Michal Marek The most interesting innovation brought by the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is undoubtedly 3D Touch. This is a function that uses a special display that, within iOS, is able to distinguish between three different pressure intensities. Thanks to this, the user has the opportunity to access the most frequently used functions more quickly. For example, he only needs to press harder on the camera icon and he can immediately take a selfie, record a video, etc. 3D Touch works in the same way for other system applications, and the function can also be easily implemented by independent developers in their applications.
We looked at what interesting applications already support 3D Touch, and we bring you their overview. As expected, 3D Touch has proven to be an incredibly powerful tool in the hands of developers and a huge benefit for users. 3D Touch can make iOS even more straightforward, efficient and save a lot of time for users. In addition, the great news is that developers are adding support for the new feature to their applications at lightning speed. Many applications already have 3D Touch functionality, and more are quickly added. But now let's go straight to the promised overview of the most interesting of them.
Since yesterday, users of Facebook, the world's most popular social network application, have been able to use 3D Touch. Thanks to the new feature, users can directly access three actions from the home screen. They can write a post and can take or post a photo or video. Sharing your impressions and experiences with the world is suddenly much more at hand, and the user practically does not have to open the Facebook application for this purpose.
The well-known photo-social network Instagram has also received 3D Touch support. If you own one of the new iPhones, by pressing harder on the Instagram icon directly from the home screen, you will get access to quick options that will allow you to publish a new post, view activity, search or send a photo to a friend through the Direct function.
Directly in the Instagram interface, you can press harder on a specific user's name to bring up a preview of their profile page. But the possibilities of 3D Touch do not end there. Here you can swipe up to access options such as unfollowing, turning on notifications for the user's posts, or sending a direct message. 3D Touch can also be used by pressing hard on the photo displayed in the grid. This again makes available quick options such as Like, the option to comment and once again the option to send a message.
Another popular social network is Twitter, and it hasn't been idle in adding support for 3D Touch either. From the iPhone's home screen, you will now be able to start a search, write a message to a friend or write a new tweet after pressing harder on the application icon.
Tweetbot 4
Tweetbot, the most popular alternative Twitter client for iOS, also got 3D Touch support today. He finally got it recently the long-awaited version 4.0, which brought iPad optimization, landscape mode support and much more. So now the 4.0.1 update is coming, which completes the transformation of Tweetbot into a modern application and also brings the hottest new feature, 3D Touch.
The good news is that developers have taken advantage of both available 3D Touch integration options. So users can directly go to the four usual operations by pressing hard on the application icon. They can reply to the last mention, view the Activity tab, post the last picture taken or simply tweet. Peek & Pop is also available inside the application, thanks to which you can display a preview of the attached link and go to it in a flash.
Swarm
The last application from the social networking category that we will mention is Swarm. It is an application from the company Foursquare, which is used for so-called check-ins, i.e. for registering yourself to specific places. Swarm users have also already received 3D Touch support, and this is an extremely useful innovation. Thanks to 3D Touch, check-in is probably the easiest it can be. Simply press harder on the Swarm icon and you'll instantly access the ability to log in to that location. Same experience as on Watch.
dropbox
Probably the most popular cloud service in the world is Dropbox, and its official application has already received 3D Touch. From the home screen, you can quickly access the last used files and files stored on the phone, upload photos and just as quickly search for files across your Dropbox.
In the application, a stronger press can be used when you want to preview a file, and by swiping up you can then access other quick options. You can get a share link for that file, make the file available for offline use, rename it, move it, and delete it.
Evernote
Evernote is a well-known application for recording and advanced note management. It is a truly productive tool, and 3D Touch increases its productive potential even further. Thanks to 3D Touch, you can enter the note editor, take a photo or set a reminder directly from the icon on the iPhone's main screen. A stronger press on a note inside the application will then make its preview available, and a swipe up will allow you to quickly add the note to the shortcuts, set a reminder for it or share it.
Workflow
Similar to Automator on Mac, Workflow on iOS allows you to turn your routine tasks into automated operations. So the purpose of the application is to save you time, and 3D Touch multiplies this effect of the application's existing capabilities. By pressing harder on the application icon, you can immediately start your most important operations.
