Apple introduced Force Touch display on Apple Watch which added an additional layer of buttons to a smaller screen device to make more options available to the user. The same Force Touch display is widely expected to make its ways onto the next generation iPhone models. Since iPhone already has a larger real estate to accommodate more options and button right on the screen, then what would be the use of Force Touch on larger screen devices? 9to5mac has come up with a new report providing insights on how the Force Touch feature on iPhone 6s works.
A fresh report from 9to5mac, sighting sources familiar with the iPhone 6s development, claims that Apple has codenamed the much-rumored Force Touch feature of iPhone 6s as “Orb.” Force Touch on iPhone 6s will work differently than its does on the Apple Watch. Instead of opening a large list of controls that didn’t fit on the screen, as it is done in the Apple Watch, Force Touch on the iPhone 6s will skip button presses and existing lists of options. Actions across the operating system will be shortened by use of Force Touch, according to the report.
The report also shares some examples of Force Touch uses:
- Using Force Touch, a user can look up for a point of interest in the Maps app and then force pressing on the targeted point will bring up turn-by-turn directions to that point. So this will skip some of the steps and button pressing currently user is required to perform to begin turn-by-turn navigation (pressing the navigation logo and tapping on another button.)
- Force pressing on a listed track in the Music application will bring up a menu with some of the most commonly used actions such as adding the song to a playlist or saving it for offline listening, hence skipping the steps of tapping on different buttons to complete the action.
- Another feature, which is reportedly in testing, will let user deep press an icon of an app on the Home screen will bring up shortcuts. For example, deep pressing on the Phone app icon will bring up shortcuts and user could choose to shortcut directly to the Voicemail tab.
- Some of the Macbook’s Force Touch gesture will also reportedly come to the iPhone. For instance, deep pressing on an address will bring up a preview of a map view. Similarly, deep pressing a link in Safari will give a preview of the linked page, and deep pressing a contact name will give you a preview of the contact card. A definition for a word can also be seen in similar fashion.
- While Force Touch on an Apple Watch consistently respond with a grid of options covering the entire screen. On the new iPhone devices, Force Touch will respond in three different ways:
No resulting user interface, an interface surrounding the finger where the Force Touch gesture is performed, or a shortcut list at the bottom of the screen.
Other than Force Touch, iPhone 6s is rumored to feature 4K video recording with a 12 MP camera sensor, a faster A9 chip, 2GB of RAM, new LTE chip for faster download speed, and efficient chip for better battery time. Apple is expected to unveil iPhone 6s in September and a final release of iOS 9 is also expected in the same month.