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Comment by mbesto | Hacker News Reader

> Once you get used to the post-iPhone-X interaction model, there’s no going back. A week with the new SE has not shaken my belief that the X-style interaction design is superior. Not one iota.

I have an iPhone 8 (TouchID) and an iPad Pro (FaceID) and personally the multi-tasking gestures are ridiculously inferior to the home button. FaceID is nice (ApplePay, unlocking, etc) but switching to another app (multi-tasking) is painful in the "post-iPhone-X interaction model". Am I alone in this or is it a learned behavior that I simply haven't gotten over the hump yet?

EDIT: Turns out there is some nuance to iPad vs iPhone. I should also note that I'm probably referring moreso to the multi-app interface on an iPad (where you can have two apps running at the same time), which is still weird to me. Sliding left and right makes sense - get it now, but you have to remember what your last app interaction was. Also, weird downvotes?

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I don’t find getting into the multitasking switcher meaningfully harder on the newer devices— it’s just a swipe-up-and-hold gesture, which I’ll occasionally time wrong and end up at the home screen, but not often enough to be “painful” (and it’s just another swipe away if I do mess up).

What is vastly better on the X-series devices, though, is switching between your two or three most recent apps. Just swipe left and right at the bottom of the screen (on the bar)— this lets you flip between apps in the order that they’re in the switcher. This means I very rarely actually enter the full multitasking switcher in normal use.

(The other, minor benefit of the new-style gestures is that they’re all cancellable and map directly to finger movement, but that’s more of a “feel” thing than a major usability win. Makes it feel Apple-y, though.)

> What is vastly better on the X-series devices, though, is switching between your two or three most recent apps. Just swipe left and right at the bottom of the screen (on the bar)— this lets you flip between apps in the order that they’re in the switcher.

That gesture works on iPads as well. Start with a slight updward swipe and go sideways.

Also try four finger pinch and four finger left/right swipe.

> What is vastly better on the X-series devices, though, is switching between your two or three most recent apps.

On devices with 3D Touch switching between 2 recent apps became easier once you learned this shortcut: just hard press the left edge of the screen, and depending on how far you drag it to the right, you can either go to the previous app or open the switcher (faster than double tapping the home button).

Just wanted to chime in on this: it doesn’t matter how far you drag it to the right, but how “deep” you press: after pressing once, give it another, deeper press and the app switcher will appear.

> Just swipe left and right at the bottom of the screen (on the bar)— this lets you flip between apps in the order that they’re in the switcher. This means I very rarely actually enter the full multitasking switcher in normal use.

Did Apple make this a all or nothing thing or do some of these gestures also work on home button devices?

All or nothing, IIRC. Home button devices do have a gesture to switch directly between apps (3D touch on the left edge of the screen), but I always found it difficult to activate reliably, especially with a case on my phone.

I haven't used a home button iPhone in a long time so I'm not sure about them, but home button iPads definitely support the X gestures.

Home button iPads get some of the X gestures— they get swipe up for home and multitasking, but not the right/left gestures on the home bar (because it’s not there). The loss of those isn’t that big of a deal, though, since iPads have the four-finger multitasking gestures as well.

I do miss the home button for authentication. FaceID requires "full attention", while TouchID works even while distracted, and (crucially) in landscape.

But for multitasking, I really do prefer the swipe-up gesture. I don't find it painful at all, it feels very natural: touch from the bottom, slide up, and then horizontally to select what you want.

Oh don't get me started about how many times I have do a weird 90 degrees head turn to unlock my XS when it is in landscape mode. I don't get why it is so hard to compare a 90 degree rotated FaceID match.

Everyone that owns a iPhone with FaceID knows the trouble, for everyone else it looks like I am trying to read something without turning my phone.

I don't think you actually have to do that. At least with my iPad pro, when it is in landscape, I don't have to do anything different with my head. The only issue I have is if I am holding it in landscape with my hands I have to move my hand off of the camera so it can see me.

I have held out for a while upgrading my LG G7 on android due to one crucial feature for me: Notification LED for my personal phone. (PS: "NotifyBuddy" looks like something that could satisfy my minimum requirement on OLED screens)

I like Apple for work, and I just ordered an SE 2020 on my upgrade plan, to replace my 8.

Why? Other than liking a small phone for work, I do not want to lose fingerprint auth. FaceID means no masks, no landscape, trouble in darkness (I think), trouble in bed or with smooshed face, trouble when the phone is on a desk and I'm looking at it from an angle.

With under-screen fingerprint readers being possible from Oneplus, it must be a matter of cost/Apple-ian adherence to moving on from a technology with purpose, even when you don't need to.

FaceId is trash but swipe multitasking on the iPhone is an amazing iteration. That said, the tap to hold for an hour to move icons around is also trash. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You dont have to hold. Just tap the and move your finger.

You can tap and pull to enter the rearrangement mode more quickly.

I’ve found it’s helpful if you make a slight half circle from the multitasking bar (whatever the bottom bar you pull on is called) to instantly go back to the last app.

But it’s a memory game with what is on your app stack. Was Duo open last or email or calculator? If you aren’t sure you need to pull straight up into scroll mode... I don’t think there is a great solution to this, Apple has surely spent millions and millions every year on mobile UX.

No half circle motion necessary. Just swipe horizontally along the home bar.

They're slightly different interactions and I (not the commenter you replied to) use both. I feel like the bottom swipe is a discrete action that takes you straight to the last app, and I use it when I'm very confident, like a one ⌘-tab with no hesitation.

The half circle is more like starting to activate the app switcher, but confirming the next/previous app immediately. The difference is that it gives you slightly more time to see what you're doing and you can bail out into the app switcher if you change your mind in the instant the apps come up. That's actually the only way I ever open the app switcher; I feel like the swipe up and hold is way too slow.

are you swiping left/right over the “home indicator” at the bottom of the screen?

this is an interaction that not many people know about, but it is so much faster than swiping up, and then choosing the right app.

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