After Apple announced the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus earlier this month, users were left pretty excited about the new 3D Touch feature, which would allow additional touch functionality on iOS devices. Similar to the MacBook’s Force Touch trackpad, the latest iPhones will be able to sense the pressure of taps and presses applied by the user. It does this by using capacitive sensors within the backlight of the new devices, measuring tiny changes in the distance between the display and the backlight.
However, many have since discussed what this means for screen protectors?
Some have speculated that if these screen protectors prevent the device’s sensors from recognizing these minute changes in pressure, it could affect its accuracy, or stop it working altogether.
But it looks like Apple has the whole thing in hand. 3D Techtronics decided to drop Apple’s marketing head Phil Schiller a quick email to ask him what the situation is.
He confirmed that screen overlays will “continue to work with 3D Touch” – as long as they follow Apple’s guidelines.
Those guidelines essentially say that a screen overlay must not exceed 0.3mm – what Schiller’s saying is that as long as it isn’t thicker than that, it should play nice. However, some have questioned this, bringing up the notion of strength, and that a stronger cover might not translate the pressure in the way a more flexible screen would.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see. Users that generally make use of screen protectors may want to leave it a few weeks following the release of the new iPhones in order to gain more of a consensus as to the affect to 3D Touch functionality.