Touch: force property

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

The Touch.force read-only property returns the amount of pressure the user is applying to the touch surface for a Touch point.

Value

A float that represents the amount of pressure the user is applying to the touch surface. This is a value between 0.0 (no pressure) and 1.0 (the maximum amount of pressure the hardware can recognize). A value of 0.0 is returned if no value is known (for example the touch device does not support this property). In environments where force is known, the absolute pressure represented by the force attribute, and the sensitivity in levels of pressure, may vary.

Examples

This example illustrates using the Touch interface's Touch.force property. This property is a relative value of pressure applied, in the range 0.0 to 1.0, where 0.0 is no pressure, and 1.0 is the highest level of pressure the touch device is capable of sensing.

In following code snippet, the touchstart event handler iterates through the targetTouches list and logs the force value of each touch point but the code could invoke different processing depending on the value.

js
someElement.addEventListener("touchstart", (e) => {
  // Iterate through the list of touch points and log each touch
  // point's force.
  for (let i = 0; i < e.targetTouches.length; i++) {
    // Add code to "switch" based on the force value. For example
    // minimum pressure vs. maximum pressure could result in
    // different handling of the user's input.
    console.log(`targetTouches[${i}].force = ${e.targetTouches[i].force}`);
  }
});

Specifications

Specification
Touch Events
# dom-touch-force

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
force
Chrome – No support
Chrome 22 – 46 (Release date: 2012-09-25)
prefix
footnote Removed in 47 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 38 (Release date: 2014-10-07)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 79 (Release date: 2020-01-15)
footnote Full support
Firefox – No support
Firefox 18 – 23 (Release date: 2013-01-08)
footnote Removed in 24 and later
footnote Removed in bug 888304 due to web compatibility issues.
Firefox – Partial support
Firefox 52 (Release date: 2017-03-07)
footnote Partial support
footnote This interface is only exposed if a touch input device is detected.
Opera – No support
Opera 15 – 33 (Release date: 2013-07-02)
prefix
footnote Removed in 34 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Opera – Full support
Opera 25 (Release date: 2014-10-15)
footnote Full support
Safari – No support
Safari
footnote No support
Chrome Android – No support
Chrome Android 25 – 46 (Release date: 2013-02-27)
prefix
footnote Removed in 47 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 38 (Release date: 2014-10-08)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 6 (Release date: 2011-08-16)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – No support
Opera Android 14 – 33 (Release date: 2013-05-21)
prefix
footnote Removed in 34 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 25 (Release date: 2014-10-16)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 10 (Release date: 2016-09-13)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – No support
Samsung Internet 1.5 – 4.2 (Release date: 2013-09-25)
prefix
footnote Removed in 5 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 3 (Release date: 2015-04-10)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – No support
WebView Android 4.4 – 46 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
prefix
footnote Removed in 47 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 38 (Release date: 2014-10-08)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 10 (Release date: 2016-09-13)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support
No support
No support
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
Has more compatibility info.