My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement • Hacker News Board

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

#261

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 3:57 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #258

xt00 wrote: post #209

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 peop…

I kinda agree, but also... NOTHING about modern phones is "intuitive". Every time I have to introduce a modern phone to a 70yo+ family member, I come to that realization promptly. Swipe from bottom to switch programs? Swipe from top left and top right to get different (IMPORTANT!) panels? Why are three lines a "Menu"? But sometimes it's dots, or a gear icon, and they're never in the same place. On iPhone, there's no…

"Intuitive" usually just means "what I'm used to and I can't remember when it was confusing anymore."

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

#262

Post by kube-system » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:01 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #258

xt00 wrote: post #209

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 peop…

I kinda agree, but also... NOTHING about modern phones is "intuitive". Every time I have to introduce a modern phone to a 70yo+ family member, I come to that realization promptly. Swipe from bottom to switch programs? Swipe from top left and top right to get different (IMPORTANT!) panels? Why are three lines a "Menu"? But sometimes it's dots, or a gear icon, and they're never in the same place. On iPhone, there's no…

I bought the iPhone SE partly because I find the swipes from the bottom confusing to use too.

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

#263

Post by joshstrange » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

happyopossum wrote: post #256

joshstrange wrote: post #212

Something related that drives me batty is you can't long press notifications on the iPad. Like let's say you get a Reminders notification and you want to snooze it for 1 hour (don't get me started on how stupidly limited your snooze options are or the many other failings of Reminders). On the phone you just press and hold (used to be 3D touch) and the context menu comes up but this doesn't work on the iPad for no goo…

> Neither device has 3D touch anymore The iPad never had 3D Touch.

Right but I'm saying they could implement force touch, or whatever they are calling "press and hold", on the iPad since it's not 3D touch dependant but for some reason they don't and it's maddening.

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

#264

Post by failTide » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

flappyeagle wrote: post #244

failTide wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so I'm relatively anti-phone and have been for a while. There was a period of time where I didn't have a smartphone for a few years. When I started using an iPhone again, I realized I couldn't figure out how the heck to delete apps. It was kind of infuriating. I eventually had to look it up online, but the answer wasn't the top one. After reading enough answers I realized the 3d touch was the reason, and that I was t…

You never needed to Force Touch an icon to delete. It has been long press since the first iPhone. But your confusion is an example of the main problem. It’s hard to discover and easily confused with long press (if you try to Force Touch and don’t apply enough pressure eventually you’re going to leave your finger there long enough to activate long press)

I had the very first iphone and several after that before the touch thing... Long press was always the way to do that, and I never had a problem deleting hundreds of apps - I'd even released a few of my own iphone apps at that point.

Then I couldn't delete apps at all, but turning off 3d touch fixed it. Perhaps a coincidence, or some other bug. Terrible UX though.

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

#265

Post by happyopossum » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #68

The big takeaway for me was >>> My guess is that people had no idea it was there. Likely it had very low usage statistics and so Apple cut it in order to... Right there. I am often frustrated that I cannot edit a URL in the address bar - but not frustrated enough to use a different phone or explore. What would be useful is some kind of "how to use your phones hidden features" guide on the phone (no not on a website s…

> I am often frustrated that I cannot edit a URL in the address bar

On an iPhone? You've always been able to do that...

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

#266

Post by failTide » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:07 PM UTC

the_gipsy wrote: post #251

flappyeagle wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You never needed to Force Touch an icon to delete. It has been long press since the first iPhone. But your confusion is an example of the main problem. It’s hard to discover and easily confused with long press (if you try to Force Touch and don’t apply enough pressure eventually you’re going to leave your finger there long enough to activate long press)

Or they never got a long push because they pressed slightly too hard. Happened to me.

Oh jeez... that's gotta be exactly what happened to me, and why turning off the 3d touch setting fixed it.

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

#267

Post by failTide » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:11 PM UTC

wowokay wrote: post #243

failTide wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so I'm relatively anti-phone and have been for a while. There was a period of time where I didn't have a smartphone for a few years. When I started using an iPhone again, I realized I couldn't figure out how the heck to delete apps. It was kind of infuriating. I eventually had to look it up online, but the answer wasn't the top one. After reading enough answers I realized the 3d touch was the reason, and that I was t…

This is interesting, it was always intuitive for me, like most VR controls. It's interesting to hear that it wasn't intuitive for others.

I'd been using iPhones without that feature since 2008, and there was really no reason for me to assume there was a fundamental change. Everything else was basically the same until I tried to delete some apps.

I suppose if my first iPhone was one that had this functionality, maybe I would have figured it out.

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

#268

Post by eddd-ddde » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:17 PM UTC

xt00 wrote: post #209

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 peop…

I remember when they shipped me a mac book pro for work, I literally was unable to click on stuff, I had to ask in a discord server for help until someone mentioned pushing, turns out you don't tap to click, you push, which was so weird at first.

Eventually however, the track pad was the one thing I really enjoyed about using an apple product.

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

#269

Post by trebbble » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #258

xt00 wrote: post #209

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 peop…

I kinda agree, but also... NOTHING about modern phones is "intuitive". Every time I have to introduce a modern phone to a 70yo+ family member, I come to that realization promptly. Swipe from bottom to switch programs? Swipe from top left and top right to get different (IMPORTANT!) panels? Why are three lines a "Menu"? But sometimes it's dots, or a gear icon, and they're never in the same place. On iPhone, there's no…

> Swipe from bottom to switch programs? Swipe from top left and top right to get different (IMPORTANT!) panels? Why are three lines a "Menu"? But sometimes it's dots, or a gear icon, and they're never in the same place. On iPhone, there's no real unified "Back" button - chase it down from application to application with different context and result every time. On Android, unified buttons (including reliable and predictable "back") exist but their location and icons are not intuitive either.

The single, physical home button was fucking genius and iOS6 and earlier were the only operating systems I've ever seen that my very-old-and-with-significant-mental-decline grandmother might have been able to use regularly without a ton of help.

Then iOS7 came out, and later they got rid of the home button. So much for that.

> On Android, unified buttons (including reliable and predictable "back")

If the back button's reliable, that's a recent development. It spent at least a decade being the "YOLO" button that might do any damn thing. Absolutely terrible, and complete usability poison for non-nerd users. Or maybe this was sarcasm and I'm missing it.

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

#270

Post by roywiggins » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #258

xt00 wrote: post #209

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 peop…

I kinda agree, but also... NOTHING about modern phones is "intuitive". Every time I have to introduce a modern phone to a 70yo+ family member, I come to that realization promptly. Swipe from bottom to switch programs? Swipe from top left and top right to get different (IMPORTANT!) panels? Why are three lines a "Menu"? But sometimes it's dots, or a gear icon, and they're never in the same place. On iPhone, there's no…

My first encounter with a computer was somewhat unsuccessful until I was introduced to the concept of the double-click. You mean I have to click icons twice- and not too slowly- to make them do anything useful?