iPhone SE’s Haptic Touch Does Not Support Notifications

Apple’s new iPhone SE has now begun to find its way into the hands of consumers since release. One specific feature, which is found on many contemporary iPhones appears to be missing from the iPhone SE. Users have discovered that its Haptic Touch feature does not support notifications.

Unlike the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, the iPhone SE is unable to expand notifications through Haptic Touch. Transitioning from the 3D Touch days, Haptic Touch on notifications would expand them, offering more options for users.

Reported by MacRumors, a press on any given notification on the Notification Centre screen will not offer additional options for the user. For example, if a Facebook notification appears, users can typically press longer to view it, snooze Facebook notifications, etc. On the iPhone SE, however, no such options exist.

The missing support has been noted by Reddit users as well. On the Apple subreddit, user christmas_ape wrote:

“I received my SE yesterday and very quickly realized that Haptic Touch is not supported on notifications. I am not seeing this reported anywhere, haven’t seen one review mentioning it, no video I watched mentioned it. Haptic Touch works for peek and pop, and on icons on the home screen but if you are on the lock screen or Notification Center and try to long press an email to archive, or a text to quick reply you are out of luck.”

The user later claimed to have spoken to Apple support, who responded by saying this was not a simple bug and that there is “no software update planned”.

While it is entirely possible the Apple Support agent was misinformed, for the time being, it appears as though users will be restricted from expanding notifications through Haptic Touch. It’s also worth noting that the iPhone XR faced a similar issue regarding Haptic Touch on notifications. Apple later rectified the situation through a software update.