Touch event api dissapeared from chrome 78

[Joseba Egia]

Can't activate this flag on chrome 78 but yes on chrome 77.

Why is this feature missing? is there any workaround to get this API working?

Thanks

[Jon Perryman]

Have you actually tried touch events? They have not been experimental for a long time and should not be dependent on the flag.

Jon.

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[Jessica Cressman]

I'm in the same boat. Touch Events is missing, yes we have tried it and it is not working.

[Matt Grossman]

I am on Win10 Pro and Chrome 78.0.3904.87  - 64bit.  I'm not seeing the Touch Events API flag either.  I've also noticed that 'Overscroll history on touchpad' is missing.

[Jon Perryman]

Again, forget about the flag. It is no longer needed for touch events. They have been enabled as a default for a long time (at least 4 years).

I just tested it using my LG G8 tablet Android Chrome Version 78.0.3904.62 and my laptop Windows 10 Chrome Version 78.0.3904.70 (Official Build) (64-bit). I don't have any problems. 

You can test using https://patrickhlauke.github.io/touch/gesture-touch/ by touching different boxes. You should see touchstart and touchend in that box for a short period of time. Does this page fail? This is one of the samples pointed to by MDN.  

Jon.

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[Matt Hanes]

We used this feature to fix some issues with drag and drop on teacher's SMART Boards. I wonder why it has been removed?

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 2:44:45 AM UTC-4, Joseba Egia wrote:

[Mustaq Ahmed]

The "Touch Events API" flag didn't enable/disable Touch Event support.  It controlled only the "feature detection" for Touch Events.  See the

chromestatus entry for suggested workarounds.

Also note that replacing "this.ontouchstart=func" with "this.addEventListener('touchstart', func)" etc could fix most of the problems.

[Terence Gould]

This may have been set to "default" for the last 4 years, but in the last couple of years in order to get it to work you had to set it to "enabled".  I tried the application that Jon Perryman suggested and that works, but my application stopped working when Chrome went to version 78.0.3904.70 so something different must have been happening when the flag was set to "enabled".

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 2:44:45 AM UTC-4, Joseba Egia wrote:

[Koen van Heereveld]

I am wondering the same.

Op woensdag 6 november 2019 11:51:10 UTC+1 schreef Matt Hanes:

[Kevin Brezina]

We too are facing issues with the missing Touch Events API.  Seems Quaver Music and Smart Software (for Smart Boards) really need this to function effectively on Smart Technologies 6000 series smart boards.

[Robert Landers]

Some really old devices need them turned off (surface pro 2) to work with some sites (like some regionally popular banks)

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Robert Landers

Software Engineer

Utrecht NL

[Bill Landy]

I think we are discussing different things.  I had to enable it on my surface pro earlier this year.  It was set to disabled by default and 3D models on the Sketchfab site could not be maniplulated using the touchscreen.  I posted the solution to enable it on a Sketchfab forum earlier this year and now I have other users contacting me asking where the Touch API flag is (gone in Chrome 78).  Touch events do not work on their touch screens for 3D manipulation of models on the Sketchfab site.  It does work on mine because I set it to 'enabled' ealier this year, so the setting must still be there somewhere.

Bill

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[Terence Gould]

When the flag was set to "default" it did not work, you had to change the flag to "enable" to get it to work.  Now the flag is gone and it does not work.

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[Brandon Mason]

Confirming this behaviour on Surface Pro 4 and HP Pavilion x360 cr0007na on Chrome 78. Forcing touch events through the dev console > sensors allows full interaction with Sketchfab 3D models, no control without it. 

[Bill Landy]

Jon, I think we are discussing separate issues here.  There are discussions about this problem on the Sketchfab forum - Sketchfab 3D models do not respond to touch screen events unless this api is enabled.  You are correct that the controls were enabled by default for a long time, but that all changed with Chrome version 71 (December last year) - since then you have had to go and set it to enabled in the flags because it was disabled by default.  Now in version 78 it has disappeared altogether and does not work (at least for sketchfab 3D models).

Bill

On Wednesday, 6 November 2019 05:10:40 UTC+11, Jon Perryman wrote:

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[Bill Landy]

Thanks Brandon.  Could you please describe how you get to 'sensors' in the developer console - I can't seem to find it.  Do you have to have a sketchfab page loaded for it to appear?
cheers
Bill

[Matt]

I'm using a web-based whiteboarding tool called Miro. It auto-senses touch capabilities and the controls change based on that. Without the flag or an equivalent setting, Chrome reports to the site that my touch screen laptop is touch capable, even when I'm using it via a dock and will never use the touch device. This is in fact a problem with Miro not letting me manually change this control functionality (it's a bug), but highlights that the ability to manually disable touch capability through Chrome can be an important flexibility. Those using "it's enabled by default now" as an argument here are missing the point.

== Matt

[PhistucK]

I would argue it might be an operating system/driver bug.

