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

[Vanilla35]

OP is right to be somewhat miffed about this. I snickered a little when I saw them mention that a long press would access the same features. It's nice of them to do that, for non-3D touch devices, but I've been saying for years that 3D touch is just a more elaborate long press. I actually prefer long press because that's intuitive, and 3D touch is simply an added thought/action that you normally wouldn't be in the mindset of doing. Requires more conscious effort, and therefore isn't my favorite implementation.

Basically what they did is withhold/not introduce any alternative solution for legacy devices because they didn't want to provide legacy devices a feature that was essentially the same, and cannibalize sales of the newer devices. Now that it's standard, and iOS 11 utilizes it more, they provide it for legacy devices. Typical business move, but it's not surprising at all.

 

[ZEEN0j]

OP is right to be somewhat miffed about this. I snickered a little when I saw them mention that a long press would access the same features. It's nice of them to do that, for non-3D touch devices, but I've been saying for years that 3D touch is just a more elaborate long press. I actually prefer long press because that's intuitive, and 3D touch is simply an added thought/action that you normally wouldn't be in the mindset of doing. Requires more conscious effort, and therefore isn't my favorite implementation.

Basically what they did is withhold/not introduce any alternative solution for legacy devices because they didn't want to provide legacy devices a feature that was essentially the same, and cannibalize sales of the newer devices. Now that it's standard, and iOS 11 utilizes it more, they provide it for legacy devices. Typical business move, but it's not surprising at all.

Not surprising and hardly the first time they've done something like it.

 

[C DM]

OP is right to be somewhat miffed about this. I snickered a little when I saw them mention that a long press would access the same features. It's nice of them to do that, for non-3D touch devices, but I've been saying for years that 3D touch is just a more elaborate long press. I actually prefer long press because that's intuitive, and 3D touch is simply an added thought/action that you normally wouldn't be in the mindset of doing. Requires more conscious effort, and therefore isn't my favorite implementation.

Basically what they did is withhold/not introduce any alternative solution for legacy devices because they didn't want to provide legacy devices a feature that was essentially the same, and cannibalize sales of the newer devices. Now that it's standard, and iOS 11 utilizes it more, they provide it for legacy devices. Typical business move, but it's not surprising at all.

Seems like what quite a few pages of the thread have covered is that while there's that aspect of it, there's a more to 3D Touch beyond/aside form that's.

 

[Vanilla35]

Not surprising and hardly the first time they've done something like it.

Agreed.

I just read the first two pages of this thread and realized not a single person shared my perspective. Instead all bashed OP, so I thought I'd share my thoughts, which are in agreement.
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Seems like what quite a few pages of the thread have covered is that while there's that aspect of it, there's a more to 3D Touch beyond/aside form that's.

That's 90% of it though (in general use). Just like the other thread we're conversing about.

 

[C DM]

That's 90% of it though (in general use). Just like the other thread we're conversing about.

Not really, again, as the thread covers over quite a few pages.

 

[boltjames]

Not really, again, as the thread covers over quite a few pages.

I'm about two months into my X and thus my first 3D Touch experience and I haven't found it useful yet. If anything it's confusing. I don't hate it. I just wish it did more.

 

[TheQWERTYCoder]

It doesn't. That's a feature on all devices. You just held for a longer time than normal, and the system detected that as a special touch. The same happens on iPhone X. It isn't 3D Touch either way. 3D Touch is only used on home screen icons and inside apps. It isn't used for Control Center because using it wastes battery power by checking each layer. That's your answer.
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I'm about two months into my X and thus my first 3D Touch experience and I haven't found it useful yet. If anything it's confusing. I don't hate it. I just wish it did more.

3D Touch is used on many apps, including all Apple apps. It is available on the home screen and in some apps.

But what about settings?

Settings isn't an Apple app. In fact, it was actually mostly already part of the Linux OS, and only slightly edited by Apple.

Ok, but doesn't that make it an Apple app?

Nope! It's still 99.9% Linux, 0.1% Apple. And that difference in code isn't enough to make it an Apple app.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

It doesn't. That's a feature on all devices. You just held for a longer time than normal, and the system detected that as a special touch. The same happens on iPhone X. It isn't 3D Touch either way. 3D Touch is only used on home screen icons and inside apps. It isn't used for Control Center because using it wastes battery power by checking each layer. That's your answer.
[doublepost=1542909516][/doublepost]
3D Touch is used on many apps, including all Apple apps. It is available on the home screen and in some apps.

