not a substitute for 3D Touch. It’s just the only other input method available on non 3D Touch devices. I’m actually surprised Apple has added long press as an option to open toggles in CC.

 

[macfacts]

... The reason the older devices have this feature now, and didn't when the 6s came out? Apple needed to sell new iPhones and that means making some features exclusive, it happens every year.

This year is face id. There are some new features like "attention aware" but aren't on older iPhones. Samsung phones don't have 3d camera but has features like "smart stay".

 

[boltjames]

Exactly, long press is not a substitute for 3D Touch. It’s just the only other input method available on non 3D Touch devices. I’m actually surprised Apple has added long press as an option to open toggles in CC.

Long Press is not only a substitute for 3D Touch, it's a hell of a lot more intuitive and controllable.

My iPhone X is now 10 days old, so I'm 10 days in to my 3D Touch experience and half the time I'm trying to get the icon's to jiggle and delete an app it brings up 3D Touch flyout menu's and the other half of the time I'm trying to get to a 3D Touch flyout menu and the icons jiggle for deletion.

The 3D Touch layer blows. Apple should confine the whole experience to a Long Press, bring out the flyout menu, add 'move app' and 'delete app' to the flyout menu, done. Pushing one's finger against a screen and gauging it's pressure/depth is just an awful experience. For all the positivity I have for Face ID, the negativity I have for 3D Touch is leaving me in a lukewarm place.

 

[aevan]

Long Press is not only a substitute for 3D Touch, it's a hell of a lot more intuitive and controllable.

My iPhone X is now 10 days old, so I'm 10 days in to my 3D Touch experience and half the time I'm trying to get the icon's to jiggle and delete an app it brings up 3D Touch flyout menu's and the other half of the time I'm trying to get to a 3D Touch flyout menu and the icons jiggle for deletion.

The 3D Touch layer blows. Apple should confine the whole experience to a Long Press, bring out the flyout menu, add 'move app' and 'delete app' to the flyout menu, done. Pushing one's finger against a screen and gauging it's pressure/depth is just an awful experience. For all the positivity I have for Face ID, the negativity I have for 3D Touch is leaving me in a lukewarm place.

Why don’t you disable it then, and just use the long press? It’s all the same to you, anyway.
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It would be great if someone could give me the names of (or links to) specific apps that represent the gold standard of what 3D Touch could be in the future. What are the 3 apps that when downloaded will rock my world with amazing feats and functionality?

So, in order for a feature to be useful, it has to rock your world with amazing feats and functionality? Please name 3 apps that use long press in a way that rocks your world.

 

[boltjames]

Why don’t you disable it then, and just use the long press? It’s all the same to you, anyway.

I would, in a heartbeat, but I need it for one useful thing: The 3D deep press provides me the fastest access to the damn wi-fi toggle to shut the thing off, something we can't do in Control Center. If not for that one time-saver I'd do as you say, disable the 3D Touch nonsense and move on.

So, in order for a feature to be useful, it has to rock your world with amazing feats and functionality? Please name 3 apps that use long press in a way that rocks your world.

Nice try.

My issue with 3D Touch isn't the flyout functionality- I think the flyout content is brilliant. My issue with 3D Touch is that its functionality (flyout menu's with buried content) can be executed with just a long press (evidenced by Control Center on iPhone 6) and thus avoid the confusion that comes from having fingers incapable of consistently differentiating between a light touch (tap, launches apps), a medium touch (held, deletes or moves apps), and a deep touch (held, produces flyouts).

It's a mess. This isn't like a mouse with two buttons and a wheel. Differentiating fingertip pressure and press length simultaneously? Who thought that was a good idea?

 

[eyeseeyou]

I feel like this is a similar “issue” with the iPad Pro.

You can long press for a menu pop up for files similar to 3D touch

 

[aevan]

It's a mess. This isn't like a mouse with two buttons and a wheel. Differentiating fingertip pressure and press length simultaneously? Who thought that was a good idea?

I'm not sure if you're serious, but is it that hard to understand the difference between putting your finger on the screen lightly and holding it there - and pressing the screen stronger? You can set 3D touch to hard to differentiate more.

Either way, I love the thing. Love the haptic feedback, the peek & pop, the immediate response. On iPad Pro I do a lot of tap & hold and it always annoys me how it's not instant.

 

[decafjava]

I would, in a heartbeat, but I need it for one useful thing: The 3D deep press provides me the fastest access to the damn wi-fi toggle to shut the thing off, something we can't do in Control Center. If not for that one time-saver I'd do as you say, disable the 3D Touch nonsense and move on.

Well there's one point for 3D touch. I don't bother wither control centre for wifi and bluetooth (well to turn them on the first time maybe) as 3D touch in the settings provides quicker and better control. I sometimes use Siri to turn off wifi before leaving home too.

 

[ZEEN0j]

I have no issues moving icons on my home screen. Seems the issue is with you OP. It’s very forgiving. Even if you slightly press and the icon starts expanding, you just hold it and it will start to wiggle.

You even say it yourself that 3D Touch is faster than a long hold. Having issues using it is your problem. Disable it and stop complaining.