Google Cloned Apple's 3D Touch For the Pixel Using Just Software (theverge.com) 45
The latest "feature drop" for Google's Pixel line of Android phones includes the ability to "firmly press" on the screen "to get more help from your apps more quickly." If that sounds familiar, it's because it's a lot like iPhone's 3D Touch, which Apple stopped supporting in all of its 2019 iPhones. The Verge reports: "Firmly press" sets off alarm bells because it sounds a lot like the iPhone's 3D Touch, which enables different actions depending on how hard you press on the touchscreen. It was a beloved feature for some people because it gave faster access to the cursor mode on the iPhone's keyboard (I think long-pressing the space bar works fine for that, but I get that people love it). It's also gone on the latest versions of the iPhone -- Apple has seemingly abandoned it because the hardware to support it was too expensive/thick/complex/finicky/whatever. But now, it seems that Google has done the same thing for the touchscreen that it does with the camera: use its software algorithms to make commodity parts do something special. That is a very Googley thing to do, but not quite as Googley as the fact that there was virtually no information about this feature to be found anywhere on the internet beyond a speculative note over at XDA Developers.
After a few hours of back and forth, I finally got more details from Google. Here's what this feature does, according to Google: "Long Press currently works in a select set of apps and system user interfaces such as the app Launcher, Photos, and Drive. This update accelerates the press to bring up more options faster. We also plan to expand its applications to more first party apps in the near future." Essentially, this new feature lets you press harder to bring up long-press menus faster. In fact, Google's documentation for Android's Deep Press API explicitly says it should never do a new thing, it should only be a faster way to execute a long press. The answer to why it only works in certain apps is that a lot of Android developers aren't using standard APIs for long press actions. Because Android. Okay, but how does it work? It turns out my hunch was correct: Google has figured out how to use machine learning algorithms to detect a firm press, something Apple had to use hardware for.
After a few hours of back and forth, I finally got more details from Google. Here's what this feature does, according to Google: "Long Press currently works in a select set of apps and system user interfaces such as the app Launcher, Photos, and Drive. This update accelerates the press to bring up more options faster. We also plan to expand its applications to more first party apps in the near future." Essentially, this new feature lets you press harder to bring up long-press menus faster. In fact, Google's documentation for Android's Deep Press API explicitly says it should never do a new thing, it should only be a faster way to execute a long press. The answer to why it only works in certain apps is that a lot of Android developers aren't using standard APIs for long press actions. Because Android. Okay, but how does it work? It turns out my hunch was correct: Google has figured out how to use machine learning algorithms to detect a firm press, something Apple had to use hardware for.
both long press and 3d press are bad UX (Score:2, Insightful)
They are not discoverable interactions. Hiding functionality under either one means most people will never know the functionality is even there.
Re: both long press and 3d press are bad UX (Score:1)
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My newer Apple trackpad has this feature. I'm unaware of any documentation. If I point at a word and press hard, within a second or so a dialog box pops up on the Mac screen with a definition, thesaurus, etc. Click anywhere else or press Esc and the dialog disappears. This works in the Finder, ebook, browser or any app that presents text.
It is inevitable that a user will discover this unless he is incapable of strong emotion. (Thank goodness my fist hasn't broken the glass surface yet.) Some day I'll experi
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The macOS user guide discusses it in Help, and the trackpad preference pane also discusses it.
Also there's this https://support.apple.com/en-u... [apple.com]
So there is the alternative to accidentally discovering the feature; documentation.
Why Apple dropped it (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple has seemingly abandoned it because the hardware to support it was too expensive/thick/complex/finicky/whatever
I think it was more a case of it being a "gimmick" feature that few used, and more importantly, even Apple didn't know how to use itself, even consistently.
Also the fact that it wasn't available across all of its hardware meant that developers didn't feel the need to support it, instead going for supporting "the most common denominator" features.
It seemed like a neat feature, and I always resented the fact Apple didn't provide it with other hardware, especially since it obviously would've been so easy to support in software only (as Google as done), thereby making it more appealing for devs to support.
I think it was more than that, it was variability (Score:4, Interesting)
I think it was more a case of it being a "gimmick" feature that few used, and more importantly, even Apple didn't know how to use itself, even consistently.
That's partly true, though it seems like a lot of people I know did use the 3D Touch keyboard/trackpad feature. That worked really well, and was very nice.
Outside that, the use was pretty limited I agree...
