Three-finger tap in Handwriting

[Shun]

Hi, I understand that iOS can recognize three-finger taps. Would it be a good idea to introduce a three-finger tap in the Dictionary's Handwriting input area to erase the whole search field? Thanks.

 

[mikelove]

Maybe - in general three finger gestures are dicey because there's no way to tell that a two finger tap is about to become a three finger one, which is why we don't use a three-finger tap to (say) close the input box - wouldn't want to accidentally delete the character you just entered when you do that - but in this case if you're clearing the input field anyway then I suppose having your three-finger tap misinterpreted as a backspace gesture until the third finger comes down isn't such a bad thing.

 

[Shun]

Great, I agree. I've just opened a poll for this.

 

[Shun]

Hello Mike, we've gotten a quite positive response in the poll (5 Yes vs. 1 No). I think power users will like this shortcut, while beginning users wouldn't be hampered by it. Do you think you could try this in an upcoming release? Thanks!

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, but "would you like" polls don't really count for much - you'll get an overwhelming consensus for adding almost any feature you can think of. (this is why we don't use open feature voting in general - unreliable and ignores the importance of making the whole thing fit together)

Anyway, at this point we're not really thinking about any new UI affordances until iOS 8 is at least a couple of betas in and we've established what Apple are changing / adding and what complications that might present; it's pretty much impossible to get any iOS developer to commit to anything the month before WWDC But we can certainly consider it then.

 

[Shun]

I understand. At least now it's on the table. Wish you a great WWDC!