Apple recreates the missed 3D Touch in new iOS 17 beta

Apple abandoned its hardware-based 3D Touch feature with pressure-sensitive screens back in 2019. It was thought then to be because few users had found and were using the feature, but people who did use it, loved it.

In comparison, the haptic feedback that Apple adopted instead — where the screen isn't pressure sensitive but the phone artificially reacts as if it were — was never quite the same. That was chiefly because 3D Touch worked so quickly when you were pressing on an app to get a pop up menu.

Now as Apple releases the second developer beta of the forthcoming iOS 17, it has seemingly attempted to recreate 3D Touch.

As first spotted by Twitter user AppleIntro, the revised Settings app now includes a section that is actually called "3D & Haptic Touch." On the first beta, searching for that name took you to the old Haptic Touch section of settings, but now it's been renamed to list both.

This setting in Accessibility, Haptic Touch, also revamps the options available. Previously the section let you choose whether haptic touch responded to your touch fast or slowly.

Now the same section has a 3D Touch option, with a slider to choose the amount of pressure needed to activate the feature. It's also slightly changed the touch duration setting, which now has a Default option as well as Fast and Slow ones.