One of the party tricks that comes with the latest Apple Watch models is the Double Tap gesture. Apple talked about the feature during the iPhone 15 launch event earlier this year. However, it was kept away from the users until the release of watchOS 10.1.
The freshly baked watchOS 10.1 update works on the Apple Watch Series 4 or later, provided you also own a supported iPhone model. But you can only use the Double Tap gesture on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Apple explained in its defense that the new S9 SiP on these smartwatches is strong enough to take the extra load on its shoulders. The feature is enabled by default on supported models and takes a minimal toll on the battery life.
The double tap gesture comes in handy when your other hand is busy; it lets you use the Apple Watch with just one hand. Apple has listed various things you can do using the double tap gesture:
- 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.
You can enable or disable the double tap gesture by going to the Settings app on your Apple Watch. While the feature is designed to automatically pick the primary action of an app, it does offer a limited set of customizations.
For instance, you can configure the gesture to play/pause or skip tracks and use it to scroll through the Smart Stack or select the first available app.
Now, speaking of what you can"t do with the Apple Watch double tap gesture, it"s worth noting that the feature doesn"t work with select apps and experiences. The list includes ECG, Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen, Sleep Focus, Walkie-Talkie, Maps (while navigating), during an active Mindfulness session, during an active Workout session, and SOS features (Emergency SOS, Fall Detection, Crash Detection).