Rapid feedback gives app developers new skills to enrich our experiences. However, there is a fine line between value and hassle. Find out what it is!
With over 4 million apps on both Google Play and the Apple App Store, it's hard for us users to be more impressed. Even when approximately 7,400 apps are released every day by combining the 2 stores, only a few of them are able to catch our attention . It's as if developers can't find a way to surprise us anymore, so we're stuck with the same old apps.
However, mobile device manufacturers work on new features with each new product they release, providing mobile engineers with new capabilities to take apps to the next level. Companies that learn to take advantage of them can undermine our interest, so keeping an eye on what's new is key to creating excitement.
In this context, the emergence of haptic technology in general and rapid feedback in particular promises app developers new abilities to enrich our mobile experiences. In fact, if you already have an app for your business or are thinking about developing one, then you should definitely consider using quick feedback on it. Here's why.
What is rapid feedback?
The word “haptic” may not sound familiar to you, but you are certainly familiar with haptic communication in some form. All haptic technologies attempt to achieve the same goal – creating a tactile experience for the user through the use of force, vibrations or movement.
If you own an Apple Watch, you've experienced this firsthand. Every time your device taps you to let you know there's a new notification or alert, it uses haptic technology. Although using the watch's haptics is somewhat basic, it's enough for you to understand what it's all about.
And even if you don't have an Apple Watch, you can certainly imagine what it's all about. By using a device's sensors, an app can add a sensory experience that brings something new to the table. That's what rapid feedback is all about – implementing a new layer that plays with your sense of touch every time you interact with it.
Android devices already have haptic capabilities built-in. Since the iPhone 6S, iOS developers have also been able to use this technology. What's more, the latest versions of both operating systems have introduced a series of changes to their tactile features, especially in iOS 13. There are more possibilities now, which bring something unique that can make your app stand out from the rest, as long as you know how to use them.
How does rapid feedback work?
The overarching theme of haptic technology, no matter the type, is that the outputs that elicit user feedback are highly controlled. However, the ways in which each type functions and communicates depends on the specific model, as we will describe in more detail below.
The Different Types of Rapid Feedback Technology
Haptic devices provide feedback that can be separated into two main types: transient haptic feedback and continuous haptic feedback. Let's take a closer look at these two types of rapid feedback.
Transient Fast Feedback Technology
Transient feedback is the one you're probably most familiar with. Those little Apple Watch taps? This is fast transient feedback in action. This type is a very brief event that comes and goes. Fortunately, there's a little more to it than that. Thanks to new advancements, you can now set the intensity of fast feedback.
So you can use a clear haptics when there is an error or an important notification that needs the user's attention. On the other hand, you can use a more subtle haptics for something more mundane, like selecting an option in a menu or closing a window. The clarity of haptics opens the door to variations that can bring a richer experience to your application.
Continuous rapid feedback technology
Continuous feedback feels more like a pattern, a succession of taps or tactile events. Unlike transient haptics, continuous haptics have a certain duration that you can continue as long as necessary. For example, a racing game might use this to provide a vibrating sensation when the player's car is skidding around a corner at high speed.
Can you use continuous haptics in your app to add rhythm to its use? Sounds weird? Think about it! Imagine a process needs to load, so you incorporate continuous haptics into the loading bar to provide a dynamic vibration that tracks the bar's loading speed. It could certainly build some momentum and make the wait more exciting.
Haptic Technologies
But let's dig a little deeper into the underlying technologies that provide this force feedback.
| Technology | Uses | Characteristics |
| Force Control | Mechanical devices | Generates force in the user, involves large equipment such as levers |
| Ultrasonic airborne haptics | Virtual reality (VR) | Generates turbulence through ultrasound waves, without the need for the use of equipment or accessories |
| Vibrotactile Haptics | Video games, VR | Take advantage of “sound” vibrations |
| Microfluidics | Medical testing, point of care, scientific experiments | Creates pressure or temperature change on the user's skin, pushing small amounts of air/liquid out |
| Adaptive Haptics | Smartphones, wearable devices, interactive advertising, games, educational tools | Real-time adjustment of the intensity, pattern and type of feedback based on user interaction; can simulate a wide range of tactile sensations |
| Surface tactile | Touch screens | Regulates/modulates friction between surface or touchscreen and user's finger, prompts quick feedback |
Force Control
Haptic force control technology creates immersive experiences by utilizing mechanical devices that exert physical forces on the user, providing crucial rapid feedback. This approach is essential for applications that require substantial equipment to simulate realistic haptics, allowing users to interact with virtual environments in an incredibly realistic way.
