Why it’s time for Apple to kill 3D Touch

Apple’s 3D Touch-equipped 5.8-inch iPhone Xs and 6.5-inch iPhone Xs Max (right)

“Three years ago, Jason Snell wrote about the problems with 3D Touch, after six months on the market (Apple introduced it with the iPhone 6s),” Jason Cross writes for Macworld. “His conclusion: 3D touch is not ubiquitous enough to be relied upon as a key interface function for developers, and after six months he had quit using it entirely.”
“Here we are several years and several iPhones later, and the situation isn’t any better,” Cross writes. “3D Touch is still an Easter egg, a gimmick, a shortcut for enthusiasts. Precious few apps make it a core part of their interface.”
“And how could they? No iPad has ever included 3D Touch. Apple’s most popular current model iPhone, the iPhone XR, doesn’t have it,” Cross writes. “Now, new rumors state that 3D Touch will be absent from all 2019 iPhones. I say, good riddance.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s a shame.
We use 3D Touch to launch the Camera app quickly on our iPhones daily.
A huge amount of work went into 3D Touch, from hardware to software; looks like it was all for naught. 3D Touch is like AppleScript. Pro users know about it and some even use it extensively while the rest of the world has no idea it exists.
As always, the simpletons of the world are easily confused or too incurious to bother spending 15 minutes learning something that would save themselves hours over the long run.
Hopefully, Apple will bring Haptic Touch up to 3D Touch capabilities before they axe 3D Touch altogether.
Related articles:
Apple expected to eliminate 3D Touch from all 2019 iPhones in favor of Haptic Touch – May 28, 2019
Apple iPhones may get full-screen Touch ID in 2020; possible all-new iPhone SE coming, too – May 24, 2019