Settings isn't an Apple app. In fact, it was actually mostly already part of the Linux OS, and only slightly edited by Apple.

Nope! It's still 99.9% Linux, 0.1% Apple. And that difference in code isn't enough to make it an Apple app.

Incorrect, Force touch(3D touch) does work in control center.

 

[boltjames]

It doesn't. That's a feature on all devices. You just held for a longer time than normal, and the system detected that as a special touch. The same happens on iPhone X. It isn't 3D Touch either way. 3D Touch is only used on home screen icons and inside apps. It isn't used for Control Center because using it wastes battery power by checking each layer. That's your answer.

Yeah, that's all semantics. To my 14 year old daughter "3D touch" and "special touch" are exactly the same thing. You either press harder or press and hold a bit longer and up comes a flyout submenu with some shortcuts.

It's a function that was talked-up as some groundbreaking S feature years ago that isn't very important now and works on all non-3D touch iPhones just without the fancy name.

 

[Significant1]

Settings isn't an Apple app. In fact, it was actually mostly already part of the Linux OS, and only slightly edited by Apple.

Nope! It's still 99.9% Linux, 0.1% Apple. And that difference in code isn't enough to make it an Apple app.

What are you talking about!! Settings is most definitely an Apple app and IOS is based on BSD-Unix, not Linux.

 

[aevan]

Yeah, that's all semantics. To my 14 year old daughter "3D touch" and "special touch" are exactly the same thing. You either press harder or press and hold a bit longer and up comes a flyout submenu with some shortcuts.

It's a function that was talked-up as some groundbreaking S feature years ago that isn't very important now and works on all non-3D touch iPhones just without the fancy name.

Omg, this thread is still alive. And you're still claiming the same, wrong thing.

3D Touch is a pressure sensitive technology that requires hardware components.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Yeah, that's all semantics. To my 14 year old daughter "3D touch" and "special touch" are exactly the same thing. You either press harder or press and hold a bit longer and up comes a flyout submenu with some shortcuts.

It's a function that was talked-up as some groundbreaking S feature years ago that isn't very important now and works on all non-3D touch iPhones just without the fancy name.

You can't "peek and pop" without force touch so there are differences between the two..

 

[boltjames]

Omg, this thread is still alive. And you're still claiming the same, wrong thing.

3D Touch is a pressure sensitive technology that requires hardware components.

You keep talking about the technology as if that matters. It's about the user experience. Whether using 3D Touch or "Special Touch" it doesn't matter. In the end, you press + hold an icon a little longer and a flyout menu appears with options. Apple can replicate anything 3D Touch can do with "Special Touch" on iPhones that are not-3D compatible and offer users the same experience.

What it's called and how it's executed doesn't matter. You can make a peanut butter sandwich with a knife and I can make a peanut butter sandwich with a fork. In the end, we each have a peanut butter sandwich and it doesn't matter how we got there or which way was more efficient.
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You can't "peek and pop" without force touch so there are differences between the two..

I don't use peek-and-pop so it's immaterial to me. And frankly, I can count on one hand the number of times I use 3D Touch in the last year on my iPhone X anyway, it's a non-issue.

 

[ZEEN0j]

You keep talking about the technology as if that matters. It's about the user experience. Whether using 3D Touch or "Special Touch" it doesn't matter. In the end, you press + hold an icon a little longer and a flyout menu appears with options. Apple can replicate anything 3D Touch can do with "Special Touch" on iPhones that are not-3D compatible and offer users the same experience.

What it's called and how it's executed doesn't matter. You can make a peanut butter sandwich with a knife and I can make a peanut butter sandwich with a fork. In the end, we each have a peanut butter sandwich and it doesn't matter how we got there or which way was more efficient.
[doublepost=1542948174][/doublepost]

I don't use peek-and-pop so it's immaterial to me. And frankly, I can count on one hand the number of times I use 3D Touch in the last year on my iPhone X anyway, it's a non-issue.

But I use it and love it and don’t feel it’s the same thing. Are you saying my opinion is wrong?

And of course it matters how you get there. Maybe we should all go back to paper mail, I mean it’s the same thing as email. At the end of the day you send a message to someone. Doesn’t matter how you do it.

