While 3D Touch was not the revolutionary feature that Apple had hoped for, it does have its uses. One of the more underrated features is the ability to turn the iPhone’s keyboard into a trackpad, which lets you move the cursor on your screen around your text selection, something that is known to be quite finicky on mobile devices.
The good news for iOS users is that if you don’t own a device with 3D Touch, like the iPhone 6 or older, or an iPad, you’ll be pleased to learn that with iOS 12, Apple will be introducing a similar feature. How it works is simple, all users need to do is tap on the spacebar and hold it for a moment, after which your keyboard will then be transformed into a trackpad. Letting go will see your keyboard revert back to normal.
So is this method more efficient than 3D Touch? According to Cult of Mac, based on their tests they found that it works out to be roughly the same. This means that those without 3D Touch on their phone should get roughly the same experience as those who do have 3D Touch. It is unclear if this was designed specifically for older iPhones, or if there might be more behind this.
Either way we’ll have to wait for iOS 12 to be released in order to check it out which should be later this year, but if you can’t wait then you can go ahead and download the iOS 12 public beta to take it for a spin.