But I think one reason is, that people have a vast difference as to what a "hard" or "soft" press even means. I've seen some people who I feared the screen would break as they pressed things at normal pressure. And some who just could not get how hard to press to activate 3D Touch vs. a normal press.
Even if Apple could have used it more consistently, I'm not sure users really could... I'll bet Apple has a lot of data on how well 3D Touch worked for users, and that is why they dropped it as a feature. I feel like it will be the same for this copy attempt, though at least the copy is seemingly just using it to slightly accelerate the long-press gesture.
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That's partly true, though it seems like a lot of people I know did use the 3D Touch keyboard/trackpad feature. That worked really well, and was very nice.
Yeah, I really liked the idea, but I think the way they "advertised" it, made it seem more of a "gimmick" to drive sales/upgrades, and made it look like a "solution looking for a problem", one that simple "long-press" could've solved with better effect.
But I think one reason is, that people have a vast difference as to what a "hard" or "soft" press even means. I've seen some people who I feared the screen would break as they pressed things at normal pressure. And some who just could not get how hard to press to activate 3D Touch vs. a normal press.
Even if Apple could have used it more consistently, I'm not sure users really could... I'll bet Apple has a lot of data on how well 3D Touch worked for users, and that is why they dropped it as a feature. I feel like it will be the same for this copy attempt, though at least the copy is seemingly just using it to slightly accelerate the long-press gesture.
Yeah, discoverability was another major issue - Google seems to have found the sweet spot: it's long-press, just activated more quickly by a 'forced press' (fatter-finger-surface detected), but same functionality otherwise (whereas Apple made it exclusive to
Harder than YOUR normal touch (Score:2)
> But I think one reason is, that people have a vast difference as to what a "hard" or "soft" press even means.
That's super easy. The software just compares this press to most of your touches. If you press twice as hard as you normally do, that's a hard press. (Which is really the difference between "touch" and "press").
You can imagine a graph of someone's last 200 touches/presses, showing how hard they pressed. (Probably non-keyboard touches only). 85% of them will be clustered in one small area, ro
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Apple could have implemented it better.
First off, it's nothing more than if you right-clicked to bring up a context menu. It's an easy concept to explain - context means what you see depends on what you clicked on - click on a photo app and you can get a variety of options - take a snapshot, a high res photo, a portrait, a video, a panorama, etc.
And Apple could implement it in such a way every device supports it - the common way to implement right-clicking is a long tap of the screen. So you could use a lit
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It seemed like a neat feature, and I always resented the fact Apple didn't provide it with other hardware, especially since it obviously would've been so easy to support in software only (as Google as done)
They do support it in software only -- Apple has transitioned from 3D Touch to long press, precisely because they can do it across the entire product line.
Google hasn't done anything magical -- existing Apple products already do "long press". 3D Touch was different in that it had haptic feedback for the "touch", which Google's software-only solution doesn't provide. So all Google has done here is re-invent Apple's existing long press.
The only story here is that it apparently took Google nearly two years t
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They innovated that feature, google figured out it (like fucking everything, eventually) could be done easier with machine learning and less data (screen flex)
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Google hasn't done anything magical -- existing Apple products already do "long press". 3D Touch was different in that it had haptic feedback for the "touch", which Google's software-only solution doesn't provide. So all Google has done here is re-invent Apple's existing long press.
The only story here is that it apparently took Google nearly two years to get the same long press Apple users have had for some time.
Yes, Apple's implementation had the haptic feedback, but it wasn't simply "long press" at the time - it was specifically "force touch" (or whatever gimmicky name they gave it), and only on devices that supported it; Apple didn't have "long press" across all devices back then - I'm not even sure which version of iOS has it now; it's not on my iOS 12 device at all (iOS 13?)
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Google implemented long press long before Apple. The Google launcher (home screen) has supported it for many years to access an app specific pop up menu.
What Google loves doing is giving you options. Like being able to select the order of the buttons at the bottom of the screen, or use physical buttons, or having an iOS like swipe up. Of course many phone manufacturers only give you one or two of those options but they are there. It's how Google lets manufacturers differentiate their phones.
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They do support it in software only -- Apple has transitioned from 3D Touch to long press, precisely because they can do it across the entire product line.
Na.
On devices that have the 3D Touch hardware (screen flex sensing), it works exactly as Google is doing it now- 3D touch has become instant long-press.
The hardware is still supported on devices that have it.
