Sensitivity of touch screen in iOS7

By peter, 24 September, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
After working with iOS7 on my iPhone 4s for a bit, it seems like the sensitivity of the touch screen has changed and become very sensitive. The device seems to be catching extraneous gestures such as a touch or swipe when I didn't even touch the screen. This is easy to tell with VoiceOver running since VoiceOver makes a clicking sound when a touch or gesture is made. I sometimes hear these sounds even if my finger is only hovering above the screen and not even touching it. I don't recall having any of these problems with iOS6. Has anyone else been experiencing this? Is Apple aware of the problem (if there is one)? Can I somehow change the sensitivity of the touch screen on my iPhone? Thanks. --Pete

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Comments

By Alyabani94 on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - 16:29

Hello ya iOS 7 has become very sensitive, i've been experiencing this, this problem is effected many things, starting from typing to clicking on any item by triple tap i hope to find a solution to that problem and thanks

I'm probably in the minority, but I don't think it is a bug. I think it is just part of the new iOS, and frankly, once I got used to the quirks and such, I find it pretty neat. It's not Fleksy, but I find the quick responsiveness very nice as I am a pretty good typer on the iOS keyboard.

Hi sockhopsinger, I'm not sure how this behavior could possibly be considered as a feature or enhancement??? The only possible conclusion is that you are one of the fortunate ones who is not effected by this bug. If I'm wrong, would you please explain how you are able to turn this into something positive? Bear in mind, we are not talking about alternative characters appearing on the keyboard, we're talking about VoiceOver focus repeating your previous gesture when you come close to touching the screen. This is right across the whole OS - icons, lists, elements, keyboards, text editing, etc.

By David Goodwin on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - 16:29

Peter, This bug has been discussed extensively (and reported by a number of people) in the thread elsewhere on this site about iOS 7 bugs - Possible Accessibility Bugs for VoiceOver Users in iOS 7 It's a strange one, as it doesn't seem to effect everybody. I've personally reported this to the Accessibility Team at Apple, and I would guess that many others have done the same. In my case, I went as far as sending them a video showing just how prevalent and intrusive this behaviour could be.

Hi: When I want to make a gesture or touch on the screen, whether in an edit field or otherwise, when I reach for the screen, I make sure the gesture is quick so that by the time the phone senses my finger is near the screen, it is already touching. I am sorry I am not doing a good job at explaining this. Something I haven't tried but sounds interesting, has anyone tried turning on the reduce motion button in the accessibility settings? I don't know if that might help those of you having trouble or not.

By steven carey on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - 16:29

Hi all, Yes, I seem to be having similar problems and especially on email and texts. I appear to be losing focus even though I have my fingers off thhe screen. I am hearing clicks and the 'new' sound on the iphone (the one that was already available on the iPad). This afternoon, I tried to send two emails and three texts and made so many mistakes I reverted to my desk top at work and wrote the emails on that instead. Apple certainly need to do something quickly as I won't be very happy if the problem persists for long and especially after I receive my new iPhone 5s! Does anyone know if the 5s with its 7.01 still has this problem and if it has when do we expect a new revised version? Steve.

By David Goodwin on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - 16:29

Steven - yes, I tested for this problem on a 5s running 7.0.1, and it was just as bad. sockhopsinger - enabling the reduce motion option does nothing to improve things. What's interesting, is that this problem does not appear to be present when VoiceOver is disabled - gestures work as expected, and no amount of hovering your finger close to the screen will make something happen that shouldn't. Whether Apple has actually made some software tweaks to change touchscreen sensitivity, we'll never know. It's certainly possible, as touchscreen responsiveness generally features quite prominently whenever products are compared and reviewed. Whatever they have done, a line of code somewhere (or, more likely, a conflict between a combination of lines of code) has resulted in a change in the way that VoiceOver behaves. The only consolation is that this behaviour is very predictable, which should make the cause a lot easier to isolate. As for how quickly that will happen and a fix be released … well, your guess is as good as mine (smile)

Wasn't sure if motion reduction would work or not. IT was just an idea I had, and I have not had a chance to try it.

By peter on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - 16:29

Where is the best place to go to report this problem as an accessibility problem to Apple? I would guess the more of us that reinforce the fact that the screen sensitivity in iOS 7 is a problem the quicker we might get a response and fix. --Pete

Yes it is kind of driving me crazy when am managing apps and folders weird when I was trying to type a new name for my folder my music app was running in the background and whenever I am flicking sometimes it will jump around like a bunny. I would like to get this fixed. Hey either way I can live with this for a while, but the sooner the better.

By Maria on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - 16:29

HI. this is a peculiar bug. If it were software related wouldn't it affect all phones/ I have an iphone 4 s and my husband has a 4. Neither phone is experiencing the problem with the screen being sensative and neither is my ipad mini. I'm getting a 4 s in a couple of days and I'm hoping the phone isn't affected. This one may be hard to squash if not all phones are doing this?