Am I the only one missing the touchbar?

[ARK]

I've recently discovered you can fast forward through advertisements prior to watching a video using the touch bar. The ability to fast forward to get the skip button or hurry the counter before a youtube video is gold. In that instance I absolutely love the touch bar.

 

[Hadron]

I never found the different functions for different apps business, which was poorly-supported by 3rd party apps (most of what I use) and usually not the functions I'd have chosen myself anyway, terribly helpful, so used BetterTouchTool to just produce my own set of custom function keys and turn all the app-specific stuff off. But I've noticed recently that I'm using them less and less anyway; I don't know whether that's a side-effect of working from home more/travelling less (more use of external keyboard), or just something that would have happened anyway, but really the screen capture button and volume controls are the only ones I really use now. I used to use it to jump to a particular space quiet often, but that seems to have fallen into disuse.

I have a 14" about to be ordered, so the touch bar will soon be history. But I can't see that I'm going to miss it.

 

[bluespark]

I miss the TouchBar and used it all the time. I had heavily customized mine with GoldenChaos, so that probably had something to do with my appreciation for it.

Without dismissing the concerns of the touch-type-function-keys crowd, I wonder if Apple nevertheless relied too much on what people were saying in forums (like those here) rather than accurately capturing the views of users overall. Apple also never invested any significant energy in the TouchBar following its initial release (perhaps because it thought users overall didn't like the TouchBar), so it was never as customizable or useful as it could have been.

 

[Seiko4169]

Apple really did take those shouting the loudest as the majority view. A shame, especially when including the option to have the Touch Bar would avoid the need to go only one way. Lots of people enjoyed it.

 

[Micka88]

The previous touchbar was just a funny nonsense. If it was 3 times higher, then it would come close to some PC laptop touchbars and would have some sense. But as it was - no wonder it was stopped ...

 

[AbhiAchShan]

Apple really did take those shouting the loudest as the majority view. A shame, especially when including the option to have the Touch Bar would avoid the need to go only one way. Lots of people enjoyed it.

That's the Sad Truth nowadays, Tech Reviewers are considered as Product Feedback Guys, not the consumers

 

[Hieveryone]

I upgraded from a 2019 16" Intel MBP to a 2021 M1 16" MPB. Everything is much, much better, except that I miss the touchbar. It's not that I found the touchbar super-useful, but it was a lot more useful that the fixed set of function keys. An example: it was so easy to take a screen shot. And I could easily adjust the brightness on both my external monitor (LG 5K) and built in display. With BetterTouchTools it was even more useful. I never understood why the touchbar was to hated. Certainly not a giant step in UI, but a moderately useful invention.

Wait a minute. Is it not possible to adjust the brightness on external monitors using the keyboard now? I do that all the time on my TB MacBook Pro from 2019

 

[cjbryce]

Just picked up an M1 13" Pro from the Apple Store a couple of days back. My first experience of the touchbar.

I like it. There, I said it.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

It was pretty nifty to scrub through music.

But physical F keys man !

It needed to be in addition to the function keys, not as a replacement for them.

It also needed a way to pin an app to it. I have no need to control Spotify via the touch bar when Spotify is the active application, but I'd love to be able to control Spotify when it's not the active app.

 

[bluespark]

I change brightness daily -- at night I want a dimmer screen. I change volume daily as well because I often work with others around and I try, although I sometimes fail, to be courteous. The functions keys are much easier to use. All you need to do is press them and they actually work.

I've heard this before, but isn't the TouchBar behavior for changing volume/brightness even easier? You just touch and slide right to the spot you want without lifting a finger.

 

[eduardodfj]

The short answer is "yes".

The long answer is "yes, you are".

 

[Diablo360]

Don’t miss it and tried to avoid it as much as possible. I think the idea was okay but execution was poor and ended up being more of a burden for most users.

 

[playtech1]

Personally I am so pleased it's gone. I found it a pain to use and offered me no benefit.

Adblock does the trick on Youtube even better than a touch bar.

 

[0228662]

I upgraded from a 2019 16" Intel MBP to a 2021 M1 16" MPB. Everything is much, much better, except that I miss the touchbar. It's not that I found the touchbar super-useful, but it was a lot more useful that the fixed set of function keys. An example: it was so easy to take a screen shot. And I could easily adjust the brightness on both my external monitor (LG 5K) and built in display. With BetterTouchTools it was even more useful. I never understood why the touchbar was to hated. Certainly not a giant step in UI, but a moderately useful invention.

