The Double Tap feature is added with watchOS 10.1 and helps you control your Apple Watch when you can’t use your other hand. That is how it works.
This is how you use Double Tap on your Apple Watch
An Apple Watch is especially useful at times when you cannot use your iPhone. But there are certainly times when you can’t even operate your Apple Watch. At least, not with two hands.
Maybe you’re on the bus and you need a hand to hold you. Or maybe you’re cooking and your other hand is completely covered in some ingredient. At those times, the new Tap Double function is particularly useful! The feature will be added in watchOS 10.1. The software isn’t out yet, but you may be able to install the update tonight (Wednesday, October 26).
This is how Tap Double works
To use Double Tap, you need an Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2, because of the S9 chip and the new sensors it contains. They detect the double tapping of your index finger and thumb.
It works a little differently than the current accessibility options available on all Apple Watches. If you enable the feature on your Apple Watch, you will need to disable some of those other accessibility options because otherwise they will interfere with each other.
Things that Tik double can do
When you look at your Apple Watch, double tap brings the “smart stack” into view. If you repeat the gesture, you will scroll through the cards or select the current card (depending on the choice you have made in the settings).
In just about every app, the function does the same as pressing the button. If an alarm goes off, it has a snooze function, if a timer is running you can pause it and continue. If you use the Apple Watch as a remote control for your camera, you activate the shutter button with the gesture.
This is how you enable the new function
You can do this on both your Apple Watch and your iPhone. On your Apple Watch it works as follows:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down and tap ‘Gestures’;
- Tap ‘Double tap’;
- Set the switch behind ‘Double tap’ to on.
On your iPhone it works in almost the same way:
- Open the watch app;
- tap ‘Gestures’;
- Turn on the switch behind ‘Double tap’.
In this menu you can enable the feature, change media playback to Play/Pause or Skip, and change the Smart Stack option to Continue or Select.
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