Apple Watch Gets Double Tap Feature As iOS 17.1 Serves Up AirDrop And Apple Music Updates
Several Apple devices will have some new features thanks to software updates Apple just released for iOS, iPad OS, and watchOS. The Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra will see the biggest change with watchOS 10.1, including a new double tap feature allowing users to control the device without touching it. Like the AssistiveTouch gesture that was already available as an Accessibility feature on most Apple Watches, Double Tap can control multiple quick actions when a user taps together the index finger and thumb of their watch hand.
Apple says that by controlling the main functions of their Apple Watch with one hand, Double Tap can be “helpful in common situations when the user’s other hand is occupied, such as when walking the dog, cooking, or holding a cup of coffee.” Actions that can be controlled with Double Tap include opening Smart Stack, scrolling through widgets, answering and ending phone calls, using timers and stopwatches, snoozing alarms, taking remote iPhone photos, switching to the new Elevation view in the Compass app, controlling music, podcasts, and audiobooks, and more.
Double Tap doesn’t use up much battery and can be used whenever the display is awake. It showcases how far the technology in the Apple Watch has come. Using the new four-core Neural Engine built for the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, machine learning is used to process data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor to detect the unique signature of wrist movements and blood flow changes that occur when a user makes the Double Tap gesture.