How To Activate And Use 3D Touch On Android And iPhone?
We used to pinch, swipe and tap our phones, but now how hard you press the screen makes your phone do more. Apple calls it 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Think of it like right-clicking a mouse to bring up extra options. This is how it works. When you press the screen, the capacitive sensors of the phone read changes.
This change is read in the form of the distance between the cover glass and the backlight. Touch can tell the difference in pressure from a tap to a deep press. The final also makes tiny vibrations from the haptic Engine so you can feel what you’re doing.
A light press on the screen will open a preview of the content, like a map and e-mail or a message. This is called a peak. Release your finger and you go back to where you were. But if you keep pressing your finger harder, it opens the content fully.
That’s called pop. 3D Touch also works on the home screen with something called Quick Actions. Press an app icon to bring up shortcuts like launching the front-facing camera or calling your favorite contact. That’s your right-click analogy. Its main function of production is to reduce the number of taps you need to make on the screen.
3D Touch is also going to work for multitasking drawing and could open a whole new way of interacting with games. It sounds complicated, but soon pushing your screen will be second nature.
What Is A 3-D Touch?
A new thing called 3D Touch. Basically, what it means is that the screen on the iPhone is now pressure sensitive which gives you a bunch of options to do cool weird things. So, for example, in the messaging app. You can press a little bit hard on a link and it’ll pop up a little preview window of the web page, and then you can just lift your finger off and it goes away.
You can do the same thing with an address, and a little preview of Maps pops up. Or you can press harder in, and it opens the Maps app. So that’s called Peak and Pop. You can peek at the thing that’s being linked to, or you can pop into the full thing. The same idea works in say, e-mail.
So, you’re looking at your inbox. You can peek at an e-mail address by pressing a little bit and then you can pop into the e-mail. The other thing that you can do is you can peek at a thing and then you can slide U to see a bunch of options. So, on any e-mail you can reply, you can forward, or you can flag the e-mail for later. So, let’s peek and pop. But there are a few other things that you can do. So, for example, in photos if you take a photo.
It will show you a second of movement before and after if you press hard on the photo. So, here’s just a picture of Jake. But if you press hard on it, there’s a little moment before and after you took the photo, which is kind of fun. It also works with live wallpaper, so you can have your wallpaper and if you push down on it, you can see this fish move, which is kind of fun. And then there are a few other random spots.
So, if you’re in a text entry field, you can press hard on the keyboard and suddenly the keyboard goes away, and you have a cursor and you can move the cursor around and place it exactly where you want. So, you don’t have to try and get it exactly right with your finger. And then you guess the last thing you want but one of our favorite features is 3D Touch.
On the home screen, you can press hard on the icons and get shortcuts inside the app. So, if you hard press Safari, you can go straight to your reading list or hard press on the camera. You can take a selfie because obviously, you want to do that. And you can even press hard on messages to get a direct link into a conversation with somebody that you just talked to.
So, let’s basically get right now for 3D Touch. And it’s a lot. what we like about it is it’s consistent. When you press on something, you peek at it and then you can push it harder to see it, and it’s consistent across messages and emails and so on. The thing we don’t know is if it’ll be consistent when a third-party app starts importing it. We hope they do because the idea of peak and pop is intuitive, and it really makes the phone feel a lot better.
Reason For Loss Of 3-D Touch And Introduction Of Haptic Touch.
Apple Introduced its new line of phones, the 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. The models received some significant upgrades like longer battery life, a new camera system, and improved durability that will. The feature is called 3D Touch, which debuted with the iPhone 6S back in 2015. And this has caused quite a bit of outcry from users who used the feature for things like previewing links, peeking into emails, and controlling the cursor. So why did Apple? Move a feature that defined an entire generation of iPhones and provided so much functionality to users.
Background Of The Introduction Of 3-D Touch
Let’s start off by covering the short history of 3D Touch. The feature debuted in 2015 with the iPhone 6S and was considered by Apple to be just as revolutionary as multi-Touch. They said 3D Touch would be a completely new way of interacting with your iPhone and if you know how influential multi-Touch ended up being after the original iPhone was introduced. You’ll understand just how significant a claim Apple made now.