- Uses: Mechanical devices
- Characteristics: Generates force in the user, involves large equipment such as levers
Ultrasonic airborne haptics
This innovative technology offers touchless tactile experiences by leveraging ultrasound waves to generate tactile sensations in the air. Ultrasonic Mid-Air Haptics revolutionizes user interactions in virtual environments, enabling users to perceive and engage with digital content without physical contact, offering an unprecedented level of immersion and intuitiveness.
- Uses: Virtual reality (VR)
- Features: Generates turbulence through ultrasound waves, users do not need to use any equipment or accessories
Vibrotactile Haptics
Harnessing the power of sound vibrations, Vibrotactile Haptics technology delivers distinctive rapid feedback, elevating the immersive experience in video games and virtual reality applications. By translating digital inputs into intricate vibration patterns, this approach enriches user interactions with realistic sensations, blurring the lines between the virtual and physical worlds.
- Uses: Video games, VR
- Features: Takes advantage of “sound” vibrations
Microfluidics
This innovative haptic approach harnesses the controlled flow of tiny volumes of air or liquid to induce localized changes in pressure or temperature on the user's skin. Offering remarkably precise haptic control, microfluidic haptic technology finds valuable applications in medical testing, point-of-care diagnostics, and scientific experimentation. By gently expelling tiny amounts of air or liquid, it can create nuanced sensations of pressure or temperature on the skin, enabling new frontiers in rapid feedback and user interaction.
- Uses : Medical testing, point of care, scientific experiments
- Features: Creates pressure or temperature change on the user's skin, pushing small amounts of air/liquid out
Adaptive Haptics
Adaptive Haptics ushers in a new era of haptic technology, where rapid feedback seamlessly adapts to user interactions, app context, and even environmental changes – all in real time. This cutting-edge approach enables devices to deliver exquisitely personalized tactile experiences tailored to each individual's unique needs and preferences. With Adaptive Haptics, user engagement and satisfaction reach new heights, transforming a wide range of applications into truly immersive and captivating experiences.
- Uses: Smartphones, wearable devices, interactive advertising, games and educational tools
- Features: Real-time adjustment of intensity, pattern and type of feedback based on user interaction; can simulate a wide range of tactile sensations
Surface tactile
Surface haptics enhances tactile interaction with touchscreens by dynamically modulating surface friction. Surface Haptics allows users to perceive and explore virtual textures, contours and even simulated actions through variations in friction on the screen. By enhancing the sense of touch, this approach enriches the user experience, making interactions with digital content more immersive and intuitive.
- Uses: Allows the user to perform functions on a touch screen through the sensation of touch
- Features: Friction is regulated/modulated between the surface or touchscreen and the user's finger, prompting rapid feedback
Haptic feedback for accessibility
This innovative technology harnesses the power of haptics to make digital interfaces more inclusive and accessible, especially for individuals with visual or hearing impairments. By providing physical feedback through touch, it conveys crucial information, alerts and navigation tips, empowering users to interact with technology with confidence and independence.
Main applications:
- Assistive devices
- Mobile Applications
- Navigation aids
- Educational Tools
Characteristics:
- Customizable vibration patterns and intensities signal different actions or notifications
- Enables users with sensory impairments to receive vital information without relying on visual or auditory cues
Rapid feedback for accessibility is a key development in assistive technology, offering a tactile layer of communication for users with disabilities. It transforms the way information is delivered by providing a tactile alternative to visual and auditory cues.
For example, a smartphone could use distinct vibration patterns to indicate different types of notifications, or a navigation app could guide visually impaired users through physical environments with vibrations indicating directions. This approach improves the user experience for individuals with disabilities, whilst promoting digital inclusion, ensuring technology is accessible to a wider audience.
Environmental Haptics
Environmental Haptics leverages advanced haptic technology to simulate and interact with virtual environments in a physically tangible way. This innovative approach allows users to feel and manipulate virtual objects and surfaces as if they were real, offering unparalleled levels of immersion in digital spaces. It finds applications in virtual reality environments, augmented reality applications, training simulators and educational platforms.
