I've seen both versions used in Android. What do you think is the best term to use? I've also heard people to use "Long click", "Long touch" & "Long tap" but I personally don't like any of those. It would be nice to finally get some standard for this terminology.
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For my opinion "Touch & hold", because it explains user action in details.– Vaso BeruashviliAug 24, 2016 at 10:44
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1I don't have any evidence or data to back me up so I'm going to add it as a comment, I'd say "Touch and hold" or "Press and hold" describes the action which is required to complete the task more precisely, so I'd go with that.– MJBAug 24, 2016 at 11:17
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3 Answers
Well, if this is for Android, chances are you're using Material, and according to Material Design guidelines, the proper term is long press
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+1 for linking to a reference, although I still prefer "press and hold"– HeitorAug 24, 2016 at 16:40
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1I also prefer to use the term "Press and hold". Se my answer below. Aug 25, 2016 at 7:42
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1The Material Design Guidelines are a tool meant for developers. While the documentation does deal with UX, I don't think the terminology used within is necessarily reflective of what should be displayed to a user. Excluding, of course, the section specifically detailing writing best practices.– BryanJun 30, 2020 at 13:54
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+1 Apple also calls it long press. developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/longpressgesture– jazZRoJul 2, 2020 at 7:39
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link to Material docs is dead, but in the current version terminology remains the same– kubiFeb 21, 2022 at 8:12
I would suggest "Touch and hold". Many users tend not to understand the term "long" in longpress. Therefore "Press and [then] hold" is a better description of the action.
Edit
OK, due to the comments below, here is a more descriptive answer :-)
"Longpress" means "press for a long time".The word "long" comes first but that is the second action the user has to commit. We also have to tell the user how much time (s)he shall spend during that "long" time.
The word "longpress" is not (yet) a term that common people understand.
So, every term beginning with the word "long..." aught to be avoided.
"Press and hold" on the other hand tells the user to 1: press on the item and then 2: keep on doing so until something else happens, something that will inform the user (s)he can release his/her finger from the device.
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1Can you add references to back this up? There are many assumptions in the answer that have my doubt. Long is an adjective that announces how to press, I don't understand why people won't read it that way. "Touch and hold" can be interpreted as separate instructions, where "touch" suggests to touch and release before the "hold" instruction comes into the short term memory. I don't say this is true, but there might be more to it than what you put forward.– jazZRoJul 2, 2020 at 8:33
First of all 5 characters are fairy easy to brute force and one can copy all your lists very easily and do whatever they want with them.
A better solution would be:
- No signup of course, user goes straight to their URL and you attach a cookie to their browser to identify them without requiring pin for them(explained below).
- On the list page display a banner that says "Set a pin and make your to do list private. Even if you share them with others they will have to put the pin you set".
- If they think their information needs protection they will set a pin and URL along with the pin will act like a username-password combo which is less likely to be hacked.
- The pin can even be 4 numbers (easy to remember) and you can restrict the brute forcing of pin in your backend.
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You've accidentally posted this answer twice; it doesn't fit here, so it's better to delete this one. Jul 5, 2020 at 12:52