Apple’s newly announced OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro feels eerily reminiscent of the Touch Bar. I can see how another input method might help with particular tasks. I am less convinced that it adds much beyond the keyboard and trackpad.

The Touch Bar from the Intel era offered app-specific controls on a strip above the keyboard, replacing the function keys. That made its landing less impactful to the users. For apps that don’t support it, users can still bring up the old function keys on the Touch Bar by holding down Fn. For apps that do support it, support comes after considerable added work on the UI, including deciding what would replace the function keys. The touchscreen avoids that compromise. The keyboard and the trackpad remain, so using touch does not require giving up those controls. It is, yet again, the question of putting in the work to support the new input method.

There are situations where I can imagine it would be beneficial. Showing someone a presentation up close is one: touching the item being discussed could be more immediate than moving a cursor toward it. Design and editing could also benefit from manipulating something directly on the screen, provided the app makes that interaction worthwhile.

Apple does have software support to point to. It says its own apps are optimized for touch and names third-party apps that will take advantage of it. Existing apps can also receive touches translated into clicks by macOS.

Still, accepting a touch and making good use of one are two entirely different things. If touching the screen simply performs the same action as clicking, I need a reason to use it over the trackpad. App optimization matters because the value has to come from what the interaction lets me do. A touchscreen alone does not establish that it is a better input method, even for seemingly obvious uses such as design and editing.

Keeping the existing controls is the clearest improvement over the Touch Bar approach. The touchscreen adds another input without taking those controls away, making it easier to accommodate. My skepticism remains about the addition itself: a few useful applications are possible, but I believe it will be largely a niche feature, one users may find more of an annoyance or a smudge collector than a meaningful upgrade.