I miss it when I use my 13” M1 MBP and then go back to my main 16” M1 MBP. It did take some time to get use to it not being there. I did use it more than I thought but I have never used functions keys so the Touch Bar was more usable to me

 

[Madhatter32]

I've heard this before, but isn't the TouchBar behavior for changing volume/brightness even easier? You just touch and slide right to the spot you want without lifting a finger.

I do not think so. You need to lift a finger either way. With functions keys you just press the button vs. sliding. It is hard to actually locate the volume key on the Touch Bar though. You need to look down. With the function keys, you do not need to look -- at least I do not.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Do I miss it? Yes. I loved swiping for brightness and volume. But honestly - I rarely RARELY used my Touch Bar when I had it. So <shrug>.

 

[Hadron]

I used BetterTouchTool to make my own custom touchbar. The ability to configure it as the shortcuts I wanted was mildly useful, but in practice the main thing I miss is the clock display I put on the touch bar - I guess I'll lose the reflex to look for it there eventually...

 

[misiektoja]

I don't miss it. It always puzzled me what was the intention to put sth like this in a Pro machine. Most of us want to do work fast using keyboard shortcuts. It killed my productivity significantly and I'm so glad they finally removed it. I think they understood their mistake that Pro is for Pro users, however I think it might be cool option for Air users.

 

[ChedNasad]

I had thought I would have missed it but I am realizing that the few niche things I liked about it pale in comparison to how convenient the function keys are. Definitely echo the idea that a touch bar above a full keyboard would have been the sweet spot

 

[jav6454]

I find the Touch Bar to be great. Granted I came from an 2008 MacBook, and the functions keys worked, but I find better functions in the Touch Bar.

 

[missyagogo]

Love my touchbar! I still have an older MBP with touchbar and find it useful.

 

[sennomulo]

I tried to like it, I tried to make it useful, but it just isn’t for me and often just gets in my way. I only use it for the things nothing else on the computer can do: to adjust the brightness and sound, use the function keys, and select emojis. There just isn’t a situation where the Touch Bar does something I can do with the keyboard or mouse, and my instinct is to look down and interact with the Touch Bar. I go for the keyboard or mouse every time, keeping my eyes on the screen.

Right now the Touch Bar is offering me word suggestions, which are handy on my phone but not when I’m typing on a physical keyboard. The only time I ever tap a suggested word is when I’m trying to press a number key and my finger slips.

And since the Touch Bar uses up battery power, the computer likes to shut it off after I’ve been idle for a while. If I suddenly want to adjust the brightness or volume when it's off, I have to tap the bar to turn it on, tap the button I want, and then adjust the slider. As opposed to just pressing the always-on function key and holding it until I get to the brightness/volume I want.

 

[maflynn]

I don't miss it, and in fact the removal of the butterfly keyboards and bringing back the function keys are one of the major factors in my purchase of the 14" MBP. Not the reason, I may have taken the plunge even if apple kept the touchbar, but it was a major point that I had to consider.

 

[stevemiller]

i used the touchbar as apple intended for about 5 mins on my 2018 macbook pro before getting bettertouchtool to completely replace the interface. two and three finger drags anywhere along the bar to change volume/brightness were a world better for me than having to hit a small touch target at the side of the touchbar that never seemed to leave enough room to drag to the right. i did briefly miss some of that custom better touch bar functionality i was able to implement, but overall i prefer physical buttons over a mini touchscreen since i don't really want to have to look at a keyboard to use it.

that said, everyone has different needs/preferences, so respect to anyone who preferred the touchbar! and i agree it would be nice if apple wasn't so quick to abandon certain niches of their user base, even if its doesn't follow a mass market trend *cough smaller iphones cough*

 

[ghanwani]

I don't miss it, and in fact the removal of the butterfly keyboards and bringing back the function keys are one of the major factors in my purchase of the 14" MBP. Not the reason, I may have taken the plunge even if apple kept the touchbar, but it was a major point that I had to consider.

Interesting. So you're back on macOS after a period on Windows?