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My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

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Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#201

Post by asciimov »

I am surprised that neither Apple nor Google have spent much time trying to address the discoverability of the features in their touch devices.

On the one hand, I guess it's nice, I don't have to field calls from my family asking how to do something on the phone, or how to turn off a feature. (Well except for that time my mom accidentally turned on emergency sos mode and couldn't figure out how to turn it off for an hour.)

On the other hand, sometimes I would do something unexpected that seems cool, but now I don't know what that feature is called or how to purposely do it again. Was it triple back tap or long tap-short tap- long tap the volume button or maybe it was septuple swipe across the home screen... I'll never know.

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#202

Post by trebbble »

wodenokoto wrote: post #102
avnigo wrote: post #36

I had a feeling this was gonna be about 3D Touch just from seeing the title. It was definitely one of my favorite features, and Force Touch isn't a drop-in replacement. With 3D Touch anywhere on the keyboard, you could apply pressure to start moving the caret (text cursor) around, but what was even more useful was being able to apply a little bit more pressure to start selecting text with incredible precision . With…

> but what was even more useful was being able to apply a little bit more pressure to start selecting text with incredible precision. That is not how I remember it. I remember text being selected left and right at random for no apparent reason when trying to move the cursor.

Yeah—I'm a reasonably dextrous person, but had to disable 3d touch on iOS and whatever the fancy pressure thing is on recent macbook touchpads, to make them usable. Constant mistakes with either turned on.

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#204

Post by rsynnott »

I can understand why they killed it (I suspect the average user was simply completely unaware that it existed, and no doubt getting rid of it made the physical implementation simpler) but I do think it's a shame; it was by far the best text-handling on a touch device I've seen before or since.

I do wonder if it'll come back at some point.

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#205

Post by SllX »

hobs wrote: post #167
empyrrhicist wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh wow, I never knew this existed. iOS UI in a nutshell.

When I worked at Apple training people about the first iPhone generations they always said stuff like "it SHOULD be intuitive, we dont WANT a tutorial" I chuckled then, but add 15 years of changes on something and I don't know how that was ever going to be possible.

Tips is underrated. I think back then people just didn’t want a thick manual (also available in the Apple Books store) just to get value out of their phones, but Tips fills the need of providing some guidance as changes occur.

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#206

Post by rootusrootus »

bitwize wrote: post #190
vladvasiliu wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The random capitalizations for no apparent reason, sometimes even mid word, and no, not from accidentally hitting shift, even during swipe typing. I've never had capitalization for no apparent reason (maybe I didn't pay enough attention), but I have a similar pet peeve, where the AI learns "a bit too much". I write a lot of French, and a fairly common phrase I type is "c'est chiant" (that sucks). At first, it would…

Autocorrect has a way of avoiding spicy language and replacing it with something unrelated. Me, I'm tired of this ducking shot.

As I recall, there's a workaround somewhere for that. I too find it irritating that my phone manufacturer would decide they need to censor my language. If I want to use the F word, that's my business. Autocorrect used to just be mildly annoying and humorous. In the last few years it has evolved to infuriating. And it can be so persistent, too. Used to be just back up and retype and it would leave you alone, but much of the time now it just keeps on trying to 'correct' what I'm typing.

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#208

Post by egypturnash »

gwright wrote: post #187
everyone wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who only occasionally has to use macOS and iOS for work. The gestures and key combos required to do even the most basic things are insane.. and there is (almost) zero discoverability or affordances for them. On iOS gestures with multiple fingers, on macOS keyboard shortcuts with 3 or 4 keys. I also dont often use Linux, but I could try some new distro with a completely different windows manager I have neve…

> there is zero discoverability The shortcuts associated with menu items are shown in the menu item. I realize that there other discovery problems with keyboard shortcuts (on all platforms) but there is non-zero discoverability for "the most basic things" on Mac OS. Gesture discoverability is much closer to zero, IMHO.

what you mean most people don't go explore every single page of the System Preferences when they get a new computer and look at all the helpful animations in the Gestures pane, I'm shocked

(yeah this is the computing equivalent of a locked file cabinet in a disused toilet stall in a dark basement with a sign on the door that says "Beware The Leopard")

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#209

Post by xt00 »

Maybe I’m in the minority here but I really did not like the feature and many people I tried to explain the feature to were confused that it existed.. “no no don’t tap the screen, you need to PUSH on the screen to make it do the action”.. and I would get a look like “huh?? Push on the screen? Why what’s that gonna do..” people saying pushing hard on the screen is intuitive seemed to live in a different bubble of people than I interacted with..

Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement

#210

Post by torstenvl »

llaolleh wrote: post #193
empyrrhicist wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if they put any effort whatsoever into teaching or UI discoverability these days. If there was a tutorial app I would have used it, but I have repeatedly had to use Google to find unrelated blog sites describing how to accomplish things in the iOS interface. Cynically, it feels like they think everyone should already "just know" how the various gestures work, which is obnoxious and user hostile.

One way to do discoverability here is to make a suggestion if you notice the user hoping around between texts during typing.

Absolutely not. Machines and software that interrupt users are Kafkaesque torture devices. Hell is full of Clippies and microwaves that repeatedly beep for eternity.
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