I had a feeling this was gonna be about 3D Touch just from seeing the title.
It was definitely one of my favorite features, and Force Touch isn't a drop-in replacement.
With 3D Touch anywhere on the keyboard, you could apply pressure to start moving the caret (text cursor) around, but what was even more useful was being able to apply a little bit more pressure to start selecting text with incredible precision.
With Force Touch, you can long press on the space bar till you get haptic feedback, then you can move the caret around freely. However, if you want to select text, you need to use a second finger on the keyboard after you start moving the caret around, but honestly it's an absolute mess to use; try it out, I can guarantee you won't be able to select what you were planning on.
However, as much as I miss it every time I fail to accurately select text on iOS, I don't mourn its loss. Force Touch is adequate. It's just not a replacement, and seems a shame it was probably removed to reduce costs and hardware complexity, all at the cost of regression.
As if they put any effort whatsoever into teaching or UI discoverability these days. If there was a tutorial app I would have used it, but I have repeatedly had to use Google to find unrelated blog sites describing how to accomplish things in the iOS interface.
Cynically, it feels like they think everyone should already "just know" how the various gestures work, which is obnoxious and user hostile.
As someone who only occasionally has to use macOS and iOS for work. The gestures and key combos required to do even the most basic things are insane.. and there is (almost) zero discoverability or affordances for them. On iOS gestures with multiple fingers, on macOS keyboard shortcuts with 3 or 4 keys.
I also dont often use Linux, but I could try some new distro with a completely different windows manager I have never seen before and I can figure it out and be happily computing in no time.
apple stuff always requiring searching on the internet to find out how how to do even most basic functions.
Also, not relevant, but I gotta mention as it grinds my gears so bad.. The only reason I have to use macOS is that it's required to build to iOS, which is just uniquely egregious. That sort of business should actually be illegal. Hopefully it will be in EU soon.
The shortcuts associated with menu items are shown in the menu item. I realize that there other discovery problems with keyboard shortcuts (on all platforms) but there is non-zero discoverability for "the most basic things" on Mac OS.
Gesture discoverability is much closer to zero, IMHO.
what you mean most people don't go explore every single page of the System Preferences when they get a new computer and look at all the helpful animations in the Gestures pane, I'm shocked
(yeah this is the computing equivalent of a locked file cabinet in a disused toilet stall in a dark basement with a sign on the door that says "Beware The Leopard")
macOS help menus are incredibly useful, system preferences is helpful, and support.apple.com actually has some useful guides. Apple also provides free training sessions at Apple Stores, and free remote support 24/7 AFAIK through AppleCare.
What do you expect? Unskippable videos when you first set up a mac followed by a mandatory test that you have to pass before you can use the computer?
> yeah this is the computing equivalent of a locked file cabinet in a disused toilet stall in a dark basement with a sign on the door that says "Beware The Leopard"
OTOH it makes complete sense to have a look at the Trackpad pane to see how it works. It’s not like it’s hidden behind a defaults command line, and it even has movies. It’s much worse on phones.
Mac OS Help menu search is spectacular for discoverability. Start typing what you want and it pops up the menu with an arrow and it shows you the shortcut.
Everyone else does it worse, except maybe the VSCode command palette.
You read the man page/documentation for the software you installed that they're for, or else you defined them yourself and don't need to discover them.
Sure, but the complaint was discoverability, my point is that on Linux you start with something you don't need to discover: you either defined the shortcut yourself, or you installed something that defines it by default. There are no 'system shortcuts'.
>if there was a tutorial app I would have used it..
Isn't that the Tips App? I'm pretty sure it gets recommended every time you set up a new phone. Mine has a tip on using Haptic Touch with the keyboard to move the insertion point.
I just looked at that for the first time, there's some neat stuff. Didn't know you can define actions for tapping on the back of the phone, even works with my case.
Not only is there a tutorial app ("Tips") but you receive a notification pointing you towards it shortly after setting up a new iOS device. Also after major iOS updates. So... Yeah I suppose you're making their point for them, to an extent.
Does this apply to iPads? I had mine set up by my employer and don't think I've seen a prompt. I also don't recall seeing this on an iPhone SE I had, so maybe discover ability would be better than popups for a tips app.
Absolutely not. Machines and software that interrupt users are Kafkaesque torture devices. Hell is full of Clippies and microwaves that repeatedly beep for eternity.
The thing some email clients do where they say “did you mean to attach something” is the one I love.
I’d like a Mark II version which also says “there is no such thing as Sunday 8th of August this year” so that I can fix my errors before they cause problems.
It's just fundamentally a bad idea. Software should never, ever bother the user during use about how it's being used. That's what tutorials and documentation are for.
No matter how clever and subtle you think you're being, you're still just redirecting the user's attention from the task at hand toward the UI itself. No matter how ignorable, dismissable, or optional it is, it's an abysmal UI failure and it shouldn't even happen once. Make the feature right in the first place and you won't have to resort to nagging.
