3D Touch in App Switcher to return to iOS 11

According to Apple executive, Craig Federighi.

Originally published by Kyle on Medium, see original post here.

User interacting with an iPhone, using the 3D Touch app-switching feature. Photo: Tom Rolfe/TapSmart

According to an email obtained by MacRumors, Apple executive Craig Federighi confirmed that the popular user feature gesture referred to as “3D Touch app switch gesture” will be returning within a future “iOS 11.x update.”

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The gesture, which was removed from the latest version of iOS due to an apparent technical constraint, provided users with a convenient way of getting from the multi-tasking screen on iPhones and has been a part of 3D-Touch equipped Apple devices since iOS 9. The simplicity of the gesture, which has been a part of 3D-Touch equipped Apple devices¹ since iOS 9 and required only a firm press on the left edge of the screen and a flick to the right, made it a popular and missed feature by users. Until the aforementioned update when it is returned to an iteration of iOS 11, users will have to use the old tried-and-true method of bringing up the app switcher, double-tapping the home button on the device. If the gesture is not returned by the time that the iPhone X — which does not have a physical “home” button — is released later this year, users will have to swipe up on the virtual home bar of the device, pausing in the middle of the screen, to trigger the app-switcher/multi-tasking.

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A first for iOS devices: Snapchat users beware

Potential privacy risk in app on iOS 11 can allow recording of Snapchat without notification

Originally published by Kyle on medium.com, original story link.

Snapchat messages screen. Photo: Xavier Harding/Mic

Apple’s new mobile operating system update, iOS 11, has introduced an iPhone feature that has unsettling ramifications for users of the popular app, Snapchat.

Snapchat allows users to send “snaps” — short videos or photos— to other app users, which are only available to be viewed for a set amount of seconds determined by the sender and can only be replayed a limited number of times before being deleted. If a user were to “screenshot” an image or video, the app normally notifies the sending user (or group if a group-chat) that such an action — which is generally considered poor etiquette within the app’s user base — has taken place. This transient nature has been key to the app’s success with its key demographic, young adults aged 18 to 24, since its founding in 2011 by three Sanford University undergraduates.

Previously, the only way on iOS¹ to capture a snap was through screenshotting the message/image. Users of the app have discovered that the newly introduced screen-recording feature can potentially allow users to record Snapchat content without notifying the user that sent it. The inability of users to record “Snaps” with a notification being sent to the other party has been a feature which many of its 150+ million users have taken for granted.

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Continue ReadingA first for iOS devices: Snapchat users beware