Alternative title: “A Disturbance in the Force Touch”
John Gruber on a debate about 3D Touch which has arisen:
A force touch should just be a shortcut to a long press.
This strikes me as short sighted. 3D Touch is too new to judge and this sentiment (shared by many) seems more like a lack of being open minded to the new technology, than it does a problem with the technology.
That doesn’t mean, however, that long press and 3D Touch belong together as one gesture. They just seem to be diametrically opposed, from a user interface standpoint. Forcing non–3D Touch users to use a long press for all these actions that are meant to speed up the iOS experience will make those users feel like frustrated, second-class citizens.
Not only that, but it detracts from iOS overall. If you are arguing in favor of consolidating the gestures, then the better argument is just to get rid of 3D Touch. There’s no reason to have both 3D Touch and long press if they both do the same thing and since not all new device have 3D Touch — 3D Touch would be the technology to be removed.
That strikes me as a terrible idea.