Why the haptics in your smartphone matter

You probably didn’t buy your newest smartphone with the haptic feedback in mind, but there’s a good chance you noticed. The quality of the haptics offered varies across the board. For every iPhone or OnePlus phone with badass feedback, there are apparently a dozen phones with vague, lively vibrations that will cause you to turn the feature off entirely.

But how important is that? More than you might think. Not only does this reflect the quality of your phone, but it can also improve the functionality of the phone in some cases. Here are some reasons why you should consider haptics as an important feature of your next handset purchase.

Haptic feedback makes your phone easier to use

Haptics are confirmation that you’ve performed a task, such as B. typing on the keyboard or reaching the end of a list. That alone is enormously useful in practice. They know when to stop scrolling, when a pull-to-refresh command worked (especially useful for social networks), or if you missed a button. In the best case scenario, they can even save you from looking at the screen.

The better the feel, the more intuitive your phone will be. For example, on an iPhone, the subtle tick-tick-tick of scrolling through a pull-down menu makes it easy to pause the exact item you want. Imagine good haptics that improve responsiveness in the same way that a high refresh rate display does – it reduces the time you spend navigating your phone.

This interaction can even be critical to accessibility. If you are visually impaired, haptic vibrations can be the best way to confirm button presses or navigate the user interface. Both Apple and Google consider physical feedback to be an important aid when audiovisual cues are not an option. These vibrations can alert you of a call or error message that you would otherwise miss. With this in mind, good haptics can be of crucial importance for certain people.

There’s also an easier, harder-to-quantify reason to look for improved haptic feedback: it makes your phone more comfortable. Haptic feedback was partly created to enable a more lively interaction than if you were to touch “dead” glass. Why shouldn’t it be as nifty as possible?

A good haptic system, whether it’s the iPhone’s Taptic Engine or the Huawei Mate 40 Pro’s motors, ensures an even more intense experience. Your phone is more likely to feel like it is responding to you or even working in harmony with you. While it would be a stretch to say that your phone comes alive, a good feel can make it feel like more than a piece of glass and metal. The technology is even fun – you can dare scroll through a list or type in a long message to feel those subtle knocks and thumps. Plus, it can make a huge difference to the mobile gaming experience.

See also: Advanced haptics come on Android

As mentioned at the beginning, haptic feedback can distort your perception of a device. Subtle, precise feedback can improve the perceived quality of a phone, even if it’s not a premium-priced model. A system that meanwhile buzzes and rattles can make even the most expensive handset look cheap. Ultimately, it reflects the attention to detail. If a company is thoughtful enough to make your phone’s tactile response a joy, there’s a good chance they’ll give the rest of the hardware the same consideration.

So we should encourage our favorite phone brands to look more into haptic feedback. Not only does this increase the quality of a phone, but it also encourages companies to think holistically about design. You may get a better made device even if you aren’t particularly into haptics, and it can make you appreciate technology that you haven’t had before.