I am trying to simulate a force touch using Xcode 7 GM on the iPhone 6S or iPhone 6S Plus simulator. In particular, I am trying to simulate the force touch on the icon of the test app which is implementing Application Shortcuts.
Let me know if there is a solution to simulate this, I tried the long press which the Watch simulator uses to simulate force touch, didn't work since the iPhone captures it as a long press gesture.
Update: I downloaded the ViewControllerPreview Sample code from Apple. Running their sample application I see that the simulator, although an iPhone 6s, does not support for 3D / force touch feature. I am still unsure if it would support the feature if I were to be using a macbook with a force touch enabled trackpad.
EDIT: Can someone with a macbook that has a force touch trackpad attempt to use the force touch on the trackpad to simulate 3D touch on the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus simulator? My theory is that you can maybe use the force touch trackpad on the new MacBooks to simulate the 3D touch on new iPhone simulators. Add a comment noting the results if you try it and I can update the post.
EDIT2: It seems that Force Touch trackpads on the newer model macbook pros do not help.
With Xcode 7.3 you can test the 3D touch feature in simulator but with only one constraint. (Xcode7.3 release notes reference)
The machine(macbook/mac with trackpad) your are developing should have 3D touch capability.
You can find it under iOS simulator Hardware menu.
Comments from Pavel Alexeev: Be sure to enable “Force Click and haptic feedback” in System Preferences → Trackpad
For the "Home Screen Quick Actions" touch I made the following:
created an object of UIMutableApplicationShortcutItem
put it into launchOptions to
UIApplicationLaunchOptionsShortcutItemKey
and thats it
It looks like user did the 3d touch on the app icon.
(application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:)
It says here! at the bottom of the page....
So unfortunately it looks like we need to get our hands on the actual devices to do it. :-(
EDIT.....
As of Xcode 7.3 there is a way to do this if your MacBook's trackpad supports force touch. See answer by @iPrabu.
Force pressure in iOS (eg: Peek & Pop) is not exposed through Xcode 7.0 nor Xcode 7.1 Beta's Simulator. The pressure touch options are only relevant for watchOS devices in those versions of Simulator. If you have the Xcode 7.1 beta, you'll notice that the menu option is actually disabled.
With Xcode 7.3 and the iOS 9.3 and later simulator runtimes, you can test peek/pop functionality using a force touch trackpad.
You can enable 3D Touch in simulator. Thanks to this library.
After adding it Using a combination of the command, control, and shift keys 3D Touch can be enabled.
Don't forget to add library in Debug environment only. Exclude it from Release environment.
There's a bit of code here that allows you to test 3D Touch peek & pop in the simulator. Bear in mind this is code for iOS 9.0, and some of the internal/private methods have changed in 9.1 so you'll need to make a few minor changes (Hint: the word 'Position' changed to 'Location' in one of the method names).
https://gist.github.com/nickfrey/07e2c6d8d2e5444fb91d
Both this and https://github.com/DeskConnect/SBShortcutMenuSimulator mentioned in other answers allow you to test for 3D Touch without an actual device fairly competently.