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3D Touch Brings Trackpad Shortcut to iPhone 6s Keyboard

Friday September 11, 2015 12:20 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple introduced the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with several new features this week, one of the most significant being 3D Touch. The pressure-sensing technology enables iPhone users to perform additional multi-touch gestures called "Peek" and "Pop" to access Quick Action shortcut menus or preview content within apps.


Apple added a 3D Touch page to its website earlier this week with some examples of what Peek and Pop gestures can be used for, including previewing emails and websites, viewing photos you've taken while taking new ones, quickly accessing your contacts, taking a selfie, quick compose and more.

iPhones-3D-Touch
One of the more useful actions that 3D Touch makes possible is pressing the iPhone screen to turn the on-screen keyboard into a virtual trackpad (pictured on left).
One press turns your keyboard into a trackpad.
Press the keyboard within apps such as Notes, Mail, and Messages, and your keyboard behaves just like a trackpad. You can then use a cursor to easily select and manipulate text with precision.
Existing iPads running iOS 9 will also have similar functionality, with users able to control an on-screen cursor by moving two fingers anywhere on the screen, including over the QuickType keyboard, to select, edit and move text.

3D Touch also enables iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users to press the left side of the Home screen to switch to multitasking view, press lightly for finer lines or more deeply for thicker ones in Notes, swipe left to delete an email or swipe right to mark it as unread in Mail and more.

Related Roundup: iPhone 6s
Tag: 3D Touch
Buyer's Guide: iPhone 8 (Caution)
[ 164 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Jmausmuc
36 months ago
Guys!

Please don't overlook this!

Apple removed this from all iPhones in beta 3 in order to make it 6s exclusive.

It was working just fine but they took it away.

This is a move I cannot accept.
Rating: 24 Votes
Avatar
gsmornot
36 months ago
This was working on iPhones in the beta but they turned it off, I guess for this model of phone to have it exclusively. It worked great and should be returned to the older iPhones.
Rating: 22 Votes
Avatar
Rogifan
36 months ago
I find it quite amusing that people say Apple isn't innovating but then when we get something like 3D Touch or the Pencil it's just a gimmick to try and get people to upgrade. :rolleyes:
Rating: 21 Votes
Avatar
blackcrayon
36 months ago

Apple is going gimmicky to sell phone upgrades.


So gimmicky-salesy they didn't even mention the feature in their presentation. Sounds like pure marketing to me! :rolleyes:

Funny that people whine even when Apple addresses long running deficiencies in iOS.
Rating: 17 Votes
Avatar
Nicky G
36 months ago
By biggest question about 3D Touch on the new devices:

Is there a keyboard option in preferences to enable taptic engine feedback for keyboard presses??? To essentially emulate tactile feedback of a physical keyboard on the iPhone keyboard. To me, this would be AWESOME.
Rating: 15 Votes
Avatar
Ritte
36 months ago

I find it quite amusing that people say Apple isn't innovating but then when we get something like 3D Touch or the Pencil it's just a gimmick to try and get people to upgrade. :rolleyes:

The Touch ID was also a gimmick according to people. I'm so fond of Touch ID I can't change to android because of Touch ID alone.
Rating: 14 Votes
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Crosscreek
36 months ago
Apple is going gimmicky to sell phone upgrades.
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
zakarhino
36 months ago

By biggest question about 3D Touch on the new devices:

Is there a keyboard option in preferences to enable taptic engine feedback for keyboard presses??? To essentially emulate tactile feedback of a physical keyboard on the iPhone keyboard. To me, this would be AWESOME.


Don't make me hard.
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
Nicky G
36 months ago

Android phones don't offer equally fast (if not faster) touchID-like homebuttons?


They do not, if you read the reviews -- Apple's fingerprint scanner is considerably more accurate and faster than most of the others on the market.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Kobayagi
36 months ago
Sorry, but this doesn't seem so handy... Why would I want to hold and wait to see the contents of a email? I can just as easily tap it, it opens right away and I can go back if needed. They make it sound like opening a email takes an hour combined...

Same for the camera, I can just tap it and often, your front camera will be the one that starts up because that's the one you've used the last. No need to tap, hold and wait...

This doesn't seem like a feature you'd really want nor does it improve the user experience.
Rating: 8 Votes

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