Many rumors have suggested that the iPhone 6s will include Force Touch, a feature currently in the Apple Watch and new MacBook models that allows the user to bring up additional features or menus. But how will Apple use Force Touch on the iPhone? A new report claims to have the details.
Sources that claim to have used an iPhone 6s recently spoke to 9to5Mac, with one tipster saying that Force Touch on the iPhone is consistently used as more of a shortcut to other actions rather than to bring up new options and menus. For example, you could look up a point of interest in Maps and then Force Touch to immediately start navigating there rather than tapping several on-screen buttons to initiate navigation mode and then another to actually start navigating.
Another example of how Force Touch could be used on an iPhone would be in the Music app. If you Force Touch on a track, a menu could pop up asking if you’d like to add the song to a playlist or download it for offline listening rather than presenting those options as buttons that are always on the screen. One other option would be to let a user Force Touch on a link in Safari and then show a preview of the web page, or Force Touching on an address to see a preview on a map.
Finally, it’s said that Apple is testing the ability to bring up shortcuts to apps on your iPhone’s home screen. A Force Touch on the Phone app could jump directly to the Voicemail tab.
As for what happens when the user performs a Force Touch on an iPhone, it’s said that Apple has made a “nice” and “consistent” physical feedback. On-screen, the user will see one of three things: no added UI, a UI that appears around your Force Touching finger, or a list at the bottom of the iPhone’s display.
With Force Touch already on the Apple Watch, MacBook, and MacBook Pro, it’s not a surprise that Apple wants to put the feature on the iPhone, too. By the sound of today’s rumor, it sound like Apple plans to use Force Touch to help declutter the iOS UI a bit and to also make it faster to get around the OS and to get to commonly-used features.
While today’s report claims to shed light on the ways that the ways that Apple could use Force Touch, it’ll be interesting to see how iOS developers use the feature as well. It’s said that Apple is planning to allow devs to use Force Touch, and while they can already use it on the Apple Watch, we’ll likely see more developers try out Force Touch on the iPhone since it’s got a much larger user base.
One other tidbit from today's report: It's said that Apple's upcoming 12.9-inch iPad models will also include a Force Touch display that works with a stylus that Apple is also cooking up. Force Touch all the things!
