When Apple seeded the first iOS 11 beta to developers, many wondered why the 3D Touch multitasking gesture had disappeared. In case you’re unfamiliar, this gesture allows users to hard-press on the left side of their screen to quickly switch between apps and visit the recent apps screen which normally requires a double-tap of the home button. It was later discovered that the change was intentional and that the feature was removed under the consent of Apple, but it was still a mysterey as to why. Now, it looks like we have an answer.
According to a forum member over at MacRumors who emailed Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, the feature was removed “due to a technical constraint.” What that constraint was remains unknown, but I guess we’ll have to go with it for now.
Question from Zahn: Could we at least make the 3D Touch app switch gesture an option in iOS 11 so that I could retain the ability to switch apps that way instead of having to double tap the home button?
Response from Federighi: Hi Adam,
We regretfully had to temporarily drop support for this gesture due to a technical constraint. We will be bringing it back in an upcoming iOS 11.x update.
Thanks (and sorry for the inconvenience)!
– craig
According to Federighi in his response, the feature will be brought back in a future iOS 11.x update. Hopefully, it’s iOS 11.1 that brings it back since we expect to see that update’s first beta next week. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see, but we can cross our fingers anyhow.
For all you skeptics, MacRumors says they scanned the email and the servers from which it was sent from, and they can verify it comes from Cupertino, CA. This indicates Federighi did indeed send it himself. Let’s just hope Apple sticks to his word.
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