Reception to 3D Touch was overwhelmingly positive since customers and reviewers alike were looking forward to the advanced functionality enabled by the new technology. Now Apple showed off what Three Touch could do during the iPhone 6S keynote by demonstrating capabilities like quickly viewing emails, previewing calendar events, and even previewing flight details, all without being dragged into another app or taken into a different window.
So, to put it simply, the purpose of 3D Touch was to quickly preview content instead of switching back and forth between apps or tapping in and out of emails and text conversations. This would effectively make navigating iOS faster and more effortless now to make the 3D Touch experience possible. Apple had to make software and hardware changes to the new iPhone 6S.
When it came to software, iOS needed new window overlay containers in which content could be previewed. Also, Apple had to decide what that content preview would look like, requiring a unique optimization for each app.
Problems Of The 3-D Touch
The issue when the iPhone 3-D Touch success was first introduced, saying engineering wise, the hardware to build a display that does what 3D Touch does is unbelievably hard and we’re going to waste a whole year of engineering too, at a tremendous amount of cost and investment in manufacturing. If it doesn’t do something that people are going to use, and sadly that pretty much turned out to be the case with 3D Touch.
Not only did most customers not know about its existence, but even when they discovered the feature, they still didn’t find it compelling enough to use. Now I know this isn’t the case with everyone since tech-inclined users are more likely to utilize 3D Touch. But even if you do use the feature daily, it’s important to recognize the reality that most casual iPhone users don’t.
And that’s exactly the reason why Apple didn’t include 3D Touch with the 10R and the new iPhone 11 models. Its components were taking up valuable space inside the device that could be dedicated to something like a larger battery, which would benefit virtually every iPhone user. Apple only. Move to 3D Touch hardware from its devices.
Most of the software features still exist under a new name, Haptic Touch, where users simply tap and hold on to an app or link to trigger the same shortcuts in previews introduced by 3D Touch. But many people feel this new haptic approach is inferior to 3D Touch, full of compromises that make the feature less useful.
How To Activate It On Android?
We are going to show you how to enable 3D Touch on any Android phone. It does not require any root permissions or to unlock the bootloader. You just need a simple app from the Play Store which you can do. Right after the process is over.
So first go to the Play Store, and install the Quick Shortcut Maker. After you install the Quick Shortcut Maker, open the app, then search for settings in this list. So, we have got it, and after you go to the settings, scroll to the bottom of this list. And here and here you will see about 3-4 settings. Above the 3D touch settings, you can see this. And then just. Click on it. Uh, you may just press on the settings and change the name to 3D Touch, so it is 3D Touch.
You may also change the icon here, but we don’t think it is necessary so we will continue with this one and just press on this create button down here if it If the Android says it is trying to add shortcuts to the home screen, just allow it. And go to the home screen.
Now there you are. You have got 3D Touch here even if you did. It will do. Just use this 3D Touch Roto here, go here, then just turn this on. And you’re good to go. And now even your Android phone has a 3D Touch feature which you may use when necessary to just use
How To Activate It On Your iPhone?
Apple disabled 3-D touch after the iPhone X and its models and introduced the haptic touch. To give you a look at how it works. So first, just to enable it or disable it, go into your settings and then Scroll down General.
Accessibility. And then go down to 3D Touch. Now by default, this should be on. You see, mine is currently on. If you want to turn it off just drag the slider to the left.
But of course, there’s a demonstration we have left it on dragging to the right. Now for looking out three touch works and right after this, we will show you real-world usage for it.
So normally on the phone about 3D touch, you would hold down lives on something and so you see here we are doing that and now the background is Gray. But on a phone like the iPhone 7, where you have 3D Touch, you can hold down harder.
Quite some force now you see the image pop up, hold down even harder, and pop up again. So, there are different levels to it. Now again, we will show you in a second some real-world use for that, but if you want you can either hold down lighter or harder to enable it.
So, let’s say if you don’t want to hold down so hard on it, you can just drag this fight to the left. So now we are going to be applying less pressure, but three touches still work as you see here. But personally, we prefer it to be in the middle. You guys can mess around with this, see which one you prefer.