Why should the browser, specifically, let you ignore touch capabilities and your operating system should not?

I am guessing there is a way to disable touch at the operating system level (and maybe even only for the situation where the dock is plugged), but you have to find it...

☆PhistucK

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[David Sager]

@ Brandon Mason, 

I'm very interested in hearing the work around for this as well. 

-David Sager

[Jason Colley]

Hi Bill,

I was able to implement the sensor workaround he described above. I just opened the Chrome developer console (either right click and hit inspect or hit f12). Once there go to the console and find the 3 dots and click that to find 'sensors' (as shown in screenshot). You should be able to scroll down and find the setting he was describing for Touch and set it to  Force enabled. 

Another more permanent workaround is to add it as a command line flag in the properties of Chrome. If you find the target path in the properties for Chrome shortcut and add this to the end after the .exe" it will force the touch events api to work everytime Chrome is launched from that shortcut. I had to implement this on our kiosk devices for hundreds of clients experiencing issues since the removal of this flag. Hope this helps others having issues as well. I found a ton of places stating you couldn't implement the touch events api via a command line flag but it looks like it does in fact work:)

-Jason 

[Brandon Mason]

Apologies for slow response, but thanks @Jason Colley for stepping in and for the command line switches to enable this at start up. I'm going to try this now as edge is nowhere near as smooth as Chrome with WebGL (Edge: about:flags touch input > when touchscreen detected).

[Brandon Mason]

Works beautifully. For anyone uncertain, the full procedure is (on windows):

Chrome shortcut > Properties > Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --touch-events

Forces touch input just like the the now missing flags feature used to do and a much more fluid response in Chrome than with Edge

[Brandon Mason]

I missed a step in the above, and an 's' on --touch-events:

Chrome shortcut > Properties > Shortcut tab > Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --touch-events

Copy the path including the quotes, plus the --touch-events flag

[Bill Landy]

Thanks Jason & Brandon

[AlenaWork Korotaeva]

Does anyone figure out how to do the same on Chromebooks? I am not familiar with Chrome OS, and I need to help one of my clients to enable Touch Event API in her Chrome.

[Adam Wade]

The work arounds aren't good enough. Either the flag needs to be permanently enforced in the browser, or we need the option to enable it.

[Jon Perryman]

You could submit a problem report but I suspect it won't get much attention. The onTouch facility is an experimental feature (as documented by mozilla) that is not supported by most browsers and really should not be relied upon for production. Experimental features are subject to change.

Alternatively, touch events are fully supported but they require the use of the event listener instead of specifying the onTouch???= tag attribute. 

Specifying onTouch???= tag attribute is certainly easier. If you absolutely want to support the onTouch???= tag attribute, you could write a javascript that scans for the onTouch attributes when onTouch is not available and create the appropriate event listeners. 

Jon

[Gerardo Veloza]

Works great! hopefully there is a permanent solution. 

[wj363]

Is there a way to disable touch mode to act like a mouse pointer instead for SMART boards?

[Terence Gould]

Version 79 came out a few days ago and now it's not working again even with the  --touch-events  added to the end of the Target.  Any suggestions on what we do now?

[Vito Vallega]

With version 79, the --touch-events flag isn't working now. Annoying!

[Jon Perryman]

I believe only the ontouch facility was affected. You could try converting to event listener for touch events.

Jon.

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[Gould, Terence]

How do you convert to event listener?

[Jon Perryman]

I only have tablets so I couldn't test event listeners with a touch screen PC but the problem doc says it fixes the problem. I had problems with ontouch a few year's ago and this code still works. Realize there will be some quirks that might pop up that you will need to address (e.g. touchmove event flooding). The worst problem was some touch screens needed training which required code to have the user move their finger for 15 seconds and repeat until the finger is still recognized when it's not moving. You might also run into situations where touchmoves still occur after touchend occurs.

    elementSetup : function(id) {
        var el = document.getElementById(id);
        /* Using eventListener instead of element event's because
        ** chrome does not properly simulate these
        **  el.ontouchstart = touch.process;
        **  el.ontouchend = touch.process;
        **  el.ontouchmove = touch.process;
        **  el.ontouchcancel = touch.process;
        */
        el.addEventListener('touchstart', touch.process, false);
        el.addEventListener('touchend', touch.process, false);
        el.addEventListener('touchmove', touch.process, false);
        el.addEventListener('touchcancel', touch.process, false);
    },

Good luck.

Jon.

[Gould, Terence]

Ok, I'm not a programmer, I thought you were talking about setting some other flags/parameters, what is this code, c#, java, .net?  How is this supposed to help me with third party apps that worked until they started dorking with Chrome?

[Jon Perryman]

Don't get mad at the chromium developers when web developers rely upon experimental features. By using an experimental flag, you are agreeing to those features getting dorked and eventually going away.

