From incoming call reminders to "PUBG cheats", what has mobile phone vibration experienced over the years?

In 1996, Motorola launched the flip phone Motorola StarTAC. This small device opened an important chapter in mobile phone interaction and made mobile phones adapt to more scenarios as mobile communication devices. Since then, vibration has been bound to mobile phones as a feature and has become one of the most important functions in people's daily use of mobile phones.

How important is mobile phone vibration in our daily life? If you often attend meetings or are in public places and don't want to disturb others, you may have to rely on it. When the phone buzzes on the table instead of shouting, you can answer or hang up the call more calmly without disturbing the people around you.

However, with the popularization of smart phones, this most traditional vibration method has begun to undergo new changes. It has not only further facilitated mobile phone interaction, but has also begun to affect the design of more mobile communication devices and extended new interaction methods. So what changes has mobile phone vibration brought us over the years? Today, GeekChoice (official account GeekChoice) will talk to you about it.

From incoming call vibration to the game "Snake"

As one of the basic interactive functions of mobile phones, the vibration function of mobile phones was originally very passive. If someone calls you or sends you a text message, the phone will vibrate, but it has almost no other uses, so it is often ignored by many people. However, even so, after mobile phones have gradually become an important tool for connecting the world, the vibration function continues to move forward.

With the release of Nokia 6110 in 1997, the mobile game Snake became popular all over the world, and mobile phone vibration also had an opportunity to take the initiative. By providing enhanced feedback to players when playing games, many people have experienced the better experience brought by mobile games such as Tetris and Snake with vibration. Manufacturers have also spared no effort to promote how interesting the combination of vibration + games is, making the originally passive interaction of vibration feedback more valuable.

The vibration of early mobile phones was mainly achieved through the rotor motor inside the phone. This rotor motor is somewhat similar to the four-wheel drive car motor we played with when we were children. During the rotation process, the eccentric iron at one end realizes the rapid shaking of the motor. This mechanical shaking causes the phone to vibrate.

The rotor motor has not changed much in the early days. After all, people did not have many functional demands on mobile phones at that time, and mobile phones were still mainly used for making calls and text messages. When Apple's iPhone series opened the era of smart phones, mobile phone vibration began to become a focus of Apple's exploration as a form of interaction. Here we have to talk about Apple's iPhone 6s series.

Linear Motor and 3D Touch

Before iPhone 6, Apple had been using rotor motors on its phones. In the iPhone 6 era, Apple began to try the new linear motor Taptic Engine. Compared with the rotor motor, the vibration feedback of the linear motor is crisper and the vibration is more comfortable, which provides a new direction for mobile phone interaction. So on iPhone 6s, Apple brought a new interaction method 3D Touch based on Taptic Engine, which changed the habits of many people in using mobile phones.

3D Touch is an extension of Multi Touch. In the era of Multi Touch, people interact with the screen through different methods such as tapping, touching, and sliding. 3D Touch goes a step further and issues different commands to the system through the pressure of the fingertips, thereby realizing functions such as quick preview and reply.

In order to achieve this special experience, the vibration feedback of the mobile phone needs to be crisp and clear. The sluggish experience of the rotor motor in the past is obviously not achievable. This is why Apple added the Taptic Engine linear motor to the mobile phone.

Subsequently, many third-party apps also developed their own quick functions. For example, the familiar WeChat and Alipay apps can quickly enable functions such as scanning QR codes and quick payment without entering the app. Games such as "Honor of Kings" and "Game for Peace" even provide 3D Touch game functions. This has brought mobile phone vibration feedback to a new level.

New interactive experience that opens your mind

3D Touch is only part of Apple's attempt at linear motor interaction. Based on this, Apple further cancelled the physically pressable Home button on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 series, and instead used vibration feedback to simulate the feeling of pressing. Ordinary users don't even realize that this is a newly designed Home button in daily use. This is obviously Apple's most successful exploration of vibration feedback.

After Apple added linear motors to its phones to make them more interactive, more manufacturers saw the huge change that vibration feedback brought to the mobile phone experience. Although the 3D Touch feature was gradually replaced by Haptic Touch+ shortcuts with the release of iPhone 11 Pro, the improved experience brought by linear motor vibration feedback has affected the product designs of different manufacturers, especially in terms of gaming experience.

In 2018, ASUS's ROG Phone gaming phone was the first to try to improve the mobile gaming experience through side vibration feedback. Through these two touch sensor areas officially called ultrasonic Air Trigger, users can map some operations in the game to the borders, achieving an effect similar to the shoulder buttons of a game controller. This feature has been well received by many game players, and subsequent gaming phones such as iQOO and Red Magic also chose a similar approach.

On the other hand, manufacturers like Black Shark choose to achieve similar gaming effects through screen pressure-sensitive touch. On the Black Shark gaming phone 2 released in 2019, through the pressure-sensitive touch operation of the specified area of ​​the screen, users can also customize the pressing operation in the game, and shoot or aim while pressing, thereby getting a better gaming experience in the game.

New horizons beyond mobile phones

The more possibilities brought by vibration feedback directly affect manufacturers' thinking about daily use. For example, Sony once added a unique dynamic vibration system to the XZ2 Premium product. This system can provide real-time response vibration feedback when users listen to music, watch movies or even play games. This experience is actually very obvious on home game consoles. On the Nintendo Switch game console released in March 2017, the unique HD vibration effect can even simulate the feeling of milking and shaking dice, which shows the important value brought by vibration feedback.

In addition, Apple has also added the Taptic Engine linear motor inside the Apple Watch. Through the precise vibration of the motor, users will have very clear feedback prompts when pressing the screen to operate, which makes the interaction on the small screen more intuitive. In particular, the vibration when twisting the side crown makes the electronic watch bring a user experience similar to that of a traditional watch. This was unimaginable in the past and is also of great significance for the interaction of wearable devices.

As smartphone manufacturers narrow the gap in basic performance, people are now paying more and more attention to details when using their phones. Excellent and appropriate vibration feedback can bring a better interactive experience, and can also make many devices more useful and entertaining, which naturally becomes a plus point when people buy them. Obviously, restoring the operation of the physical world with a better vibration experience will become an important feature of future interactions. Perhaps it won’t be long before we can see more interesting new attempts.