If your hands are full with groceries or books, or hanging on to a subway car handrail or dog leash, then it’s not easy to operate your Apple Watch in the normal way—by reaching over to tap the screen or pressing the Digital Crown.
That’s the thinking behind Double Tap, a new gesture available with watchOS 10.1. As its name suggests, it lets you tap your forefinger and thumb together twice, with the same hand that your watch is on, to operate the wearable without touching it. It means you can answer calls and browse through screens with one hand rather than two, and it promises to be very helpful.
For Double Tap to work, you do need the latest Apple Watch 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2, because the AI smarts of the S9 chipset inside these models is required to recognize the gesture you’re making. You also need watchOS 10.1 (tap My Watch > General > Software Update in the Watch app on your iPhone to look for updates).
Older Apple Watch devices can still make use of a similar feature called AssistiveTouch, which is a more comprehensive way of controlling everything that happens on an Apple Watch with one hand. AssistiveTouch is available on every Apple Watch since the Apple Watch 4, including the Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Using Double Tap
As soon as you’ve upgraded to watchOS 10.1, Double Tap should be enabled automatically and ready to go. You can turn it off, if you ever need to, by opening up the Settings app on your watch, then choosing Gestures and Double Tap, and turning off the Double Tap toggle switch.
To double tap, lift up your Apple Watch first, as you would do if you were checking the time. On the hand attached to the wrist where your Apple Watch is, bring your index finger and thumb together twice in quick succession. The only times Double Tap won’t work is when a Sleep Focus mode is active, or when the watch is in Low Power…
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