Apple Reportedly Ditching iPhone 3D Touch For Good

Apple will reportedly be doing away with the 3D Touch feature on the iPhone starting with the upcoming iPhone models to be released this year.

According to a research note shared to MacRumors, a team of Barclays analysts have “confirmed” that the 3D Touch feature, introduced to the masses via the iPhone 6S years ago, will be “eliminated” on the 2019 iPhones going forward.

The analysts predicted the same information in August of 2018, and confirmed it recently after a trip to Asia where they were able to collect information from companies supplying the Cupertino tech giant with what it needs for its devices.

3D Touch

Apple made using the iPhone faster with the 3D Touch feature when it was released with the iPhone 6S years ago. iMore described it “like a wormhole through iOS that lets you move around faster than ever,” allowing users to do many things on the smartphone without the need to launch any app.

The Verge noted how gamechanging the feature was when it was released, so much that it easily overshadowed the iPhone 6S’ cameras and other features. It allowed users to preview messages, take photos, or call a contact without opening the messages app, camera and phonebook. It made using the phone easier and more convenient.

Sadly, the feature was largely unnoticed by many users. Despite its potential to make iPhone usage more convenient, not that many people were able to take advantage of it simple because, as The Verge pointed out in 2018, people simply “didn’t know” it was there, and that the iPhone “did little to train users” to use it.

With 3D Touch seemingly becoming more useless, Apple introduced something new on the iPhone XR, something called “Haptic Touch.” This feature is simply a “marketing name” for a long press that elicits haptic feedback from a Taptic engine underneath the display. In layman’s terms, it’s a click or vibration in response to a long press.

Why remove it?

MacRumors noted that Apple replaced 3D Touch with Haptic Touch so that the iPhone XR can have an edge-to-edge display. This simply follows that if the 2019 iPhone XR will feature an LCD screen, it won’t have 3D Touch as well.

Apple, however, was able to integrate 3D Touch into edge-to-edge OLED displays in the iPhone XS and XS Max. It remains unclear as to why it is doing away with the 2019 iPhone XS and XS Max models.