Environmental Haptics excels at simulating natural forces and textures, such as wind, water flow or terrain irregularity, providing a realistic experience of virtual environments.
At the forefront of bridging the digital and physical worlds, Environmental Haptics empowers VR and AR systems to provide rapid feedback that mimics the complex sensations of interacting with real environments. Users can feel the resistance of the water in a swimming simulation or the unevenness of the cobblestones in a virtual historical tour.
This technology not only improves the realism and engagement of virtual experiences, but also has significant potential for practical applications in training, education and therapy, offering safe, controlled and immersive simulations of real-world scenarios.
Why is rapid feedback important?
Fast feedback offers a number of advantages to the user. Its main objective is to improve the user experience by adding the element of presence, providing quick feedback and at the same time increasing accuracy.
Using quick feedback in your app
Because rapid feedback is a vibrational response that can be implemented with every tap, scroll, and swipe you make on an app, it's important to understand when it can add value — and when it can be annoying.
For example, providing a small vibration whenever your app successfully performs an important action can enrich the user experience. This is because it would provide positive feedback closely linked to a specific action. But if you use that little vibration for every button in your app, it quickly loses its charm and soon starts to get in the way.
Therefore, conceptualizing the use of quick feedback is fundamental to your success. Mobile games do a fantastic job of using them as there are vibrations and jostles every time you face an enemy or beat a level. Even if you haven't played games in a while, you may be familiar with rapid feedback in games, as it's the technology Nintendo has used in its Rumble Pak since 1997.
So while the use of quick feedback isn't exactly new, new ways of implementing it in applications are making a difference. Today, we can identify 2 distinct types of rapid feedback that you can use in your application: transient and continuous.
Taking it to the next level with haptic technology
If you want the best possible haptics experience, combining both types is essential. You can bring your app to life using both transient and continuous taps as long as you use them tastefully and without any abuse.
But wait! There's something extra about rapid feedback: audio-tactile event types. While it's true that haptic communication is all about touch, adding a sound level to it can provide a fuller experience for your users. And because you can configure the tone, volume, and audio decay, you can create the perfect companion for your transient and ongoing haptic experiences.
Haptics as a way to improve user experience
Quick feedback is not just a small feature to pique users' curiosity. It's actually a way to improve your app's user experience. A better UX helps you get more conversions and sales and promotes engagement, among other benefits . And even something as seemingly small as quick feedback can positively influence how users feel about your app.
This should be reason enough for you to reach out to your developers to have them work on your app's haptic features. Because using this feature will show your users something new and interesting that will engage them beyond the traditional app interaction.
Can't imagine where you can use quick feedback to improve your app's user experience?
Try one of the following things:
- Create affirmative responses (when confirming an action or updating content).
- Include it on specific slides or on/off switches.
- Support gestures (like pinching to zoom in or out)
- Develop a response to long presses (when activating a contextual menu or providing access to new options)
There's a lot more you can do with haptics in your app. The key here is to remember not to overdo it. Not all actions need haptic support nor do they need to trigger some type of event. As with everything in UX, you need to balance the cases where you use haptics with those where you don't, to ensure maximum effect.
A small detail that goes a long way
There's a reason we included haptic technology as one of the 2020 trends: we certainly believe it will bring new and exciting opportunities for developers. It is true that the most promising ones are a little more sophisticated than these. However, using haptics in your app is not something you should take lightly.
Haptics are among those little touches that make the user experience more satisfying. Even if your users don't notice it right away or can't identify it, this new layer of interaction is sure to surprise and amuse them. It can even make you stand out among the millions of apps out there and feel up to date in the oversaturated app market. This is not a minor thing.
Haptics FAQ
What is touch feedback technology?
Rapid feedback is called rapid feedback or rapid feedback and involves the sensation of touch to convey information and communicate with the user, such as the vibration of a cell phone.
What are haptic keyboards?
A haptic keyboard offers a feature that offers quick feedback or haptic sensations over a traditional keyboard. For example, iOS 16 introduced a quick feedback option to its keyboard so that it emits a slight vibration when the user is typing.
What is quick feedback mode on a cell phone?
Quick feedback mode on a cell phone means there is quick feedback when the user performs certain actions on the device, such as vibration.
Source: BairesDev
