Is 3D Touch such a big thing for iPhone users?
Apple has decided to rename Force Touch into 3D Touch and present it as one of the key features of the upcoming iOS 9. To the untrained eye this may not seem so important, but I assure you that it is. Just think about how many current apps take advantage of the existing gestures such as swiping or pinching the screen and how they used them to replace the need for certain buttons. However, these gestures are simple, 2D ones and one can only imagine how much can be achieved using three-dimensional motions.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the topic, Force Touch (now 3D Touch) is a feature recently introduced to the latest MacBook trackpads which senses the amount of force you use to press and reacts accordingly. In simple terms, this function can differentiate between a light tap and powerful press and trigger a different reaction for each gesture. Now, 3D Touch is being added to the iPhone 6s models and this is actually quite a big deal. Since the technology is very new, the guys from Apple have found a few interesting uses for it, but in time app developers will most likely create their own 3D gestures and find some really exciting ways to utilize them. Moreover, the 3D Touch features will work combined with Apple Taptic's Engine, thus making the phone offer you feedback on your commands.
3D Touch
For example, the IT giant's engineers presented a way in which a light tap will trigger a preview of the selected item (email, picture, document) while pressing your finger a bit more forcefully on the screen will open the item using the designated application. Another cool thing is that you can use the 3D Touch to easily call your favorite contacts without tapping the screen as many times as you do now. Moreover, these 3D gestures will also be embedded directly into the operating system allowing you to press hard on the keyboard in order to turn it into a trackpad which makes it easier to move the cursor.
As I said, this technology is super new and only the guys from Apple and a few others (such as the engineers from Instagram) have had time to play around with it and implement their ideas. But once it becomes generally available to all app makers things should turn out great. Better yet, imagine what game makers could do with this technology. Even though 3D Touch will only be available on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus (probably also on the upcoming iPhone models), I can't wait to see it, take flight and explore all the new possibilities that it brings.
