Inside iOS 10: 3D Touch enhances Apple's quick Control Center shortcuts on iPhone 7 & 6s series
Apple's force sensing 3D Touch technology is greatly expanded in the newly released iOS 10 update, adding new capabilities to the Control Center shortcuts for flashlight, timer, calculator, camera, and smart home accessories. In addition, Control Center marks the only place in iOS 10 where Apple emulates 3D Touch on non-3D Touch devices.
Control Center gets a major revamp in iOS 10, adding new dedicated panes for music and HomeKit controls. But there are also hidden capabilities within the update, found only by pressing firmly on the Control Center shortcuts.
On the main Control Center view, four icons remain, offering quick links to flashlight, timer, calculator and camera. Press with force against these on an iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus or the iPhone 6s series, and you'll discover new 3D Touch options for even greater control.
With the flashlight, Apple offers users the ability to choose brightness intensity levels of low, medium and high.
For the timer shortcut, a 3D Touch press brings up four quick options: 1 hour, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, or 1 minute.
The camera shortcut in Control Center can be pressed firmly to bring up options to take a traditional photo, record in slow motion, record a video, or take a selfie.
Finally, the calculator shortcut will present users with the ability to copy the last result from the application.
Swiping toward the left from the traditional Control Center input brings up a dedicated music menu, which does not have any 3D Touch capabilities. But one more swipe toward the left presents a new HomeKit view where 3D Touch input is possible.
In the default "Favorite Accessories" view, using 3D Touch on a specific accessory pops up a new menu with more advanced controls. In the case of HomeKit-connected light bulbs, 3D Touch offers quick access to brightness controls, as well as another menu link to adjusting colors. A total of six default colors are presented, and can be edited to a user's liking.
The HomeKit Control Center menu also features a link to user-programmed scenes. These can also be pressed with 3D Touch to access further options, based on devices and settings.
The new Home Control Center is noteworthy because it appears to be the only place in iOS 10 where Apple "emulates" 3D Touch on legacy devices. Presumably because of the necessity of offering more advanced brightness/color controls for bulbs without cluttering the interface, a long press on HomeKit items in Control Center will "pop" open the item when using an iPhone SE, iPhone 6 series or earlier.
In other instances of 3D Touch input on non-3D Touch devices --?such as actionable notifications on the lock screen, where users must swipe left and select from menu options --?Apple has found other, less convenient ways to interact with the content.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in June following Apple's announcement of iOS 10 at WWDC 2016. It has been updated and republished to coincide with the mobile operating system's public release. For more on iOS 10, see AppleInsider's ongoing Inside iOS 10.
Control Center gets a major revamp in iOS 10, adding new dedicated panes for music and HomeKit controls. But there are also hidden capabilities within the update, found only by pressing firmly on the Control Center shortcuts.
On the main Control Center view, four icons remain, offering quick links to flashlight, timer, calculator and camera. Press with force against these on an iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus or the iPhone 6s series, and you'll discover new 3D Touch options for even greater control.
With the flashlight, Apple offers users the ability to choose brightness intensity levels of low, medium and high.
For the timer shortcut, a 3D Touch press brings up four quick options: 1 hour, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, or 1 minute.
The camera shortcut in Control Center can be pressed firmly to bring up options to take a traditional photo, record in slow motion, record a video, or take a selfie.
Finally, the calculator shortcut will present users with the ability to copy the last result from the application.
Swiping toward the left from the traditional Control Center input brings up a dedicated music menu, which does not have any 3D Touch capabilities. But one more swipe toward the left presents a new HomeKit view where 3D Touch input is possible.
In the default "Favorite Accessories" view, using 3D Touch on a specific accessory pops up a new menu with more advanced controls. In the case of HomeKit-connected light bulbs, 3D Touch offers quick access to brightness controls, as well as another menu link to adjusting colors. A total of six default colors are presented, and can be edited to a user's liking.
The HomeKit Control Center menu also features a link to user-programmed scenes. These can also be pressed with 3D Touch to access further options, based on devices and settings.
