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iPhone XR’s Haptic Touch will soon gain another 3D Touch feature

iPhone XR’s Haptic Touch will soon gain another 3D Touch feature

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Coming soon in iOS 12.1.1

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

One of the differences between the iPhone XS and XR is the latter’s lack of support for 3D Touch, the feature that lets you press slightly harder on your phone’s screen to access certain shortcuts or “peek” at links. However, with iOS 12.1.1, 9to5Mac reports that Haptic Touch will offer one of those 3D Touch features — expanding your notifications — to iPhone XR owners.

Haptic Touch was a feature introduced with the iPhone XR that lets you get some of the same functionality as 3D Touch without having the specialized hardware. For now, it’s largely limited to launching the camera or flashlight on the lock screen or adjusting Control Center settings. To access it, long-press on your phone’s screen, and a bit of haptic feedback will confirm your selection. It takes slightly longer than a hard press, but its existence seems to underscore just how useless 3D Touch has become. Apple previously told The Verge that it planned to expand Haptic Touch’s capabilities, and letting users expand notifications in iOS 12.1.1 is the first example of this.

No more swiping left and tapping “View”

It’s a bit weird since, as 9to5Mac notes, this same long-press functionality is already available on iPads without any of them having the Haptic Touch technology introduced with the iPhone XR. Sadly, you still won’t be able to use the shortcut on older iPhones; they will still have to rely on swiping notifications to the left and clicking “View.”

iOS 12.1.1 is in beta testing now, and an exact release date is yet to be confirmed.