Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 9 during its yearly event in September, which featured a new gesture: the double tap. The new gesture, providing users with an innovative way to interact with their watches, is not currently accessible for public testing. It will only become available to a broader user audience when watchOS 10.1 is officially launched later this month. However, early adopters can start using the double tap gesture today through the watchOS 10.1 public beta.
The second developer seed release, which also included the new gesture, came out a day before the public beta.
One of the first novel interactions to operate the Apple Watch outside of the typical touch and squeeze movements Apple is known for is its functionality. Owners of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will be able to operate their gadgets with just one hand and without touching the display. Users accomplish this by quickly tapping their thumb and index finger on the hand holding the watch twice. (Some testers have reported that, for what it’s worth, other fingers occasionally work as well.)
This may come in handy when your other hand is occupied, possibly holding groceries or a mess from cooking. Many Apple Watch owners would touch their noses on the screen in these situations as a workaround. Their options have improved thanks to the double-tap gesture.
Double tapping on the watch allows you to interact with it to carry out a variety of routine actions, such as taking or ending a call, starting or stopping a timer, snoozing an alarm, viewing messages from a notification, playing and pausing music and podcasts, pausing and restarting automatic workout reminders, and more.
The gesture also enables more complex interactions, such as launching a Smart Stack from any watch face and navigating around the widgets within it, or carrying out the main action from any Notifications you get, even those from third-party apps. The motion is coupled with Apple’s best guess about your chosen response in the latter scenario, such as replying to a message in a messaging app or snoozing a reminder, for example.
According to Apple, the faster Neural Engine in the new smartphones powers the double tap by combining a new machine-learning algorithm with data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor. This enables the watch to track wrist movements and variations in blood flow when you make the double tap action. The business previously provided a comparable option to users via the Accessibility settings, but is now improving it as a feature that is visible to the general public while utilizing the sensors and other gadget advancements.