The new Home Control Center is noteworthy because it appears to be the only place in iOS 10 where Apple "emulates" 3D Touch on legacy devices. Presumably because of the necessity of offering more advanced brightness/color controls for bulbs without cluttering the interface, a long press on HomeKit items in Control Center will "pop" open the item when using an iPhone SE, iPhone 6 series or earlier.
In other instances of 3D Touch input on non-3D Touch devices --?such as actionable notifications on the lock screen, where users must swipe left and select from menu options --?Apple has found other, less convenient ways to interact with the content.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in June following Apple's announcement of iOS 10 at WWDC 2016. It has been updated and republished to coincide with the mobile operating system's public release. For more on iOS 10, see AppleInsider's ongoing Inside iOS 10.
Comments
I'm torn about 3D Touch in general. It adds complexity to the interface by forcing end-users to deal with another interaction concept: pressure.
80% of the situations requiring 3D Touch I've seen can be solved by long-pressing the element. Why add pressure as a component at all?
...With the major exception being app icons on the home screen: a long-press would interfere with the wobbly-animation-move-items mode. But this can be simply solved by entering the mode in a different way. Giving up a long-press on app icons is a more logical sacrifice to me if the mode can be triggered differently. It would also open up "3D touch" for their entire range of products.
many
gestures.....
Well done Apple!
Many
Pointless
Comments
From
You
I'm sorry am I not allowed to complain about features I find overly complicated?
But the design is pointing towards a possible move, iPhone 8 will be a Edge to Edge Screen Display, i.e Similar iPhone Plus Size but 6.8" Screen. And if you expand the Edge to Edge Design 3 years down the road, an iPhone SE or TE will be similar size but with a screen of ~5".
Edit:
Assuming a Edge to Edge Display with 3mm gap each side
6 Plus: ~6.5"
6 : ~ 5.7"
SE: ~5" / ( 4.85" / 4.9" If kept to the same ratio of the two above )
Unfortunately The Aspect Ratio is closer to 21:10, which is not any standard like 16:9 or 21:9.
The point of 3D touch is obscuring deeper controls, if you want simple, don't use it.
On Androids you'd have to press once, go into sub menus for all those things; it is slower and you lose context by doing that.
If you want to do more precise things, sometimes a bit more complexity is inevitable.
Iphones these days can do so many more things than computer 10 years ago could do, and there are no miracles to get all that power.
There is only so much screen real estate and ways of input to get things done.
Trying to kluge "simplicity" for simplicity's sake can end up with a convoluted mess.
BTW, my comment didn't just point to your last comment but all your other ones too.
This captures my ambivalence about 3D Touch: "hidden". The user has no idea which screens and icons have this hidden functionality, and therefore much of it never gets used. I love my iPhone 6S, but I rarely use 3D Touch because the UI doesn't let me know where I can use it. And -- on a semi-related note -- I do find the the Long Press gesture would provide an equally good input in most (or all?) cases.
I have 194 posts on various topics on this site. you'll have to be a bit more specific
to me, yes, it is. but it's not just 3D touch. It seems that in iOS a lot of the functionality is linked to swipes and for someone who's used to taps and presses that can get quite confusing
I've tried using a 6S in stores and it just didn't feel like something I could ever get used to
and 2 seconds of using 3D Touch in the store hardly puts you in a good position to criticize it. comical, really.
People complain of microsecond delays in IOS in new upgrades and you think they'll find long press and 3d touch interchangeable?
Also, how are long touch functions more intuitive and easier to discover? The complaint I can somewhat agree on?
I understand that the discovery of gestures and 3D touch is not as easy as what you can discover visually, but that's to be expected
I'm using 3d Touch more and more, and it's a nifty timesaver. It's not one of those "oh wow" features, but one that grows on you until you really don't want to miss it.
My next phone will probably be a smaller one again (6s is still too big for me), but only if they add 3d Touch to it.
Read: must be hubless.