I don’t dislike any mobile operating system and have 3 on the go everyday. However, since September my main sim has been in an iPhone 6S Plus. One of the touted features of iOS 9 is 3D Touch.

Initially I was unsure how useful this feature would be and whether developers would embrace this new technology. Over the last 3 months developers have been very active with 3D Touch to the point now that once again iOS has the edge over apps and their overall content, style and effectiveness. 12 months ago I would have said android was fairly level pegging with iOS except in the gaming department. But now Apple has taken the lead again with apps. One other area iOS apps have the edge is in niche areas.

When it comes to apps, I now firmly believe Apple has the edge with apps not just apps on the iPhone, but also the Apple Watch, iPad and Apple TV. Of course, if you can manage in a world without apps, then the app advantage is irrelevant.

Back to 3D Touch and they way it transforms the iPhone experience. Below are a selection of apps that use 3D Touch –

App Store, Starbucks, Wallet, Apple Store, Shopsavvy, Amazon Shopping, Contacts, Reminders, Numbers, Safari, Tweetbot, Google Drive, Dropbox, Pcalc, Pages, Keynote, Calendar, Voice Memos, Game Centre, Clock, Find Friends, Wunderground, MyFitnessPal, Maps, Flightradar, VSCO Cam, Snapseed, Flickr, Camera+, iMovie, Photos, Google Search, Apple News, Chrome, iTunes Store, Amazon Music, iBooks, Apple Music, Notes, Camera, Phone, Mail, Messages, FaceTime, Twitter, FaceBook Messenger, WhatsApp, FaceBook, Instagram, Linkedin, Skype and Badlands.

The above list comes to 52 apps and 1 game that are active on my device. All the above apps have 3D Touch shortcut menu items from the app icon on the home screen. After opening the app 3D Touch is available dependant on the app. I’ll be honest in that it took at least a month before I started using 3D Touch. But now it is as common as anything and really speeds up the process of most tasks.

I have noticed Force Touch is available and coming to other phones on android, but the number of apps developed will be significantly behind iOS for quite a while.

3D Touch is just one area where developers have improved their iOS apps. The Touch ID and Apple Pay are two other areas where iOS score above their equivalent rivals on alternative platforms.

So for the foreseeable future iOS and 3D Touch have become a new way of interacting with a phone and its still really early days. I do look forward to future developments across all operating systems too.