Way back in the day, Apple shipped several different "Mouse Practice" tutorials on their computers to teach new users how to use the mouse. Here's videos of two of them:
That game really does build up mouse skills. I remember playing it when I was 5 and having no idea what the rules were - I just liked to click all the fun little boxes with the cool numbers and bombs.
That's a great idea. Steam deck comes with a short game - Aperture desk job - that tests all of the controls. I didn't know it had a gyro until I played that game.
I believe it was removed in big part due to being a relatively big energy drain. With that in mind, I don’t believe it was a bad decision, even though I liked the feature as well. (Though probably with additional R&D on the topic, it could have been improved)
And, IIRC, 3D Touch was also technologically infeasible to implement on iPad. That sharply limited what they could do with it, since it would never be available on all iOS devices.
I read they removed it because it required space-consuming hardware to accomplish, and Haptic Touch approximates most of its features (most) with just software.
It seems the selection can only grow and on both sides, which is the main problem.
If they showed the cursor with a different color than the selected text, and if they shrink and grow the selection as you move, I think it could be pretty nice: select the starting point of the selection, and select only what’s in between the original cursor and the moving one.
Alas it’s more like painting a selection at the moment, with an invisible brush.
When I worked at Apple training people about the first iPhone generations they always said stuff like "it SHOULD be intuitive, we dont WANT a tutorial" I chuckled then, but add 15 years of changes on something and I don't know how that was ever going to be possible.
Tips is underrated. I think back then people just didn’t want a thick manual (also available in the Apple Books store) just to get value out of their phones, but Tips fills the need of providing some guidance as changes occur.
It is an App installed on current iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches. It just outlines features in the products, e.g. new iOS 15 features, “Essentials”, What’s new in watchOS 8, “Health”, “Beyond Basics”, “AirPods Max”, “AirPods”. I think various sections show up depending on what you buy or add to your Apple ID, and usually I’m able to learn a few things a year from it that I missed in the announcements or didn’t see covered elsewhere.
I hear this complaint a lot, but what is the solution exactly? Cramming labeled buttons for every possible action onto every screen? There's not a lot of space to work with, and even less when the touch targets have to be large enough for a big fat thumb to press accurately/reliably.
You can do most of the things that most users need to do just knowing how to tap icons and swipe up to go home. I don't think it's such a big issue that there are some power user features that you either discover by messing around or word of mouth.
Unobtrusive GUI indicators - small tabs that suggest pulling, textures to suggest numbers of fingers or tapping actions etc. Add a menu item to turn visual hints off if desired, but have the UI be discoverable by default.
The problem here is that the “move left to expand left” and “move right to expand right” doesn’t map mentally to the way a cursor works.
With a traditional cursor, it places an anchor wherever you’ve moused down and then drags the selection around that anchor.
Whereas with Haptic Touch selection, there’s no anchor, so you find yourself selecting text you didn’t mean to. I’m sure that once you’ve gotten used to it, it’s a nice feature; but it’s not intuitive if you’re not accustomed to it (which seems to be the majority of folks).
I enabled arrows keys on every single keyboard on the Android devices I owned. I use them to move the cursor and fix mistakes, usually by tapping and adjusting with the arrows. Faster than attempting to tap at the right spot. Are there no arrows on iOS keyboards?
> It seems the selection can only grow and on both sides, which is the main problem.
I could have sworn it used to work like how you'd expect, where it's anchored from the place you started highlighting. I got my first iPhone, the 12 mini, when it came out. So end of 2020, and I thought that was how text selection worked when I first got it, then it seemed at some point, perhaps after an update it started working where it would only grow the selection and you couldn't unselect if you accidentally went too far. I thought they introduced a bug but it hasn't changed since then. I have no source for this, only my own memory, but maybe someone else can tell me I'm correct/incorrect about that?
The current implementation is way too hard to use. Especially if, for example, you're selecting something starting on the far right side of a line to the far left side of the same line. You have to thread the needle of the above and below lines like a game of Operation, because if you go too high or too low, you'll accidentally end up selecting that entire line.
> However, as much as I miss it every time I fail to accurately select text on iOS, I don't mourn its loss
Yes, it's slightly worse now but for a greater cause and the greater cause, IMHO, is the unified interaction model on mobile devices. If not all devices and apps are using it there's no reason to having it.
In the Android world there are tons of exotic stuff, novel ideas and even "standards" that go nowhere unless Apple implements it.
There is a magic in general availability. I think, if all Apple devices had it, it could have been possible to rely on its existence and build the UI with that assumption in mind. With just some devices having it, you need to have few versions of the UI to handle each case.
> There is a magic in general availability. I think, if all Apple devices had it, it could have been possible to rely on its existence and build the UI with that assumption in mind. With just some devices having it, you need to have few versions of the UI to handle each case.
The way you get there is by putting it into everything for several years.
Cutting it after three is the opposite of working for that greater cause.
