On September 9th Apple held a Keynote presenting their new iPad, Apple TV, iPhones and Apple Watch. During their iPhone presentation, they introduced a new feature called 3D Touch. 3D Touch is a feature that measures how hard a user is pressing on the screen. Two of the main features of 3D touch are Peek and Pop. These features allow users to get quick glimpses or full-screen previews of content without having to commit to opening the screen or app that the content is contained in.
As an iOS developer, this is by far the most exciting announcement of the keynote for me. Before 3D Touch there was nothing stopping developers implementing Peek and Pop type features into their apps using gestures such as taps and long presses, however if a user doesn’t know that they have to long press to preview the content they’re not going to do it. Now that 3D Touch has been introduced, users will be looking for features in apps that use this new technology and that’s where designers and developers can get creative. Although Apple have already displayed some of the common uses of the new Pop and Peek features I believe there is a lot of unexplored functionality waiting to be discovered. Once user become accustomed to this new feature it will evolve in ways that we cannot predict.
Features like this are why I enjoy developing for iOS as it adds an extra level of polish to an app that is otherwise unreachable. I’m curious to see how other developers use this new technology to complement their existing apps or even use as the driving point behind new apps. I’ve already started brainstorming on some of its uses and I can’t wait to start using it in our upcoming apps.
Check out Apples Introduction video to 3D touch and get your creative juices flowing at all the possibilities: Introducing iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with 3D Touch
https://youtu.be/cSTEB8cdQwo
