Apple introduced a pressure-sensitive technology back in 2015 called3D Touch. But in 2018 the tech fell out of favor, and since then,iPhone modelshave instead used something that Apple calls Haptic Touch.
This is everything you need to know about Haptic Touch, how it works, what it lets you do, and how it’s different to 3D Touch.
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How does Haptic Touch work, and how is it different to 3D Touch?
Both technologies are quite similar, but with a key difference
3D Touch-enabled devices fromthe iPhone 6Sonwards let you apply pressure to the screen and get a shortcut menu, particularly on app icons.
Apple’s Haptic Touch technology is similar to 3D Touch but it doesn’t rely on pressure. Instead, Haptic Touch kicks in when you long-press the screen, offering a small vibration as acknowledgement following the press; haptic feedback, hence the Haptic Touch name.
Haptic Touch is software-based rather than hardware-based, while 3D Touch was hardware-based, requiring a different type of screen technology that would have made it difficult to deliver the edge-to-edge displays we now expect on our phones.
With 3D Touch, different results appeared depending on the force with which you pressed - such as Peek and Pop. You canread all about 3D Touch in our separate featureif you still have a 3D Touch-compatible device.
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What can you do with Haptic Touch?
The feature is useful for invoking context menus throughout the operating system
When 3D Touch first launched, only a few apps were compatible - predominantly Apple’s native apps. As the months and years went on, however, more third-party apps built-in compatibility. While 3D Touch was never a feature we used that much, there were some pretty cool shortcuts.
According to Apple, Haptic Touch “lets you do things faster, like take selfies without launching the camera app.” Haptic Touch now offers a lot of functionalities very similar to 3D Touch - to the point where you are unlikely to miss 3D Touch at all (if you used it in the first place).
With Haptic Touch, when you long-press some apps, a shortcut menu will appear, along with the option to Remove App or Edit Home Screen. For other apps that haven’t developed Haptic Touch compatibility yet, only the option to Remove App, Share App, or Edit Home Screen will appear.
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What apps work with Haptic Touch?
Just about all of Apple’s first-party apps work with the technology, as well as an ever-growing fleet of third-party apps
Most of Apple’s native apps work with Haptic Touch - though not all - and there are now plenty of third-party apps too. Here’s a list of a few of our favorite icons to long-press on to deliver shortcuts:
The list above is just a few of the ones we’ve used regularly, but if you try long-pressing any of your favorite apps, you might be surprised to see a shortcut menu appear.
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How do you change the sensitivity of Haptic Touch?
The sensitivity can easily be tweaked by navigating to your accessibility settings
There are three sensitivity options for Haptic Touch - fast, default, and slow. Fast will deliver your shortcut menus quicker, so you don’t have to press an icon for as long.
To change the sensitivity of Haptic Touch:
There’s also a handy touch duration test located directly below the setting itself – you can easily test out which speed setting you prefer, by holding down on the flower image provided.
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