“In a note to investors on Monday, a Barclays analyst told clients that he believes Apple may remove 3D Touch from all of its iPhones in the near future,” Zach Epstein writes for BGR. “‘While the lack of 3D Touch on the 6.1-inch iPhone would make sense, given expectations that it will essentially be a budget iPhone X, it’s not entirely clear why it may be removed from the more expensive OLED models next year,’ he wrote. ‘As a somewhat hidden feature, perhaps Apple no longer finds it essential.'”
“This isn’t the first time we’ve heard Apple might abandon 3D Touch entirely on its iPhones, and the original source of the rumor also happens to be the most reliable Apple insider in the world,” Epstein writes. “In fact, former KGI Securities analyst and current TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple could remove 3D Touch from its iPhone models as soon as next year.”
“3D Touch is a very cool feature that can read the amount of pressure the user applies to the display and provide different functions as pressure increases. Cool yes, but is it essential? Hardly,” Epstein writes. “I’ve been criticizing 3D Touch for a few different reasons since it was first introduced, and I have two main complaints. First, almost every 3D Touch feature could easily be replaced by a long tap. Second, Apple provides absolutely no indication of where 3D Touch is available in its iOS interface, so no one on the planet knows about all available 3D Touch features. Most people barely use it, and some don’t use it at all.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When 3D Touch never made the leap to iPad, the writing was on the wall. Just move everyone to the long tap method. We’ll miss 3D Touch, because we actually use it, but most people barely do, if they use it at all or even know it’s there.
For the same reason – if it doesn’t soon make the leap to Apple keyboards – keep a deathwatch on the Touch Bar. If it’s not everywhere, developers can safely ignore it and it’ll never gain acceptance.
Is Apple reverting to its old way by introducing new technologies with a flair to oohs and aahs from developers but then did not commit to them fully, and soon abandoned them which outraged developers and inspired lots of anti-Apple articles?
I think losing 3D touch would be a mistake. Guess we shall see!
I use it a lot on Apple Music although they started killing it especially on the home screen music control
If you read the article they say Apple may remove 3D and they might not. It’s hardly newsworthy – also they slated this non-news to be slated for 2019 phones. 2019 is near future but MacDailySnooze has hyped the clipbait bullshit even further by amending the real title.
Sick and tired of this click bait bullshit. Analysts DO NOT KNOW FUCK ALL.
What does it do that a long press can’t? (I can’t think of anything at the moment but am curious).
Lightly hold the last photo thumbnail in the bottom left of the stock camera app. Press harder and it pops to a scroll view of thumbs. Sure so far this is just a “nice touch” and could be replaced with long touch. Although you can bypass the long touch duration by just pressing harder right away so it kinda has a slight use case here…
So we are at the thumbnail scroll view that you can swipe left and right, looking for a particular photo and you can pause for any given amount of time until you are sure it’s the photo you want and then you just press harder again to commit opening the photo full screen. This to me personally is a great short cut and couldn’t conceivably be replaced by long touch.
(Think Android ; )
Tried.. cant make it do what u described. ….. 🧐
Just as long as they move force touch features to a long press. I love force touching the keyboard to move the insertion point, for example. Also all the quick options in control center.
Finally, I agree with Apple removing useless hidden features that can be handled easier and more intuitive (the old Apple), as the author suggested.
R.I.P. 3D Touch. Next up — Touchbar …
I don’t hear from anyone what advantage removing 3D touch would bring.
I like it and would need a good reason to remove it.
3D touch has never been a core feature, nobody asked for it, nobody wanted it, and nobody will miss it.