The Apple Watch double tap gesture is now at last alive!

Double tap for Snoopy!!

The new double tap gesture for Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 is now available with watchOS 10.1.

What is Double Tap?

The new double tap gesture means you can control your Apple Watch with just one hand and without touching the display.

All you need to do is tap the index finger and thumb of your watch hand together twice to quickly activate many common actions.

The idea is that this should be helpful in common situations when your other hand is occupied, such as when walking the dog, cooking, or holding a cup of coffee.

What actions can Double Tap perform?

Double tap allows users to select the primary action in a wide variety of watchOS apps and notifications, including:

• Opening the Smart Stack from any watch face and scrolling through widgets in the stack.
• Answering and ending phone calls.
• Viewing a message from a notification, scrolling through longer notifications with an additional double tap, replying using dictation, and sending a message.
• Pausing, resuming, and ending a timer.
• Stopping and resuming a stopwatch.
• Snoozing an alarm.
• Playing and pausing music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
• Switching to the new Elevation view in the Compass app.
• Taking an iPhone photo with the Camera Remote in the Camera app.
• Starting or stopping automatic Workout reminders.
• Performing the primary action from notifications, such as replying to an incoming message from a messaging app and snoozing reminders — including from third parties.

Double tap has been designed to automatically select the primary action for most apps and notifications. In two instances, the user can elect a different function: advancing through widgets in the Smart Stack or selecting the first available widget; and playing or pausing media during an active session or skipping to the next track instead.

What makes it happen?

The double tap gesture available on Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 is powered by the S9 SiP, which is 25 percent more power efficient than the previous generation, and the new 4-core Neural Engine, which can perform machine learning tasks twice as fast.

The Neural Engine processes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with a new machine learning algorithm. The algorithm detects the unique signature of tiny wrist movements and changes in blood flow when the index finger and thumb perform a double tap.

The feature is not supported in the following apps and experiences: ECG, Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen, Sleep Focus, Walkie-Talkie, Maps (during navigation), Mindfulness (during an active session), SOS features (Emergency SOS, Fall Detection, Crash Detection), and Workout (during an active session).

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