Discourse has introduced tactile feedback on likes, using the Vibration API, which respects device configurations and allows users to disable vibrations. Falco implemented this feature as a theme component to explore possibilities. The feature has received mixed reactions, with some users like riking finding it nice and subtle, while others like Heather_Dudley and sam want the option to turn it off.
Codinghorror suggested that more complaints are needed to consider making it optional. Jesus2099 and ionous reported issues with the feature on older Firefox versions and Android devices. Falco plans to add a feature block for Firefox v68 due to permission consent issues.
Some users, like wroot and InsomniacTales, are looking for ways to disable the feature, especially when they have haptic feedback disabled on their devices. Falco provided a solution by suggesting to disable dom.vibrator.enabled in about:config, which worked for jesus2099.
This is now live on latest Discourse
I’m running an experiment on Meta since earlier today, where you get Tactile feedback when liking (or unliking) a post.
We use the Vibration API, and by the means of feature detection ask the device to vibrate where it is available. It also respects your device configuration (aka devices with vibration disabled don’t vibrate on like).
It’s implemented currently as a simple Customization > Theme component, just to explore the possibilities.
All the vibrational energy you radiate creates the outcomes, the experiences, and the events of your life. When your vibration reflects your love, confidence, and self-acceptance, you become a magnet for others operating at that same frequency.
It’s such a nice to have feedback mechanism for actions performed in discourse.
When can we expect this to be available in tests passed?
I’d say soon. I want to maybe move it a bit earlier on the pipeline as the vibration happens too late on like IMO. It is fine on unlike.
Out of curiosity what do you mean by “explore the possibilities”? What is more to explore regarding this kind of feature?
The first thing is the user general feeling towards it, like checking if someone on the active community has any strong feelings for or against it.
Other experiment was figuring out how perceptible it is, as I deployed the experiment without telling anyone and waited until someone found it out.
Finally, having the ability to rollout something like this in minutes, and live with it while using it during a period of time gives you time to not only knee jerk to an idea, but to actually try it out. That is how I found that it was feeling too late in my phone.
I didn’t notice it myself, but now that it was pointed out, I like it. It’s nice and subtle, and feels similar to feedback that the OS gives.
I feel a little silly for asking, but is this supposed to work in other browsers than Firefox too? I don’t get this feedback on Safari/iOS.
No, this is Android only.
Safari doesn’t have other browsers, just Safari skins. Apple has a browser engine prohibition and other browsers are different borders using Safari webview, which can’t add or remove rendering or JS APIs.
It’s definitely happening on iOS or was. I experienced it the day I saw this topic, but it doesn’t appear to be working now.
I just felt it on Android. It’s very subtle.
Thanks for clearing that up, maybe you could add that to the announcement.
Safari iOS does not support the Vibration API this uses… caniuse.com
Yeah I saw, maybe I was triggering the phones haptics with my presses?
Started getting a lot of questions about this on our site. Is there an option to turn this off for users who don’t like it?
It does respect the phone configuration:
It is also possible to create a small theme component to disable it.
Hmm. The thing is, they shouldn’t need to turn off vibration for an entire device for one small piece of one site though. Facebook has a similar option that I turned off years ago. I like some vibration, but prefer for a site to ask first before manipulating my phone physically, you know? Or at least have the option to turn it off. 
I am on the atomic side of things, I would never want any website moving my phone. I also do not want sites making any noise unless I opt in. I am honestly quite surprised this vibration thing is a thing. It is not a thing on iOS and I use an Apple phone so I have been pretty quiet about this feature.
Our theme components have no mechanism of storing per user state, we can only store per device. Our options here are:
Provide you with a component that can have this default off if you wish with per-device opt-in/out (trivial work, maybe 1 hour of work)
Make a new core user setting with a default here. (slightly bigger piece, maybe 4 hours of work)
@codinghorror what are your thoughts here, do you prefer 1 or 2?
I need to see a whole lot more people complaining about it, or this becomes an “I don’t like that shade of pink for my hearts” kinda thing