Inside the application, 3D Touch can be used to bring up a preview of a given command, and a swipe up again makes available options such as renaming, duplicating, deleting and sharing a specific workflow.
Launch Center Pro
Launch Center Pro is an application for creating shortcuts to simple actions within individual applications. Again, this is an application with the aim of speeding up your daily behavior on the iPhone, and the 3D Touch application also in this case allows you to access the desired items even faster. Simply press harder on the Launch Center Pro icon and your most frequently used actions are immediately available to you.
teevee
TeeVee is the only Czech application in our selection and also one of the first domestic pieces that learned to use 3D Touch. For those who don't know TeeVee, it's an app that keeps you updated on your favorite series. The application offers a clear list of the nearest episodes of the series you have selected and, in addition, provides basic information about them. Fans of the series can thus easily familiarize themselves with the annotations of individual episodes, view the cast of the series and, in addition, check off the watched episodes.
Since the last update, 3D Touch will also be useful for this application. By pressing your finger harder on the TeeVee icon, it is possible to access a shortcut to the three nearest series. There is also an accelerated option for adding a new program. In addition, the developer of the application promised that with the next update to TeeVee, the second alternative of using 3D Touch, i.e. Peek & Pop, will be added. This should facilitate and speed up the work inside the application itself.
Shazam
You are probably familiar with Shazam, an app for recognizing music playing. Shazam is very popular and it is even a service that Apple has integrated into its devices and thus expanded the capabilities of the voice assistant Siri. Even in the case of Shazam, the 3D Touch support is an extremely useful novelty. This is because it allows you to start music recognition from the application icon and thus faster than ever before. So you should no longer have the song end before you can get to the app and start the recognition process.
Other
Of course, the list of interesting applications with 3D Touch support does not end here. But there are really many of those interesting pieces and it is simply impossible to list them all in one article. The above-recorded overview therefore serves rather to give an idea of how central 3D Touch is as a novelty and how usable this function is in practically all applications that we have become accustomed to using.
Incidentally, it is good to mention the GTD tool, for example Things, which thanks to 3D Touch will speed up your entry of tasks and duties into the application, an alternative calendar calendars 5 whether Fantastical, to which 3D Touch also lends even greater simplicity and directness when entering events, and we cannot forget the popular photo application either Camera +. Following the model of the system camera, it even shortens the way to take a picture and thus gives you hope that you will always capture the moments you want to keep as a digital memory in time.
From today, maybe also WhatsApp :)
"which is able to distinguish between two different intensities of pressure" nonsense, the display can distinguish a theoretically unlimited amount of "level" of pressure. In addition, when it comes to what SW supports, there are 3 pressure levels, light tap, tap with a little pressure and tap with pressure and pressure to the third level.
Just don't freak out about the 3D Touch... We're just waiting for more shrill 3D colors, and even tighter 3D writing, and even whiter 3D white color, and even flatter and smoother "3D flat design"...
I have a question about 3D touch. I already have the second iPhone 6S in my hand... But with this second piece, 3D touch somehow works mysteriously for me. For example, it just throws me a new message. with the Mail application, for example, it just grunts at me (as well as when the application does not support 3D Touch). The Instagram application, which is nothing after the update. Has anyone encountered this?
The only thing I can think of is, do you have a clean system without recovery? I have experience that old full backups introduce strange errors into the system and cause unexpected system behavior. After the reset, everything is fine again.
I would like to ask someone who owns an iPhone 6S/6S+ if they really think this is a good thing? I have an Apple Watch and I must admit that I am not used to forcefully touching the display and it seems unnatural to me.
Another problem I see is that the user does not know at first glance what 3D Touch supports and possibly does not know at first glance what 3D Touch will do (what it will offer). I think that before, for example, Android supported something similar (contextual menus when you hold your finger somewhere for a long time), but precisely because it is not clear at first glance what is where, this option gradually disappeared.
Thanks for the opinions, what do you think about it.
I have ip6s for less than 24 hours and then "discover" the function. I can already say that there is something to it, especially the overview that just pops up and disappears when released, and then the menu after pressing the system icons.
We'll see what other developers come up with, I think that it will be used even more in the future (e.g. edit offers in the editor and the like).