3D Touch

Keep track of all the things you need to do with 3D Touch shortcuts in Reminders app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 9, 2016

After sharing a bunch of time-saving 3D Touch shortcuts and gestures in stock applications such as Messages, Safari, Mail, Music, Camera, Maps, Phone and iBooks, we now take a closer look at 3D Touch goodies in Reminders, one of the most frequently used stock apps on my iPhone.

Although 3D Touch shortcuts and gestures in Reminders aren't as developed as in other stock apps, they're handy. For instance, you can add a reminder to your lists from the Home screen.

And within the app, 3D Touch can be used to quickly create time or location-based alerts for your reminders. This tutorial covers all the ways you can use force-based 3D Touch gestures in the Reminders app.

Tip: use 3D Touch to export PDFs on your iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 10, 2019

iOS includes a Share sheet action for saving PDFs to iBooks. This is great for, say, turning a webpage or other document into a PDF form with one notable complaint—not everyone wants to read PDFs in the Books app.

As it turns out, you can export a PDF to any app on your device with 3D Touch right from iOS's Print Preview screen. This is an extremely convenient feature, but it's unfortunate that it requires 3D Touch so owners of previous-generation and older iPhones cannot take advantage of it.

Get directions to home and work with 3D Touch and Google Maps

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2016

As part of yesterday's update to Google's iPhone and iPad mapping application in the App Store which brought pit stops to navigation mode, the refreshed software has replicated one of my favorite 3D Touch features found on Apple Maps: the ability to get directions to home and work right from the Home screen.

In the new Google Maps 4.16 for iOS, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners can press the app's Home screen icon to bring up the shortcut menu with two useful Quick Actions: Directions to Work and Directions to Home.

iOS 10 concept imagines a customizable Control Center with 3D Touch support, dark mode and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 7, 2016

How will Apple improve upon Control Center in the next major iteration of iOS? Sam Beckett has attempted to imagine tight 3D Touch integration for Control Center in iOS 10, and his concept video does a very fine job at that. It shows off some ideas that Apple could take advantage of in order to allow for greater customization of hardware toggles and app shortcuts in Control Center.

A user could press on toggles to enter the edit mode to rearrange the icons, turn off the toggles they use rarely, add new switches for things such as Low Power Mode and Cellular Data and so forth. In addition, Control Center could benefit from 3D Touch by allowing users to quickly access additional options from the contextual menu for a specific toggle.

The best 3D Touch gestures in Music app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 2, 2017

The stock Music app in iOS 10 supports 3D Touch Peek and Pop gestures within the app and various Quick Actions on the Home screen.

With 3D Touch, the Music app speeds up common user actions, from tuning in to Beats 1 radio to running a search on your music, previewing the contents of albums and playlists, adding For You playlists (for those who are subscribed to Apple Music) and more.

With 3D Touch, owners of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will have an easier time navigating the Music app's somewhat overwhelming interface while discovering they can accomplish more with fewer taps.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use 3D Touch in the Music app like a pro.

Leaked iPhone SE screen assembly lacks 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 27, 2016

Just as so-called 'iPhone SE' is about to enter mass production, we have become exposed to its very first claimed component leak. Saturday, the reliable French blog NowhereElse.fr posted a purported image of the iPhone SE's screen assembly which supports the thesis that 3D Touch will remain exclusive to the iPhone 6s as a differentiating feature.

3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus uses an additional layer with 96 pressure-sensing sensors and is found between the display itself and the backlight module. No such layer could be identified in the leaked image.

EasyClear: the only 3D Touch notification clearing tweak you’ll ever need

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 27, 2016

Those rocking a jailbreak that have been looking for the perfect all-in-one 3D Touch notification-clearing tweak for their iOS device(s) need not look any further than a new jailbreak tweak release called EasyClear, which is now available in Cydia's BigBoss repository for $1.49.

This tweak makes use of the 3D Touch display on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to let you dismiss notifications universally throughout iOS. Whether it be a badge on an app icon from the Home screen, or one or more notifications from Notification Center.

Sort through your photos like that with 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 4, 2019

We have covered dozens of the best 3D Touch uses in Apple's most important apps, like Messages, Safari, Mail, Camera, Maps and a few others. Today, we explore how 3D Touch on the iPhone elevates your experience in Photos, one of my favorite stock apps.

With 3D Touch, you can animate a Live Photo and make your wallpaper come alive with a deep press, peek at your photos and videos within the stock Photos app, go to your best photos and see what you were snapping up this time last year, right from the Home screen, and much more.

‘QuickClear’ lets you clear app badges with 3D Touch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 20, 2016

Here's a gem for 3D Touch fans and jailbreakers alike; a new free jailbreak tweak that goes by the name of QuickClear is now available in Cydia's BigBoss repository that lets you perform a 3D Touch gesture on any app icon with a notification badge to clear the badge from the app icon.

Apple posts new iPhone 6s ads highlighting 3D Touch and Live Photos

Cody Lee ∙ February 17, 2016

Apple on Wednesday posted two new iPhone 6s ads to its YouTube channel entitled Less Time and Live Photos. As it says in the headline, each spot highlights one of two major features from the company's latest handset: 3D Touch and Live Photos.

The first video, Less Time, talks about what 3D Touch is and the many ways you can use it. Notably, actress Aubrey Plaza makes a cameo. The second clip, Live Photos, similarly shows the feature in action, and lists off some of its many benefits.

3D Touch shortcuts for the Camera app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 30, 2019

Whenever an awesome photo opportunity presents itself, I instinctively grab my iPhone, launch the Camera app and press the shutter button.

But boy, way too many times did I find myself in the wrong camera mode. One time, I would realize I was shooting video instead of taking a great picture. Other times I would snap a selfie, whereas I wanted to take a quick photo of my neighbor's dog jumping in the air catching her frisbee.

3D Touch can help avoid such distractions when you're in the middle of your photography moment. With a little help of 3D Touch shortcuts and gestures, iPhone owners will hopefully never miss that important shot again.

3D Touch lets you take a selfie or start shooting video from the Home screen, review the photos you’ve taken without leaving the Camera app, play Live Photos with a press and more. In this tutorial, we'll take you through every 3D Touch-enhanced feature that's available to iPhone photography fans in Apple's built-in Camera app.

How to make the most of 3D Touch in Phone app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 9, 2019

Our 3D Touch tutorial series has so far covered various user interface shortcuts and 3D Touch Peek and Pop gestures in several Apple stock apps like Messages, Safari, Mail, iBooks and Apple Maps.

Today, we're going to discuss how pressure-sensing screens enhance the Phone app, one of the most frequently used stock apps on iPhones. Here's how to make the most of 3D touch and the Phone app.