Long hold does not help me when I 3D Touch while playing games, as mentioned peek and pop, move cursor and select text with one finger. Where long hold does the same thing in iOS, 3D Touch feels much better and is quicker.

 

[aevan]

You keep talking about the technology as if that matters. It's about the user experience. Whether using 3D Touch or "Special Touch" it doesn't matter. In the end, you press + hold an icon a little longer and a flyout menu appears with options. Apple can replicate anything 3D Touch can do with "Special Touch" on iPhones that are not-3D compatible and offer users the same experience.

What it's called and how it's executed doesn't matter. You can make a peanut butter sandwich with a knife and I can make a peanut butter sandwich with a fork. In the end, we each have a peanut butter sandwich and it doesn't matter how we got there or which way was more efficient.
[doublepost=1542948174][/doublepost]

I don't use peek-and-pop so it's immaterial to me. And frankly, I can count on one hand the number of times I use 3D Touch in the last year on my iPhone X anyway, it's a non-issue.

“I don’t use something so it doesn’t matter”.

Anyway - peek and pop is one of the main usage cases of 3D touch and it is not possible with a long press as it’s reserved for a different action. Other than that, context menus of home screen apps is another case where a long press is required for something else entirely.

You found one case where 3d touch does the same thing as long press and now you’re somehow complaining.

You’re simply wrong about all of this.

 

[OLDGUYWITHAHIFI]

You guys are arguing about the same thing a year later? Why does it even matter?

Semantics really don't matter. If you can do the same thing in different ways why does it matter?

 

[boltjames]

You guys are arguing about the same thing a year later? Why does it even matter?

Semantics really don't matter. If you can do the same thing in different ways why does it matter?

Thank you. My sentiments exactly. It’s a crazy thing to argue over.

iOS is filled with contradictions, top of my head I can think of 5 ways to turn the alarm clock on and none is better or worse than another and the variance between the fastest and slowest ways are measured in a second or two. That’s what 3D Touch is. Just another way to do something that’s no more or no less convenient.

It was, however, disingenuous of Apple to march this around as the big new feature for the S back then as the same fly out shortcuts were possible using a different method on the supposedly dumber screens.

 

[MEJHarrison]

If you can do the same thing in different ways why does it matter?

The point some are making is that they CAN'T do the same thing in different ways. You might get most of it, but some features can't be replicated with a long press. Just 4 posts above yours, someone even mentioned Peek & Pop. Those can't be replicated with a long press.

As it turns out in this case, semantics actually do matter. You may not care, like many others in this thread, but you not caring does not mean the two different methods are the same. I don't drive race cars, but I also don't go around claiming they're no different than my car since they accomplish basically the same thing.

 

[boltjames]

Just 4 posts above yours, someone even mentioned Peek & Pop. Those can't be replicated with a long press.

Not a long press, but perhaps a long press followed by a tap, or a long press followed by a swipe up. The point is that anything that 3D Touch can do can be replicated by other quick gestures that the older non-3D Touch screens could have comprehended.

Big picture here in 2018 is that the feature was omitted from the XR and it's dying if not dead already. The biggest issue is that only a fraction of the apps/icons ever had 3D Touch features, so what was supposed to be a helpful time-saver turned out to delay people endlessly as they long pressed an app like Skype (does nothing) or Apple's own Wallet (does only one useless thing) or Contacts (doesn't let you search!) or Home (does absolutely nothing). It's a dog's breakfast of inconsistency and thus its so frustrating that people don't even bother using it anymore.

 

[T-Bob]

Not a long press, but perhaps a long press followed by a tap, or a long press followed by a swipe up. The point is that anything that 3D Touch can do can be replicated by other quick gestures that the older non-3D Touch screens could have comprehended.
.

How do you peek and pop? In apps like safari, holding down will let you open in new tab but 3D Touch can let you preview the content, or open it if you press harder. I take it you have used this feature, if not it might be hard to imagine how it functions.

 

[MEJHarrison]

Not a long press, but perhaps a long press followed by a tap, or a long press followed by a swipe up. The point is that anything that 3D Touch can do can be replicated by other quick gestures that the older non-3D Touch screens could have comprehended.

I was talking about the phones we have today, not what might come at a future date. You're right that there could be gestures invented to eliminate 3D Touch altogether. No argument there. I'm just saying that as of today, there are things that can not be done with a long press. They're very, very close, but not identical functionality.

