Apple will bring back 3D Touch gesture for multitasking menu later in iOS 11

Apple will later bring back a gesture to invoke the multitasking menu with a hard press on the left side of the screen in iOS 11, according to an email that an Apple executive sent to a user. The feature is now missing from the operating system.

Users of iPhone 6s or iPhone 7 series devices could access the multitasking menu under iOS 10 by pressing hard on the left side of the screen and swiping to the right. The function relies on 3D Touch and therefore does not work on the iPhone 6, 5s and iPhone SE.

In the email from Apple CEO Craig Federighi, which MacRumors published, Apple has dropped the feature from iOS 11 due to a “technical limitation” but will return in an upcoming release of iOS 11.x. The site has checked the email’s IP header and it does indeed appear to be from Apple’s headquarters. Federighi answers users’ emails more often.

It’s unclear when the next 11.x release of iOS will be, but given the pattern Apple is following, that will happen sometime in the next year. The only alternative to open the list of open windows is to double-press the phone’s Home button. Apple released iOS 11 Tuesday evening.