Apple may have given up 3D Touch from the iPhone, and then it may have given up the Force Touch with the same feature and a different name from the Apple Watch. But the company is still keen to let users feel a physical reaction when they click on the device. Apple is studying how to make the iPad screen experience more tactile and provide tactile feedback, and it may return Force Touch.
A newly disclosed Apple patent application is titled Apparatus, Method and Graphical User Interface for Providing Tactile Feedback. Apple did not mention 3D Touch or Force Touch in this patent application but only focused on this type of feedback. Apple said that tactile feedback, usually combined with visual feedback, is used to enable users to operate user interface objects more effectively and intuitively. However, traditional methods of providing tactile feedback need to be improved.
What is different is that the patent application did not elaborate on the deficiencies of the traditional method it said. On the contrary, Apple said that haptic feedback can be better, and users will benefit. Therefore, there is a need for electronic devices with improved methods and interfaces to provide visual and/or tactile feedback so that users can operate more effectively and intuitively on user interface objects.
This 35,000-word patent application describes many possible uses, and then a lot of changes. However, broadly speaking, each is to let users know clearly when they are doing or have completed the action they want. For example, if you drag an icon on another application, a physical sensation will appear during the dragging process, and another sensation will appear after completion. Currently, on the iPad OS, you can create a folder by dragging an application to another application. Of course, you can also drag another application to the folder, which is very troublesome.
Apple’s suggestion is that the screen itself transmits tactile information so you can know exactly when you drag it to the correct location to create a folder. Or similarly, knowing when you dragged a file onto Pages, you can let it go. Recognizing a drag gesture, the screen can output tactile sensations through one or more tactile output generators in response to detecting the movement of the contact point on the touch-sensitive surface.