That said, I don't care if it goes away. I'm one of those that never even thinks about it. I wish it was more useful to me, but sadly, it's a feature that never grew on me. When I think about it, I try to use it, but that's pretty rare.

 

[ZEEN0j]

Not a long press, but perhaps a long press followed by a tap, or a long press followed by a swipe up. The point is that anything that 3D Touch can do can be replicated by other quick gestures that the older non-3D Touch screens could have comprehended.

Big picture here in 2018 is that the feature was omitted from the XR and it's dying if not dead already. The biggest issue is that only a fraction of the apps/icons ever had 3D Touch features, so what was supposed to be a helpful time-saver turned out to delay people endlessly as they long pressed an app like Skype (does nothing) or Apple's own Wallet (does only one useless thing) or Contacts (doesn't let you search!) or Home (does absolutely nothing). It's a dog's breakfast of inconsistency and thus its so frustrating that people don't even bother using it anymore.

With that logic why do we even have long press? A double or triple tap could easily do everything long hold does.

Let’s look at the first problem here though. If they enable double tap, they have to implement a delay of input after the first tap as the system has to wait for a second tap.

How do we fix this problem as it would affect the whole system? Not just where there are double tap buttons. Easy add a long press.

But a long press is loooong and takes time. How do we fix this. Hmm, maybe 3D Touch? And with this technology came many other nice features. Not sure how this is a loss for anyone or why you don’t want this.

 

[boltjames]

How do you peek and pop? In apps like safari, holding down will let you open in new tab but 3D Touch can let you preview the content, or open it if you press harder. I take it you have used this feature, if not it might be hard to imagine how it functions.

3D Touch Screen = press hard *then* press even harder = preview > open.

Could be executed by:

Old Touch Screen = press + hold + swipe up *then* swipe down = preview > open.

My point is that the physical variances that 3D Touch screens can differentiate through pressure, the Old Touch screens can replicate through left/right/up/down gestures. And in doing so achieve the same end result.
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With that logic why do we even have long press? A double or triple tap could easily do everything long hold does.

Let’s look at the first problem here though. If they enable double tap, they have to implement a delay of input after the first tap as the system has to wait for a second tap.

How do we fix this problem as it would affect the whole system? Not just where there are double tap buttons. Easy add a long press.

But a long press is loooong and takes time. How do we fix this. Hmm, maybe 3D Touch? And with this technology came many other nice features. Not sure how this is a loss for anyone or why you don’t want this.

The Old Touch screens (and the new XR screens) are capable of multi-touch gestures which can trigger the same user experience as what pressure does for 3D Touch screens. That's all I'm saying. Apple presented this as some breakthrough must-have feature as a way to get owners to upgrade to the 6S and the reality is they could have achieved the same thing not via pressure but via gestures in a simple iOS update like the one that they ultimately did for iOS 11. So it was a bit of a rip off IMO.

And to be clear, it's not that I don't want this. I actually do. But because the experience is so inconsistent from app to app you can't rely on what you know from the useful 3D shortcuts (Mail, Messages, Calendar) on other shortcuts that lack these same intuitive shortcuts.

As an example, 3D press the Contacts icon and tell me that "Create New Contact" is a better decision than "Search" which people must use 10x more, or why Apple didn't put both there along with recent searches. 3D press Clock and tell me why Apple didn't put a link to Show Alarms when most of us have a few that we bounce between all the time.

Do the same 3D press for Camera and its brilliant, all the good stuff is right there.

It's wildly inconsistent and instead of making things easier it's making things more frustrating.

 

[C DM]

It's wildly inconsistent and instead of making things easier it's making things more frustrating.

Not sure how touch and hold gestures would make things easier in that respect.

 

[boltjames]

Not sure how touch and hold gestures would make things easier in that respect.

Well it's two different things:

1. Inconsistency of apps choosing to implement an icon shortcut at all -or- implementing questionable features -or- ignoring the whole opportunity.

2. How these shortcuts are implemented, either 3D Touch -or- Press+Hold to bring up the flyout shortcuts popup.

My issue is more around #1 than #2, especially since all 5 phones in the family have 3D Touch anyway. When Apple decides to make a cool UI change and then makes it an option for third parties (and even themselves) to participate, it goes from good to bad very quickly. 3D Touching something more often than not leads nowhere and wastes the very time it was supposedly designed to save.