Haptic Touch doesn't work for notifications on the iPhone SE

As capable as the new iPhone SE might be for the money, there’s one software quirk that could sour the experience for some. Users on Reddit, MacRumors and elsewhere have discovered that you can’t use Haptic Touch (that is, a press and hold with vibration feedback) for notifications on the lock screen or Notification Center like you can with the iPhone 11 series. And like TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino noted, this is apparently intentional in its current form — at the moment, there are no known plans to patch the functionality.

We’ve asked Apple for comment. Haptic Touch still works on the home screen for app shortcuts, and will work if you happen to catch a notification as it pops up (but only after the phone has been unlocked).

This won’t necessarily be a dealbreaker for the iPhone SE. However, it could be a significant hassle if you frequently use Haptic Touch to reply to texts, archive emails or control smart home devices. If the feature doesn’t come to the SE, you may have to resign yourself to launching apps the old fashioned way.