3D Touch

Both Jeff Atwood and Scott Hanselman have tweeted about 3D Touch on iOS being nothing more than right click (Atwood) or “long press” (Hanselman). I’m not sure why they don’t get what it actually is – it’s pressure sensitive touch. There is no separate button or gesture like right click, and it is not strictly measured by duration like a long press. It’s genuinely a pressure sensitive touch capability. You can press lightly, or a little harder, or with much more force, and those differences are measured by the hardware and the OS in a very granular way.

It is true, though, that the way it is implemented in many apps right now is crudely – it is typically used similarly to a simple right click. But you can see how the screen responds to pressure if you try the new peek gesture in the iOS Mail app. As you press to trigger the “peek” gesture, watch the subtle changes in the animation as you press and then as you let up a bit. There is nothing like this capability on competing platforms yet, and it is surely something that app makers and Apple will take advantage of. For example: press and then gradually apply more pressure to increment a value in a numeric spinner. Then release and do it again to decrement. Or the photo app – press on the screen harder to accelerate the brightness up, press and do it again to decrease brightness.

These are just quick and maybe poor examples off the top of my head. Game developers will probably find creative uses for this, too. It sure seems like current implementations are only the start. Guess we’ll see.

Categories    Apple