Haptic Touch Vs 3-D Touch
You guys are probably very familiar with 3D Touch and then must touch it later. It came in with the mix of the iPhone XR as well as the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12. Now what you guys don’t know is that 3D Touch is so much more efficient than Haptic Touch. Now on the right side here we have the iPhone 12 and on the left side here we have the iPhone 10.
Now one of the devices has 3D Touch and the other device has Haptic Touch. Another thing you guys want to keep in mind is if you have 3D touch, Haptic Touch is included as well. If you have Haptic touch, 3D touch is not available. Now what you want to do to confirm this is jump on into settings.
Once you guys are in here, jump on into accessibility and scroll down to the middle of the page and this is where you will see touch. So just tap on that menu and we will be presented with this touch screen here and inside here you will see it either says 3D and Haptic Touch or just must touch.
So, what this essentially means is that there is an extra layer of touch built You will be missing that extra menu right there, so we’re just going to go ahead and tap on 3D and Haptic Touch here on both devices and this is where you’ll see the differences.
Now there is a toggle to turn off 3D Touch on the left one here. Whereas the right one is a very bare bone. You will see a couple of other menus on the iPhone 10(X) slider from light to firm as well as a couple of fast and slow options.
We’ll talk a little bit more about this in a few seconds here, but we will see this little picture at the bottom here. Once we do tap on it, you will see the differences between both.
So, tap into this one and just count the milliseconds before it launches off the picture. And this does not require any force at all, just placing Essentially pops it back up. Where’s this one here? Fast and slow.
You’ll see the difference. Just tap on it and it pops up pretty much instantaneously. There is no delay whatsoever, and this is where these two toggles play in. If we turn it on too slowly, we’ll see that it takes a little bit longer, although it’s still much quicker than on this device.
Here, why don’t we just go ahead and tap them both at the same time just to check it out? And yeah guys, it’s drastically slower on the iPhone 12. So now you guys are wondering how does this equate to real-life usage? This really does matter guys. Three touch is. Superior. In every way.
Home Screen Comparison
Why don’t we just jump out into the home screen, turn off the device, and this is where the most drastic thing is? So, first things first, you guys will see that on the lock screen. Very familiar. Here we do have the flashlight and the camera icon.
However, tapping on to one and the other you won’t notice the difference When we go ahead and do that 123 and it both turns on. However, if you guys look here if you do tap on to the iPhone 10 just ever so slightly.
It will not be involved, it will just sort of bounce around the camera icon, which gives it another layer of security. You won’t invoke this well in your pocket because it does require you to press on the screen.
Where’s this one here? Just tapping on it and letting it go. It does turn on the camera and the exact same thing goes for the camera over here. So yeah, you guys will see that there are very major differences here.
We wouldn’t say they’re subtle, because they aren’t. Once you use a 3D Touch device, it’s very difficult to jump back in.
Alright, so now that we’re on the home screen, obviously the biggest difference between 3D and Haptic Touch is tapping on the physical icons. Now what physical is Apple is trying to make it more physical, even though it is not.
However, the 3D Touch really adds an extra layer to that go ahead and demo it here by jumping into settings, tapping them both at the same time, and pressing hard on them and you will see that 3D Touch just pops it up pretty much instantaneously. There is no delay whatsoever. However, on the iPhone 12.
Here you will see sort of a delay, and it does work the opposite way as well, and you do hold on to it without pressing down. Both should invoke at the exact same time, but if you press on it, we’ll see that the Eiffel 10 is that much quicker.
Messaging app
Alright, now the next couple of cool things here you will notice is within the Messages app. All of us use this quite often; however, it is no longer available on the newer iPhone.
Quickly jump on into Messages here. On both devices, we do have some messages. It up and just tapping on them, you will notice that it pops up a lot quicker on the iPhone 10 versus the iPhone 12.
Now this is very apparent when you do jump into specific links. It just popped up quickly and then the other ones just took a really, really long time.
All right, now this applies to pretty much everything that has the keyboard, but we just use Messages, for example here. Tapping onto the keyboard, let’s pretend we’re going to type a couple of messages and you want to edit around the messages.
This is not available on the iPhone 12, but this is on the iPhone 10. As you guys can see here, we can swipe around and just edit. And on the iPhone 12 here you pretty much see it does nothing except invoke the swipe feature.
