The new iPhone SE is missing Haptic Touch support for notifications

The iPhone SE is a fantastic phone for the price, and response to its release has been overwhelmingly positive. That said, a few owners have discovered a glaring omission in a feature that many of us have grown so used to over the years that we've apparently taken it for granted.

According to a new report from MacRumors, iPhone SE owners have reported on Reddit that Haptic Touch is not working on notifications on the lock and home screen. It is, however, working when you long-press on an app icon.

"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.

While some users have pointed out that you can slide to the left of a notification and tap "View" in order to see the additional information of a notification, the omission of the Haptic Touch functionality marks a major feature missing from the new iPhone SE. Not only does the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro support long pressing a notification for more information, but so did the iPhone 8, the phone that the iPhone SE has effectively replaced.

"On the 6S-XS 3D Touch was the solution, with the XR and 11 series Haptic Touch was the replacement, but this is the first non 3D Touch phone to be released where all the features of Haptic Touch are not fully baked into the OS."

According to Matthew Panzarino, Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch, the lack of Haptic Touch for notifications on the iPhone SE is not a bug and the user experience is "working as intended".

It is unclear if Apple truly intended this functionality to be absent from the new iPhone SE, but even if they did, it seems to be an odd omission as it breaks the software experience between its latest iPhones.