For some reason, no iPad had it. Maybe it becomes problematic on large screens, maybe the user experience degrades on large screens because of simple physics i.e the the strength needed for applying pressure becomes uncomfortable since it will act as a lever in the hands of the user?
Maybe the force the user can apply when iPad is on a table(no lever effect) and when is handheld(strong lever effect, user needs counterforce on the other end of the screen to achieve firm press) is far too different to reliably activate the gesture?
> I too enjoy the removal of innovation and excellence in the quest for equality comrade
I think you misunderstood. This is not an argument for equality at all, the problem with patchy support is that few bother to implement features against because it costs time and money and as a result fades into usbcuirity.
Having uniform platform is a very effective for innovations success. It makes sense for Apple and the developers to have the hardware based 3D touch with a software based alternative so that it can work on all devices the same way.
I was sure it was going to be about it as well! 3D touch was a really cool feature. I also find now that it’s a lot easier to activate the flashlight or camera on the Lock Screen since they are not ‘buttons’ any more
Every time I unlock my phone I’m reminded that the stupid flashlight button can’t be turned off.
The 3 times this year I’ve needed to use my flashlight are not worth the 20+ times it’s been accidentally running in my pocket because I held the wrong corner while pocketing my phone.
Plus it’s in control centre anyway If you need it fast.
As long as you want to select entire words, just double tap and drag -- same as desktop to do word-based selection. And even if you don't want to do word-based selection, double tap is a good way to start selection and have the selection carets close to where you want them that you can easily manually adjust.
I didn't even realize this is why the feature didn't work anymore. I thought I was doing something wrong. It's terrible. I find text selection and cursor placement on the iPhone to be infuriatingly difficult. The trackpad feature made it sooo easy. It was world class. Now it is just... gone? With no alternative?
Force Touch was the same tech as 3D Touch, first introduced on the watch. It was rebranded for the iPhone when the pressure sensitivity stuff was added.
"Both 3D Touch and Haptic Touch fall under the umbrella of Force Touch functionality. This is Apple's general name for its technology that lets input devices distinguish between different levels of pressure when you touch them."
> you can long press on the space bar till you get haptic feedback, then you can move the caret around freely. However, if you want to select text, you need to use a second finger on the keyboard after you start moving the caret around
Now how as a "user of apple products for 8 years" was I supposed to guess this ? Thank you ! You made my day !
Interesting, so there was a patent claim settled at the start of 2018 over this, and the iPhones released at the end of 2018 had the feature removed. I wonder how much of an impact that had, versus usability / weight / cost considerations.
Force Touch is something supported by 2015+ MacBook trackpads (you can push harder to effectively middle-click something) and 3D Touch was the iPhone screen tech that did the same thing, which has been replaced with Haptic Touch (equivalent to Android's "long press").
Neat, knew about the 3d caret placement for years but not the selection part. It doesn't seem to be incredible precision however, on mine you can only add one word at a time to the end of the selection.
Better than I knew before, but not incredible. Would at least require letter by letter precision for that.
You could probably run something over the output summary to make it sound like commentary. A filter to make the comment seem "unsure" about the conclusions of the article, or one to make it express gratitude that the article was written.
I’ve been so sad since upgrading my 6s about the loss of 3D Touch. I didn’t know that you can hold on the space bar now!!! Thank you for making me love my 13 mini even more now :):)
It isn't the same though, since trying to move the cursor down moves your finger off the touch screen. You can only move it down one line at most, and not reliable.
Yeah—I'm a reasonably dextrous person, but had to disable 3d touch on iOS and whatever the fancy pressure thing is on recent macbook touchpads, to make them usable. Constant mistakes with either turned on.
Force Touch would have been usable for me if I could just disable its vibration without having to disable it on the whole phone, I don't understand why they don't add special settings to do things like this. I hate that anytime I want to move the cursor and long press the space bar my phone has to vibrate.
I'm curious, how did the haptic feedback that indicates that you've enabled the feature make it unusable? FWIW its replacement is the same in that respect.
I hate notifications and talking on the phone, and after years I developed a pavlov reaction to it whenever my phone vibrates or makes a sound so I keep that at a minimum for important notifications, I used to love the samsung notification led but the iphone doesn't have that, so having a haptic feedback whenever I want to move the cursor (which is lots of times) makes me cringe.
It was definitely one of my favorite features, and Force Touch isn't a drop-in replacement.
With 3D Touch anywhere on the keyboard, you could apply pressure to start moving the caret (text cursor) around, but what was even more useful was being able to apply a little bit more pressure to start selecting text with incredible precision.
With Force Touch, you can long press on the space bar till you get haptic feedback, then you can move the caret around freely. However, if you want to select text, you need to use a second finger on the keyboard after you start moving the caret around, but honestly it's an absolute mess to use; try it out, I can guarantee you won't be able to select what you were planning on.
However, as much as I miss it every time I fail to accurately select text on iOS, I don't mourn its loss. Force Touch is adequate. It's just not a replacement, and seems a shame it was probably removed to reduce costs and hardware complexity, all at the cost of regression.