Google hasn't done anything magical -- existing Apple products already do "long press". 3D Touch was different in that it had haptic feedback for the "touch", which Google's software-only solution doesn't provide. So all Google has done here is re-invent Apple's existing long press.
They have. They allow "3D Touch" without the screen flex sensing using ML on 2D touch characteristics.
As far as haptic feedback? That's nonsense. Google had long-touch with haptic feedback before Apple had 3D touch.
The only story here is that it apparently took Google nearly two years to get the same long press Apple users have had for some time.
You literally have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. Fanboi much?
"invisible ui" (Score:3)
It's a case of invisible ui. long touch itself is seldomly used because, well, usually, you can't know by just looking at the screen that you can do it to do extra stuff. that makes it an ui thing that you need to rtfm or be taught for somehow and remember said teaching too. it sucks.
however most capacitive screens could do this if the software just presents the data.
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Bad flow...
Long press stops the UX to accommodate a disruption caused by a UI element. It forces the user to pause. A UI WAIT that becomes an interrupt. The feature simply kills flow on the device.
Bad flow more than any other side effect was detrimental to proficiency. Without mastery how do users fall in love with a device?
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You asshats are why we have tablet UIs on our fucking computers now.
Don't you mean (Score:2)
To be fair to Google, if it's purely software and doesn't have any hardware cost like SurePress or 3D Touch then I'd hesitate to say they cloned it.
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Don't you mean Google Cloned BlackBerry's SurePress technology using just software, which Apple also cloned and called 3D touch? To be fair to Google, if it's purely software and doesn't have any hardware cost like SurePress or 3D Touch then I'd hesitate to say they cloned it.
my galaxy S8+ allows you to hard press icons and the home button..... this is already in use with android - its wasn't "just copied" from apple.....
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To be fair to Google, if it's purely software and doesn't have any hardware cost like SurePress or 3D Touch then I'd hesitate to say they cloned it.
The summary doesn't mention that Apple introduced a software-only "long touch" last spring - which is basically what made it clear they planned to abandon 3D Touch. Any phone or iPad which supports the current version of iOS/iPadOS has long touch. But, as with 3D Touch, I am not convinced it's anything more than a marginally useful gimmick.
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It's still used now, it just functions as an instant long-press.
Google has had long-touch for ages (before Apple even had 3D Touch)
Google has made their long-touch now function like Apple phones that still have 3D touch (instant long-press)
They've done this using ML against the 2D touch profile instead of Apple's method of specific hardware to detect how much the screen is flexing.
This means that now Google can emulate the way Apple devices with 3D touch work now- as an instant long-pr
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And in fact, they didn't. For whoever wrote the headline: "clone" doesn't mean what you think it means.
Informed conjecture: with capacitive touchscreens, you never get a single x/y reading - the finger is touching an area, not a point. The firmer you press, the more your finger spreads out and the more deviation you'll read from the average. It's not hard to simply use the standard deviation of readings as an indication of how hard a finger is being pressed. Good luc
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Apple's 3D touch methodology measures the flex of the screen.
That's why it could only ever be implemented on devices with smaller screens.
My hope here is that Apple will bring back 3D touch now that it's known it can be done without special hardware, on screens of any size- because I love the feature.
For once, something copied from Apple (Score:2)
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How does it work? (Score:1)
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Comment removed (Score:3)
What the heck does drop mean? (Score:1)
Drop is not a good word for releasing new features. Even in the slashdot comments here someone mentioned that Apple dropped firm 3D touch. And in common usage we say a company drops support for something, meaning that it's stopped. eg. Microsoft dropped its support for Windows XP.
Yes English is a living language, but I hope this doesn't catch on even more than it has, we don't need more ambiguity and hard to read articles.
Can't we just "release" ne
Software vs Firmware (Score:3)
Apple used firmware and hardware to accomplish 3D Touch and, as such, could ACTUALLY sense how hard someone was pressing on the screen.
Using software that only detects how long someone is pressing is a very different feature and much more limited.
However, if Google discovered that when a user lightly touches the screen, a certain number of hits are recorded by the screen and when they press harder, that number is significantly different (think of mushing something on the screen and making more contact), they might be able correlate that to how hard a user presses.
Apple could have (and, may have) done the same. But, as others noted, the 3D Touch feature wasn't very popular nor consistently implemented. Given their implementation was hardware-based, it cost more, was likely a repair nightmare, and offered little ROI for users anyway.
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I'll be happy if they bring back 3D touch in software so that it can continue to function as such, because frankly, I fucking hate long-press.