The second beta of iOS 17 that Apple released to developers yesterday includes a setting that makes the haptic feedback feature activate faster than before, which some users may prefer.
An Accessibility option, faster haptic feedback can be activated in the Settings app by going to Accessibility > Touch > Haptic Touch. From there, the options are Fast, Default, and Slow. Toggling on Fast speeds up Haptic Touch, and the duration can be tested using the image in the Settings app.
In iOS 16 and the first beta of iOS 17, options for Haptic Touch included Fast and Slow, with "Fast" previously being equivalent to the Default option in the new interface. The new Fast toggle is a step up in speed compared to the old Fast option.
New Fast Haptic Touch option in iOS 17 feels like 3D Touch! 🤩 #ios17 pic.twitter.com/YDkViEVCpp — Apple Intro (@AppleIntro) June 22, 2023
Setting Haptic Touch to Fast makes a noticeable difference in how quick haptic menus pop up under the finger when an icon or on-screen element is long pressed. The speed brings Haptic Touch interactions closer to 3D Touch interactions.
As many iPhone users might remember, 3D Touch was an interactive haptic feature that Apple introduced in 2015 with the iPhone 6s and used prior to the iPhone XR. With the iPhone XR in 2018, Apple transitioned away from 3D Touch and instead implemented the simplified Haptic Touch. 3D Touch supported multiple levels of pressure for different interactions depending on how hard you pressed, with Apple implementing "Peek and Pop" gestures. Comparatively, Haptic Touch supports just a single level of pressure for the long press gesture.
Haptic Touch has always worked slower than 3D Touch because of the two levels of pressure that 3D Touch allowed for. The first 3D Touch pressure level activated quickly when pressing on the display, so those who became used to 3D Touch may have found the Haptic Touch replacement to be too sluggish. On Fast mode in iOS 17, Haptic Touch is quicker and feels more sensitive.
It's still not entirely clear why Apple got rid of 3D Touch, but it has been speculated that Apple eliminated it in order to bring gesture parity to the iPhone and the iPad. 3D Touch was always an iPhone-only feature, but Haptic Touch is available on both the iPhone and the iPad.
