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Apple killed off 3D Touch with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro

It was fun while it lasted.
Written by Jason Cipriani, Contributing Writer
haptic-touch-iphone-11.jpg

So long, 3D Touch. 

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

When comparing the specs of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max I noticed 3D Touch has officially been replaced with Haptic Touch. When Apple launched the iPhone 6 in 2015, it did so with a new feature called 3D Touch. Using 3D Touch was simple: You could press on your iPhone's screen and it would trigger popups or open apps. 

For example, you could press lightly on a link someone sent you in a text message to display a preview of that webpage. If you pressed harder, the link would fully open in Safari. Apple referred to the feature as peek and pop. The problem was, 3D Touch actions weren't very easy to discover. 

With the launch of the iPhone XR last year, Apple removed 3D Touch and replaced it with Haptic Touch. The iPhone XS and XS Max, however, still had 3D Touch.

The two features are essentially the same, with Haptic Touch requiring a long-press to bring up contextual menus and options. The implementation was lacking at first, but over time Apple added more areas within iOS 12 where Haptic Touch worked.

During the beta process for iOS 13, it was apparent that 3D Touch was on its way out -- long-presses took priority over 3D Touch actions for things like moving or deleting apps on the homescreen.

With the launch of the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, alongside the release of iOS 13, Apple is going all-in on Haptic Touch -- and while I'll miss 3D Touch, I'm just happy that Apple didn't get rid of the feature entirely.

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