Conclusion
We guess the last little thing; we have to say here is that a lot of third-party apps are moving away from 3D Touch and implementing Haptic Touch as a replacement. So, you guys won’t feel like you’re missing out so much.
But now, guys, we do really miss what we had on some of the older devices, and now the only device that is just as quick and is on par with expectations. It is the iPhone XS, so if you have that device, you’re good to go, you have the best of both worlds, but if you don’t, the iPhone 12 is your best one now.
FAQs
Q: What is a 3D touch?
Basically, what it means is that the screen on the iPhone is now pressure sensitive which gives you a bunch of options to do cool weird things. So, for example, in the messaging app. You can press a little bit hard on a link and it’ll pop up a little preview window of the web page, and then you can just lift your finger off and it goes away. You can do the same thing with an address, and a little preview of Maps pops up.
Or you can press harder in, and it opens the Maps app. You can peek at an e-mail address by pressing a little bit and then you can pop into the e-mail. The other thing that you can do is you can peek at a thing and then you can slide U to see a bunch of options. So, on any e-mail you can reply, you can forward, or you can flag the e-mail for later.
So, let’s peek and pop. But there are a few other things that you can do. So, for example, in photos if you take a photo. It will show you a second of movement before and after if you press hard on the photo. So, here’s just a picture of Jake.
Q: What is the difference between haptic and 3D touch?
Now what you guys don’t know is that 3D Touch is so much more efficient than Haptic Touch. Now on the right side here we have the iPhone 12 and on the left side here we have the iPhone 10. Now one of the devices has 3D Touch and the other device has Haptic Touch. Another thing you guys want to keep in mind is if you have 3D touch, Haptic Touch is included as well. If you have Haptic touch, 3D touch is not available.
Q: Home screen comparison
Why don’t we just jump out into the home screen, turn off the device, and this is where the most drastic thing is? So, first things first, you guys will see that on the lock screen.
Very familiar. Here we do have the flashlight and the camera icon. However, tapping on to one and the other you won’t notice the difference When we go ahead and do that 123 and it both turns on. However, if you guys look here if you do tap on the iPhone 10 just ever so slightly.
Q: Messaging app
Alright, now the next couple of cool things here you will notice is within the Messages app. All of us use this quite often; however, it is no longer available on the newer iPhone. Quickly jump on into Messages here. On both devices, we do have some messages.
It up and just tapping on them, you will notice that it pops up a lot quicker on the iPhone 10 versus the iPhone 12.
Now this is very apparent when you do jump into specific links. It just popped up quickly and then the other ones just took a really, really long time.
Q: How can I get a 3D touch on Android?
You just need a simple app from the Play Store which you can do. Right after the process is over. So first go to the Play Store, and install the Quick Shortcut Maker. After you install the Quick Shortcut Maker, open the app, then search for settings in this list. So, we have got it, and after you go to the settings, scroll to the bottom of this list.
And here and here you will see about 3-4 settings. Above the 3D touch settings, you can see this. And then just. Click on it. you may just press on the settings and change the name to 3D Touch.
You may also change the icon There, but we don’t think it is necessary so we will continue with this one and just press this create button down here if it If the Android says it is trying to add shortcuts to the home screen, just allow it. go to the home screen. Now there you are. You have got 3D Touch here even if you did. It will do. Just use this 3D Touch Roto here, go here, then just turn this on.
Q: How to turn on 3-D touch on Android?
So first, just to enable it or disable it, go into your settings and then Scroll down General. Accessibility. And then go down to 3D Touch. Now by default, this should be on.
You see, mine is currently on. If you want to turn it off just drag the slider to the left. But of course, there’s a demonstration we have left it on dragging to the right. Now for looking out three touch works and right after this, we will show you a real-world usage for it.
So normally on the phone about 3D touch, you would hold down lives on something and so you see here we are doing that and now the background is Gray.
But on a phone like the iPhone 7, where you have 3D Touch, you can hold down harder. Quite some force now you see the image pop up, hold down even harder, and pop up again.
So, there are different levels to it. Now again, we will show you in a second some real-world use for that, but if you want you can either hold down lighter or harder to enable it.