iPhone 6S: The 5 Best 3D Touch Tricks, Tips and HIDDEN Shortcuts in iOS

Apple has left a few hidden 3D Touch shortcuts littered around iOS 9

 

3D TOUCH is undoubtedly the coolest new feature in the Apple iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. And if you're lucky enough to own the latest Apple hardware, you need to master these five hidden 3D Touch shortcuts.

 

Apple unveiled 3D Touch on-stage at the launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, back in September.

The revolutionary new display technology allows the flagship smartphone to detect different levels of pressure applied to the screen. 

In a nutshell, you can still tap, long-press, pinch and swipe like you have been able to do with the previous eight iPhone models – but now, iOS responds differently when you push harder into the display. 

 

Apple demoed a variety of 3D Touch gestures baked into iOS 9 during the iPhone launch, which also saw the unveiling of the large-screen iPad Pro and refreshed Apple TV.

But the Cupertino company left more than a few surprises littered around its hugely popular operating system just waiting to be 3D Touch'd and discovered.

Here are our favourites –

#1 – Quick Dial in iMessage, or Email

3D Touch brings a slew of shortcuts to iOS that makes calling and messaging much faster.

One of these shortcuts is hidden in the small, circular profile pictures in the list or current conversations in iMessage.

Pressing on the round profile picture brings up a quick shortcut to their contact information

Press harder on your friend of choice and a number of contact options appear, including FaceTime, iMessage and phone call.

This nifty trick also works on the small contact pictures that appear in the top right-hand corner of an email in Apple's own Mail client.

#2 – Hidden Trackpad

iOS has always had a very reliable way to move your text cursor – holding down on the text until a small magnifying glass appears, which can be dragged to your desired spot.

But with the introduction of 3D Touch, Apple has included an even better way to quickly select and navigate around a body of text.

This next 3D Touch trick is incredibly useful, but only works with the stock iOS 9 keyboard

Pressing harder on the keyboard causes the keys to disappear and turns the area into a trackpad

Press harder on the standard iOS keyboard and the individual keys will disappear and the turn a shade of grey, transforming the surface into a digital trackpad.

Sliding your thumb around the greyed-out surface will move the cursor. Push harder again, and you can select text as the cursor moves.

If you highlight the wrong word, just release the pressure slightly – without lifting your finger from the display – and then push harder again to de-select.

#3 – Check Your Bookmarks

When you load a new tab in Safari on iOS, you're presented with small logos for your bookmarks and frequently visited websites.

3D Touch on these website logos and you can load a live preview of the site.

 

This means you can quickly cycle through your favourite news outlets and social media sites by pressing into the icons, without having to load each webpage as an individual tabs.

#4 – Secret Zoom Feature

Buried in the Accessibility tab of the Settings app, Apple has included a setting that's disabled by default – Peek Zoom.

This allows you to zoom into any screen in iOS by pressing hard on the screen. If you lessen the force on the display, the screen will zoom-out.

Hidden in Accessibility within Settings, you can use 3D Touch to zoom into the screen

The zoom is controlled via the Zoom Controller, that appears when Zoom and Show Controller is enabled.

To begin using the option, navigate to Settings > General > Accessibility > Zoom and then switch on Zoom and Show Controller.

#5 – Preview Your Last Photo

This last 3D Touch tip is incredibly useful.

In Apple's preinstalled Camera app, the last photo you have taken always appears in the bottom left-hand corner.

 

Tapping on this photo, loads the image and takes you to your Camera Roll album in Photos.

But any iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus owners can 3D Touch on the small photo preview in the Camera to get an almost-full-screen view of the image – without leaving the app.

As with any Peek and Pop 3D Touch preview on the iPhone, you can push harder on the floating preview to open the image in the Camera Roll.
  

Tapping the preview of the last image you took takes you to the Camera Roll folder in Photos

But 3D Touch it any you can Peek and Pop an almost full-screen preview of the snap