It's unlikely that the feature will be restored but you could certainly open a problem ticket or upvote an existing problem ticket. If enough people complain, maybe they will reconsider. You could contact the web site developers and ask them to change their code. You could use another browser with the desired feature. 

Jon. 

[Charles Kinder]

Simply, https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/18501255?hl=en post was removed it posted a question about Touch Event API, it was needed so i could change a setting to allow signatures on a pop up window for homesolutions mobile an electronic medical record, i am a home home nurse and i secure signatures of clients this way, i can now only make dots can anyone help me find and change the touch event api in chrome, home solutions can only run in chrome no other browser.

[Jon Perryman]

Your post doesn't make much sense. I'm guessing you want to add the touch-event flag back into the code.

If so, you should contact Home Solutions to fix their web app instead of changing the chrome browser source. Experimental features should never be used in production or critical applications. You could add the flag back in but over time the feature could encounter problems which you will be expected to find and fix. You will also need to consider new releases. You will also need to consider compatibility with other websites that use ontouch correctly.

For a signature, couldn't they use pointer events which should work as well as ontouch. How about using the event listener for touch events instead of ontouch.

Jon.

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[Jason Colley]

The workaround still works. Sorry I wasn't following this thread and didn't see the question. It looks like the way someone described implementing it is a tad different than how I did it. The command line flag syntax I used was this --touch-events=enabled. I saw in his reply above that he just had it as --touch-events without the =enabled on the end. Try that and see if it works for you. I just tested our application out with it again using Chrome version 79.0.3945.88 and it's working still. It sucks we have to rely on something like this in order for our web applications to work properly. And for those out there saying that it's the web developer's fault for relying on these experimental features, I can assure you that it is incorrect. Our application worked just fine without it initially. There was an update at some point to the Chrome browser that forced us to have to go in and set that Touch Events API flag to Enabled in order to work around it. The fact that so many different web applications were relying on this setting to fix what used to work prior to an update cannot be coincidental. We are using a pretty tried and true UI development framework that works across many diff browsers and have only seen this issue so far in Chrome. 

Anyways, hope this workaround is still able to get some of the people on here back up and running for now. I am going to do some more research on the Chrome bug reports and see if there is anything out there where we can engage their developers to get a fix for this. We had to do something similar a year ago when the touch keyboard stopped working and they are pretty responsive so long as you can provide examples they can reproduce with. 

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[Charles Kinder]

Jon Perryman your solution worked with enable pointer events, thank you very much. Like I said I am a nurse not a programmer. I placed several work tickets with Homesolutions and they were stumped, the original touch api fix was provided by them. The tried to pacify me with " we will try to address this issue in the next patch until then have the patient sign a piece of paper and scan it into the chart", defeats the point of paying for electronic medical record with signature capture, so I came searched many many hours and found this forum to try to fix the problem myself. thank you again. chrome is updated to 79 now and your fix works still

[Logan]

I tried adding --touch-events=enabled and am presented with a "Problem with Shortcut" message saying the target box is invalid. Any ideas what I am doing wrong here? I tried it inside and outside of the quotations and got the same message.

[Matteo Giordano]

Hello JC ,

we have tried to add this. It worked for a day and then the problem came back. We can perfectly use the touch on Window but not on Chrome.

Furthermore the app on chrome is working using the mouse input instead of the touch.

Any idea? 

thank you

[Ragu s]

Actually we have developed a Touch event-oriented web-application using the CreateJS library.

These libraries to work in touch monitors, we need to enable touch API manually at the Chrome browser. So we have Enabled those flags in the older version.

But it's not working in the new version of Chrome - version 79. Because of Touch API in Chrome has been disappeared in the latest version.

We get another option to enable those Events in the latest version to set target properties at chrome "--touch-events".

My real question is can we enable the touch event API, without making any manual property change in the Chrome browser. Our application is being viewed by many people across the globe. We cannot ask them to do this setup in their local chrome settings. It is very difficult for us to convince the users to make these changes in their local PC settings.

Our wish is to make the changes in the code level so that we no need to ask the users to configure their Chrome.

Do we have any alternative options to enable touch events API in code level without manual setup..?

[Bob Edgecombe]

I had this problem with a webpage, using Google Chrome on Win10, wherein one wanted to obtain a drawn signature in a flashcanvas area using a touchscreen.  A setting found via chrome://flags worked until recent versions of Chrome, so I was forced to resort to a) using IE11 - it works!! - having tried Firefox, Opera, MS Edge & Edge Beta, all of which failed to take a touchscreen-drawn signature, or b) using my Android phone, which hardly helps when you have to type a possibly lengthy report prior to getting the signature.  The command line addition --touch-events works for me, tried today on two laptops with Google Chrome v80.0.xxxx.xxx.  Thanks to Jon et al for their input.  Why the Chrome developers wanted to take out the option within the flags settings is beyond me.  Would it do any harm to have touch events enable by default in a standard Google Chrome install?